Figure 1.--This is a cabinet portrait of 4-year old Leon Weeks. He wears a jacket dress with a large lace collar. The cabinet card is undated, but looks like the 1880s. He is wearing a petticoat with eyelet lace trim. Click on the image for a closer view of Leon's petticoats.

We see boys wearing a range of undergarments with skirted garments. Some boys wore the same undergarments as their sisters. Others wore more boyish garments. And in some cases we see more boyish versions of girls' undergarments. A factor herte is that in the 19th and early-20th century that younger boys might wear the same underwear as girls. Many factors were involved here, both chronological trends and family conventions. The type of skirted garment was also a factor as was the boy's age. Dresses were worn with both petticoats and pantalettes. Boys might wear plainer pantalettes called drawers, but this was not always the case and some girls also wore drawers. Pantalettes were in the early- and mid-19th century worn to show below the hem of the dress, but this was not the case for petticoats. We are not vebtirely sure about skirts. We think that undergarments werre similar to dresses, but we have little actual evidence. Kilts might also be worn with pantalettes and petticoats, but we also see boys wearing knee pants. Tunics were worn with both bloomer knickers and straigh-leg knee pants. Smocks were worn with a boy's regulsr trousers.

Created: 5:32 AM 6/24/2010
Last updated: 5:32 AM 6/24/2010