Figure 1.--This boy who looks to be about 2-3-years old had his portrait taken while seated on a child-size lounge or chaise lounge. Notice the fancy hir style confirming that the boy came from a fashionable family. |
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We are not yet sure about the age conventionsfor these button-on suits. The age range seems to be about ages 3 to 6 years. The photographic record clearly shows this. We think that somewhat older boys 7-8 years old may also have worn these suits, but cannot yet confirm this. This is our initial estimate abd needs to be refined. The younger age range includes the age at many boys were still breeched. This shows how the age of breeching was highly variable from family to family. Notably these suits were a fashionable style wore by children from families in comfortable circumstances in major cities where fashion was most important. The fancy hairdos we see on some of the boys helps to confirm that these suits were worn by boys from fashionable families. These well-to-do families were often the most likely families to delay breeching so it is interesting to see younger boys from these families wearing these fashionable button-on suits. We see many pre-school boys wearing these suits. We also see younger school age boys wearing these suits, but we are not sure if they were worn to school. We don't have much information on 1860s schoolwear yet. .
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