Figure 1.--This boys with long hair wears a very small velvet jacket to show off his elaborate lace collar and blouse. Note the large roll over lace cuffs. To emphasize his boyishness he is pictured here with a riding crop and boots.
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Figure 1.--This boys with long hair wears a very small velvet jacket to show off his elaborate lace collar and blouse. Note the large roll over lace cuffs. To emphasize his boyishness he is pictured here with a riding crop and boots. |
The Fauntleroy rage began in the mid-1880s. The classic Fauntleroy
suit was popular for about 10-15 years and then began to change. The style
continued into the new centuary and influenced boys' clothes through
the 1920s. The Fauntleroy suits that appeared in the 1880s went through several
major stylistic periods:
HBC has organzined the different types of Fauntleroy suits into the following periods.
Velvet has been used used for fancy boys clothing since specilized boys clothing appeared after the mid-18th Century. Many better skeleton suits were made from velvet. This was especially true for boys from aristocratic or wealthy families. Boys were dressedv in velvet suits and lace collars well before the style was popularized by Mrs. Frances Hogdson Burnett in the 1880s.
Fancy velvet suits for little boys began to appear in the early 1880s. The classic period, however, began with the publication of Mrs. Burnett's book in 1885-86.
Her book popularized the style with romantically inclined mothers during the late Victorian period. The velvet suits and accompanying
elaborate lace collars were soon bought not only for little boys, but
older boys as well. The lace blouses dominated many of the origninal
suits and the jackets were made small and worn open to show the blouses
for maximum effect. Many mothers added large collar bows and long
sausage curls to complete the effect.
The stylistic changes of the Edwardian period began in the mid-1890s, well before the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. Fauntleroy suits remained popular among mothers throughout the Edwardian era. Several stlistic changes were notable. The velvet jackets became larger, in many cases covering the lace trimmed blouses which once dominated the suits. Bows remained
popular, but in the 1900s the sausage-length curls popular in America and some other countries became increasingly less common. White socks and long stockings appeared.
Figure 4.--This fascinating image from the classic era of Little Lord Fauntleroy suits was carefully thought out by a doting mother who wanted her son photographed in his elaborate suit. She obviously wanted the photograph to show both the back and front to display every detail of his bow, lace collar, and velvet suit. The large bow covers up the delicate lace collar in the front view, but not in the rear view. Note in particular how she has carefully spaced his ringlet curls on his lace collar in the back view. Also note that in one image he wears a skirt/kilt instead of kneepants. Perhaps he wore his Fauntleroy suit with knee pants on some occasions and a skirt on other occasions. More likely, his mother decided to have his photograph taken on the momentous occasion of graduating from skirts to knee pants--a bittersweet occasion for the romantically inclined mothers of the day. |
The classic Fauntleroy suit, like many other 19th Century styles disappeared in the aftermath of World War I. Some mothers continued dressing boys in Velvet suits. Perhaps a casualty of the Great War which destroyed the romantic inclination of the Edwardians. The elaborate lace collars disappeared, replaced by more modest, but still sometimes quite large, ruffled c ollars. Short pants replaced knee pants. White knee socks or long white stockings were standard. Although not so common, younger boys as late as the 1930s might be dressed in velvet suits and blouses with some Fauntleroy features.
They were generally short pants suits
and the fancy lace and velvet collars were replaced with simplier
Peter Pan collars.
While not precisely Fautleroy suits, younger boys in recent years have worn velvet suits, but without the lace and ruffles. They were often worn with short pants and knee socks. These seems particularly popular for festive holiday wear at
Christmas, but declined in popularity after the 1970s as families increasingly took a casual approach to the holidays.
Figure 5.--This boy wears a Fauntleroy dress with a delicate lace collar. He has already had his curls cut even though he has not yet been breeched. The photograph is undated, but was probanly taken in the late 1880s. |
A HBC contributor provided this comment: "I wonder if all young boys' velvet and lace suits should be lumped together under the portmanteau term "Little Lord Fauntleroy suit". Perhaps there should be a generic term 'Boys' velvet and lace suits' with a sub-division 'Van Dyck suits' and a further sub-division under the latter sub-division of "Little Lord Fauntleroy suits"--i.e. those directly inspired by the book illustrations."
This is an important question. As HBC has begun to build this web site, in many cases there were no existing text books to provide basic information. So the idea of what a Fauntleroy suit is can be complicated. Advertising at the time frequently labeled a variety of suits as Fauntleroy suits. Vevet suits with lace collars are not the only garments pictured in the book. In addition, give the popularity of the term, calling a suit a Fauntleroy suit helped to sell it. Subsequently in the 20th century, a variety of suits were called Fauntleroy suits. It may well be that the Fauuntleroy suit section should be reorganied. The suggestion above is an interesting approach. HBC will have to give more thought to this. There is, however, already a separate section for old velvet suits that were precursors to Fauntleroy suits as well as newer styles of velvet suits that are clearly not Fauntleroy suits. This is the last historicak era category liked above.
Fauntleroy Related Pages:
[Fauntleroy dresses]
[Fauntleroy blouses]
[Fauntleroy movies
[Lace collars]
[Collar bows]
[Vivian Benett]
[Fauntleroy patterns]
[Literary characters: Cedric Erol]
Other Related Pages:
[Dresses]
[Kilts]
[Smocks]
[Pinafores]
[Velvet]
[Sailor Hats]
[Blouses]
[Ring Bearers]
[Long hair]
[Ringlet curls]
[Bangs]
[Main bow page]
[Sashes]
[Hair bows]
[Lace collars]
[Ruffled collars]
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