Girls First Communion Garments


Figure 1.--This portarit shows a girl who we believe is American in her First Communion dress. The portrait is undayed, but we would guess about 1915-20. We are less sure about the boy who presumably is her brother. He may have been included just to have the two together. He looks too young to be doing his First Communion yet.

For girls the purchase of an elaborate white dress, looking much like a junior wedding dress, was very common. These dresses could be quite elaborate. Interestingly this fashion is quite constant among different countries and over time. In many cases these elaborate dresses continue to be part of the First Communion event. Often the grls could have stylistic differences in their dresses. These dresses could be quite expensive--especially for working class families. I am not sure when it became common for girls to dress up in minature wedding dresses. It appears to ve well established tradition by the 1910s. How much earlier I am not yet sure. We have nored many portraits of girls in these elaborate white dresses by the 1910s. We do not yet notice this convention as commonly in the 1900s, but this may reflect a limited number of images rather than a definitive chronological trend. Assessing this is further complicated by the lack of a date on many old first communion portraits.







Christopher Wagner







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Created: October 17, 2002
Last edited: October 17, 2002