Figure 1.--This Australian cabinet card portrait shows three unidentified Adelaide children, presumably sibings. They look to be about 5-13 years old. They hold a jump rope and a cricket bat. The two boys wear identical vested sailor suits. Notice the broad-brimmed hat with streamers on the ground. We think it was for one of the boys. The only differences in the outfits are the collar, hosiery, and shoes. The older boy wears an Eton collar. We are unsure about the collar his younger boy is wearing. Notice the patent leather pumps the older boy is wearing. These would be party shoes. The other two children probably had similar shoes. We are not sure why different footwear was chosen. The other two children wear hightop shoes (button and lace-ups) . The yonger boy has long, but uncurled hair. Their sister wears a faux jacketed dress with smocking and a neck ruff. It has velvet trim. We are not sure about the color. The portrait is indated, but we believe was taken in the 1890s. The studio was Solomon in Adelaide. Negative No. 12716.

We know a little about individual Australian garments during the 1890s. We don't have much information on headwear yet. Note the wide-brimmed hat with streamers at the bottom of the portrait here (figure 1). We think it was for one of the boys. They likely had the same hats. Sailor suits were very popular in Australia during the 1890s. There were many different styles. Generally they had stripe detailing. One has to look twice here to see that the boys here are wearing sailor suits. We are not sure about the age conventions, but we think they were worn by younger boys to about 10 years of age. There were many different style. We also note Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. Older boys wore standard suits. There were several types of suits. Lapel jackets were the most common. There were oftem three-piece suits with vests. Children of similar ages might be dressed in identical outdits as we see here. The suits were worn with various collars. Eton collars were popular, but there were several other styles of detachable collars such as wing collars like the older boy on the previous page is wearing. This was more of a teenage or adult collar style. Most boys wore knee pants. Boys for casual wear or to school would often go barefoot. This was one of the few differences with England. When dressing up they would wear long stockings. Black long stockings were very prevalent. Younger boys might wear socks. High-top shoes were common.

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Crerated: 8:16 AM 7/25/2017
Last updated: 8:16 AM 7/25/2017