Figure 1.--This Australian cabinet card portrait shows unidentified brothers in a studio set up to resemble the deck of a ship, with painted ocean backdrop. The studio was Toksa of Ballarat, Victorian gold field. The portrauit looks to have been taken in the 1890s. Interesting maritime theme - but why didn't the photographer bother to remove the twigs on the floor? And why is the potted plant encroaching on the right? Strangely for a studio with an elaborate set, the photographers name and address was samped on with an ink pad.
Australian boys continued to dress largely like English boys as far as we can tell by our limited Austrlaian archive. Australia is a huge country, but had a very small population in the 19th century. Most of the population were English immigrants, many relatively recent immigrants. All of this would mean that there were few unique Australian trends and that most people wore English styles. The small population means that the photoographic record is fairly sparse. We know a little about individual garments. We don't have much information on headwear yet. Sailor suits were very popular in Australia during the 1890s. 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 jakets were the most common. There were oftem three-piece suits with vests. They 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 here is wearing (figure 1). This was more of a teenage or adult 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. Short hair styles were common. Younger boys miggt have long hair, especially boys from affluent families.
British Colony
Australian boys continued to dress largely like English boys as far as we can tell by our limited Austrlaian archive. Australia is a huge country, but had a very small population in the 19th century. The population was about 3 million in 1890 and did not reach 4 million until after the tirn of the 20th century. Most of the population were English immigrants, many relatively recent immigrants. All of this would mean that there were few unique Australian trends and that most people wore English styles. The small population means that the photoographic record is fairly sparse.
We know a little about individual garments. We don't have much information on headwear yet. Sailor suits were very popular in Australia during the 1890s. 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 jakets were the most common. There were oftem three-piece suits with vests. They 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 here is wearing (figure 1). 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.
Hair Styles
Short hair styles were common. Younger boys miggt have long hair, especially boys from affluent families.
