Australian Boys' Clothes: 20th Century Chronology--The 1900s


Figure 1.--This cabinet card shows an unidentified Australian boys wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a fauntleroy blouse and knee pants. He wears white socks rather than long stovkings as american boys woire t the time.

Australian boys fashions in the early-20th century wore quite similar clothes to English boys. Styles set in England were basically imported from the mother country. There were many similarities with America as well, but this seems to have been an indirect matter, simply reflecting common boys styles at the time. Australia became an independent nation (1901), now celebrated as Federation Day. Ties with the United Kingdom were still quite close and the dominance of English fashion, despite the quite different climate, is a good indicator of it. We see fancy Fauntleroy outfits and sailor suits for youngerr boys. State schools at the time did not have uniforms. A younger boy migt have worn a sailor suit and cap--probably with kneepants and long above-the-knee stockings. Notfolk suits with Eton collars were common for older boys, usually knee pants and knicker suits. They commonly wore peaked school caps. It would be hard to distinguish between Australian and English boys based on how they dressed. The one major difference was that Australian boys commonly went barefoot. This was much less common in England, especially went boys from well-to-do families when dressed up. Unlike England, going barefoot in Australia was not seen as a matter of poverty. Long stockings were not as common in Australia as in America anbd msny European countries.









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Crerated: 6:27 AM 8/18/2015
Last updated: 6:27 AM 8/18/2015