*** Australian boys clothes: Little Lord Fauntleroy suits








Australian Boys' Garments: Little Lord Fauntleroy Suits

Australian Fauntleroyv suit

Figure 1.--This unidentified boy was photographed in Tilba Tilba, New South Wales. The photograph is undated, but HBC would estimate that it was about 1910. He wears a velvet Fauntleroy suit and colored, perhaps red, waistband. The Fauntleroy suit have above-the-knee bloomer knickers--but this is difficult to make out. The image is from the collection of the National Archive of Australia (an10800965-28-v). Click on the image to see the literary Lord Fauntleroy riding.

Australia like England and America was caught up in the "Fauntleroy craze" that followed the publication of Mrs. Burnett's book. Little Lord Fauntleroy in the mid-1880s. We still have little information at this time on the phenomenon in Australia. We assume that styles followed the English pattern and the chronology was similar to that in England. We are not sure what colors of Fauntleroy suits were worn in Australia, because of the balck and white photography of the day. Hopefully Australian readers will furnish HBC with details from contemprary clothing catalogs to provide the information needed to assess the Fauntleroy style in Australia. We do note one image showing what looks like a black suit worn with what looks like a red waistband. English boys commonly wore knicker-style pants with their Fauntleroy suits than American boys who more commonly wore kneepants. We do not yet know what age boys wore Fauntleroy suits in Aistralia and if this differed from the pattern in England and America. As in England the Fauntleroy suits were often worn with wide brimmed sailor hats. Fauntleroy suits were initially worn with long over-the-kneestockings. English boys by the turn of the century were also wearing them with three-quarter socks, both black and white. Footwear often was strap shoes. By the turn of the 20th century the lace collars had given way to larger ruffled collars. We are not sure how common ringlet curls were with Fauntleroy suits. We suspect that in Australia they were less common than in England. Although the image here shows that the style had spread to rural areas of Australia and was not just confirned to stylish families in the larger cities. The photograph here is interesting (figure 1). We doubt that this boy did a lot of riding in his Little Lord Fauntleroy suit. It does recall a Birch drawing in Mrs. Burnett's book in which the literary Lord Fauntleroy does ride a horse.







HBC/H1>






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Crerated: March 9, 2002
Last updated: March 9, 2002