Figure 1.-- The Belgian "Journal des Dames et des Demoiselles" picture this jacket and skirt outfit for a 6-year old boy in a 1852 issue. The outfit looks similar to that worn by girls and women at the time. Image used courtsy of La Couturière Parisienne. |
La Couturière Parisienne website has noted a skirted garment in a 1850s
Belgian fashion magazine. A Belgian fashion magazine in 1852 pictures a boy of 6 wearing a black bodice skirt with blue trim. It has a small matching jacket which does not part of the skirt. It is worn with a contrasting white vest and Eton collar with a small white bow. He also a stylish plumed hat and pantalets.
La Couturière Parisienne website has noted an tunic-like outfit in a 1852
Belgian fashion magazine. The illustration originally appeared in the
Journal des Dames et des Demoiselles published by Bruylant-Christophe et
Comp., Brussels.
The tunic shown here was worn in the 1850s. The actual image was
published in 1852. We are not sure to what extent these jackets and skirts were worn earlier as we still have very limited information on the early 19th century. We know that young boys commonly wore dresses in the early 19th century, but we are less sire about these jackets and skirts. Likewise we do not yet know how long this style persisted.
La Couturière Parisienne tells us that this image is from the Belgian magazine noted above. HBC believes that Belgian fashions were very strongly influenced by French
fashions. Thus these styles probably reflect what affluent French boys were
wearing as well in the mid-19th century. We are not yet aware of significant
stylistic differences between French and Belgian tunic outfits. That does not
mean, of course, that such differences do not exist.
The depiction of this outfit in a fashion magazine suggests it would have been
worn by a boy from an affluent Belgian family. It is likely that middle-class boys
have worn similar garments, perhaps not quite as elaborate. We are unsure,
however, to what extent tunics would have been worn by working class boys.
Patterns were commonly included in 19th century fashion magazines. This is one reason that the ages of the children are commonly shown. We note that this fashion magazines tends to give many specific age rather than a wide age range. The practical reason is that patterns were enclosed on overlay pattern sheets, so you could only have one size per pattern. Those were free, so the question of how many you could sell didn't enter into it. Other sizes could be ordered for a fee, but the ages/sizes with the plates only refer to the pattern on the overlay sheet. This is very fortunate for fashion researchers. These mid-19th century children's patterns were done more specifically to a narrow range of sizes than modern patterns. A modern mother would never find a pattern specifically for a 6 yearold.
The skirt amd jacket is depicted as for a 6-year old Belgian boy. La Couturière Parisienne indicates that the magazine sometimes specified an exact age. In other instances there is an age range given instead of just one precise age, e.g. 5-6 or 9-11. One exact age appears to reflect the size of an available pattern rather than a statement that the fashion should only be worn by a boy of a very specific age. Remember that the the illustrations pictures come from fashion magazines. The plates usually illustrated patterns that were either enclosed or could be ordered from the publisher. Up to the age of 16 or 17, the size of the pattern was given as the age it was meant for. So if the boy in the illustration is 6 years old, the available pattern is meant to fit a boy aged 6. We have noted similar illustration is in this magazine showing boys of similar age wearing tunic outfits.
HBC notes that a common convention in the late 19th century was to make minor differences in a boys clothing as he got older. There are many examples such as a boy wearing a Fauntleroy jacket with a kilt anf then kneepants. Or a boy wearing a suit with a large collar and large floppy bow and then relacing it with a smaller collar and eventually leaving off the bow. We do not know when this practice developed and to what extent it was common in the mid-19th century. We do not know if there were subtle differences in style for each age and to what extent they were employed i this outfit.
We do not know what about this outfit makes it appropriate for a 6-year old boy. We find this especially interesting as some other drawings from this same magazine show very plain tunic outfits being worn by younger boys. If the sources were different I would have expected some variation in such matters, but as they come from the same source you might expect some standard criteria. At this time we do not know what criteria the editors were using for ascribing these specific ages. The ages selected to offer interesting insights into contemporary fashion trends and we eventually hope to better understand the editors criteria in this regard.
The boy it seems to HBC clearly wears a separate skirt (probably a bodice skirt meaning that a top was attached to the skirt that was worn under a blouse and held up the skirt) with a jacket rather than a dress.
The editors of the Journal des Dames et des Demoiselles describe the garment depicted here: "Chapeau en feutre, bords larges ondulés; calotte arrondie. Un ruban de satin noir, passße dans une boucle d'acier, entoure la
calotte; un gros noeud de satin noir garnit le côté et laisse retomber deux longs et largesrubans de satin noir: deux choux en satin noir sont posés dessous.
Grand col Charles Ier en broderie anglaise retenu par deux petites cordelières avec glands. Jupe pardessus en moire. Le pardessus est coupé à encolure ronde montante, la taille est creusée de manière à fair élargir le bas sans avoir recours à des plis. Un large ruban
de satin borde de devant et le bas du pardessus. Le vêtement de dessous en moire violette aussi. A la jupe, plissée à plis creux à la taille, elle ne bouffe pas, mais elle forme dans le bas, et tout autour, des tuyaux. La sous-manche est en broderie anglaise. La bande
du pantalon aussi. Les guêtres sont en drap noir avec bouton d'acier belui." I'm working on the translation. Something like: "Round Felt hat, with broad corrugated edges. A black satin ribbon, passsse in a steel loop, surrounds the hat; a large black satin node furnishes the side and lets fall down two black satin long and largesrubans: two black satin cabbages are posed below. Large Charles I collar in English embroidery retained by two small cordelières with nipples. Skirt jacket in moire. The jacket is cut to rising round encolure, the size is dug so as to fair to widen bottom without having recourse to folds. A broad satin ribbon trims the front and the bottom border of the jacket. The underwear in moire violet too. The skirt is done with box pleats with the size, it does not puff out, but it forms in bottom, and around, of the pipes. The blouse sleves are in English embroidery.
The tape of the trousers too. The gaiters are out of black cloth with steel belu buttons." This translation is very rough. Any thought HBC readers have on how to better translate it would be most appreciated.
HBC is unsure to what extent this was a boys' ouyfit as pposed to a costume that could be wrn by any young child, either a boy or girl. La Couturière Parisienne provides some thoughts n the subject, "Given my expertise (i.e. lack thereof where boys' clothing is concerned), I won't say a word on whether that was a style for boys. It was apparently, otherwise why should the magazine suggest it?. I do want to reply to the second question. In fact, most dresses that women wore were made up of a skirt and separate bodice, the bodice often resembling a jacket. I believe this to be true for girls as well, but
I'd have to check the patterns and descriptions of some garments to be certain. Here's a
nice example from the same Belgian magazine. The general lines of the lady's bodice resemble that of the boy's skirted garment on this page. In case of the lady, I'm almost sure that the bodice doesn't in fact open over a blouse, but has an insert in the front that is supposed to look like a blouse
under a jacket--a neat trick that they used often. in case of the boy, however, it could be a jacket over a waistcoat... or maybe it's a bodice made to look like that. The description in the magazine tells us more. From the description I deduce that the upper part really is made of two garments--something like a waistcoat or vest and something like a jacket."
HBC is unsure as to what material would have been used to make this skirted outfit.
The boy is wearing a variety of other garments and accessories with his skirt and jacket. He has a very stylish hat with a plume. It was worn with a Eton collar and small bow. The most prominent element of the boy's tunic are his fancy lace-trim
pantalets. It is worn with a hat decorated by a plume.
The outfit picturefd here has a very stylish hat and plume. This strikes HBC as a style that a girl or even a woman could have worn. We see no boyish styling here at all.
The boy wears a large Eton collar. This would appear to have been an English style. We do not know, however, if the Belgians had adoted it directly from England or rather it was a style that had forst been adopted by the French. It does appear to be a bit of boyish styling to an otherwise rather girlish outfit. We note girls wearing small white collars, but they tended to be kless prominently poonted and much smaller than thos boy's collar. The magazine, however, describes it as a Charles I collar. As Charles I was an English king this still shows an English influence. We note that the magazine mentiions English enbroiderym so the collar may not be the flat finish Eton collar that it appears in the image.
Note the snall rather elegant bow worn over the Eton collar.
The boy's short jacket is worn open to show his vest. Note how tightly taken it the jacket is at the waist. This matches the way in which women and girls wore similar jackets. The black jacket looks to be trimmed with blue ribbin trim to match the skirt. The sleeves are very wide to accmodate the volumonous blouse sleeces.
The boys wears what looks to be a white silk vest or waist coat with about 8 buttons.
The boy's vest covers the top of his blouse. The Eton collar is probably detachable and not part of the blouser. The blouse can be seen at the sleeves which are volumonus, but end in a plain cuff. La Couturière Parisienne tells us that, "The "sous-manche" refer to the white sleeve protruding from the jacket. i don't know whether it means that it's just a sleeve without a garment to attach to (i.e. merely decorative--stand alone sleeves that went from elbow to wrist have been known in earlier centuries), or the lower part of a proper (shirt-) sleeve. "
There is no belt associated wiuth this outfit.
A HBC reader wrires, "I have read that during this period boys as well as girls wore corsets. [Children's Clothes from 1860-1912 (Dover Books)] If you look at his outfit with the tiny waist and almost hour glass look
it almost seems that the effect could not occur without the child wearing a corset. Do you know anything about this?" Corsets are not a topic HBC has addressesd, promarily because wh have viewed them as a primarily a girl's and women's garment. My understanding is that while girls wore them, boys generally did not. I also had the understanding that girls did not begin wearing them until a older age. However, the reader has a point. The model in the drawing is shown with a very narrow waist.
La Couturière Parisienne replies, "I think it's important to remember that fashion plates weren't photographic images of real-life people. If the artist thought that a small waist was desirable, he simply drew them. but in this case here, i'd say that the waist isn't exceptionally small if you look at the overall proportions. It's just that the skirt is so flared, making the waist look smaller. That's the main reason (i think) why hoop skirts were invented for ladies. Apart from that, it's true that children were made to wear corsets. I'm not sure about boys, but it's probable that they, too, wore corsets. Now those corsets were nothing like what adult women wore: they were stiffened only with cording, not whalebone (i.e. more flexible), and were not meant to reduce the waist, but to support the body and induce an upright posture. As soon as the bones had hardened, boys wouldn't need a corset anymore, and girls would need them for other resaons--viz., to reduce the waist and support the bust. Those would be "real" corsets then."
HBC has not addressed the subject of corsets, primarily because we have viewed them as a girls and woman's garmet. If we do acquire information confirming that boys wore corsets, then we will reconsider our decission not to address the topic.
The boy is wearing very fancy pantalets with indented cuts and lace trim. Children during this period wore a wide variety of pantalets. Some varied as to how elaborately they
were finished, ranging from very plain to quite elaborate like the ones shown
here. Other pantalets varied in length, ranging from below the ankle to knee
length. We note that a painting by Ludwig Aumont in 1838 shows a German boy, Wilhelm
Fischer, wearing plain long white pantalets that look very similar to what this boy
is wearing. Wilhelm's outfit
can be seen on La Couturière Parisienne's HBC Aumont page. What HBC does not understand at this time is if the type of pantalets
worn just reflected age, or were they a reflection of the boy's circumstances.
Might a boy with this outfit wear plain pantalets at home or even trousers with his
tunic, but dress up in these lacy pantalets for special occasions such as church or
parties and other outings.
This boy wears long curly, but not shoulder-length hair. The curls may be natural
curls. The length of the cut appears to be longer than the boys shown wearing tunics in this magazine.
Boys in Europe and America often wore dresses until they were about 5 or
6 years
of age. This varies widely, however, from family to family and social class. Boys
from wealthy families might wear dresses longer than boys from working class
families. Some boys were breeched at a younger age and others at an older
age. This is an outfit for a boy of course that had not yet been breeched at age 6. Presumably he would wear this skirt for at least a year, suggesting that some Belgian boys were still not breeched at age 7.
La Couturière Parisienne and HBC concur that Belgian fashions were probably very similar to French ones (especially in French-speaking Wallonia), if not the same.
The Eton collar suggest a definite English influence.
The image shown here comes from a wonderful European costume website. HBC has received many requests for readers about women's and girl's clothing. We find ourselves unable to handle the information we have gathered on boys clothing, so this will not be possible. Although we include many family images showing what contemporary girls and women were wearing. La Couturière Parisienne Website has a wonderful collection of women's and girl's fashions over a wide historical period. HBC on its pages tends to enlarge images so that stylistic details can be examined and to help the pages load faster. We know that some viewers would prefer to see the smaller, clearer images. These are available in the La
Couturière Parisienne website.
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