Figure 1.--The Nelgian children were probanlt photographed in the late-1940s or early-50s. The baby wears a knit outfit. His big brother weas a collarless blouse that looks to be done in a satin-like fabric. It is hard to see, but it buttons at least part of the way up the front. There does not seem to be a font placket. The boy looks to be about 5 years old. A reader writes, "I suspect the older boy's blouse was chosen for the picture and was not worn much if at all afterwards unless the band collar could fit a regular collar." Not sure what to make of it. I don't think it was made to have a collar added, but just a dessy garment for a younger boy. I suspect it was saved for special occassions."

There are several different types of shirt-like garmemts. We van't tell much about shit styling except for the collar in the 19th century because most of the vacilable images were studio portraits and the boys are weating suit jackets. We see more of the shirts in the 20th century with the appearance of family snaphots. We now see mnot only the collar but shirt and bodice front. We see casual styles ivluding polos and collar T-shirts. Shirts with military styling appear to have been worn after World war II in the early-1950s. The image on the previous page is a good example. The most common shirt-like garment today is the shirt, but in the 19th and early-20th century, blouses were also very common. The difference is primarily that many, but not all shirts had tails that were tucked in the waist of the pants that boys wore. Collared shirts were most like;y to have tails. Many casual shirts especially collarless shirts like T-shorts and polos did not have tails. Blouses did not have tails. They got their name from the way that many blouses filled out at the waist. This was an effect created by a waist draw string. Since the early-20th century this was no longer very commonm. Blouse became more of a girl's garment, although younger boys might wear them, especially for dress up occassions. In addition to shirts and blouses, there were also shirt-like garments such as shirt waists. These were tops without collars. They were worn with the detachable collars that were popular in the late-19th and early-20 century. This often meant Eton collars, but there many other collar styles.

Created: 3:35 AM 5/4/2019
Last updated: 9:20 AM 5/5/2019