Figure 1.-- This cabinet portrait shows an unidentified mother mother posing with her five children. The children look to be about 1-11 years old. This is rather surprising. We are not sure about the gender of the two yiungest cjildren, they could be boys or girls,. The boy who looks to be about 5 years old wears a sailor kilt suit. The surprising aspect of this portrait is how the two older children wearing matching print dresses look like bous. Now they must be girls because while younger boys in the 19th century might wear dresses, not boys this ages. The studio was Spanton in Bury St. Edwards. Click on the imafe for a fuller discussion.

We have considerable information on English children's wear in the 1890s. Headwear continued to be important. We mostly see school-age boys wearing caps. Peaked caps were standard, but not universal. Younger and older boys more commonly wore headwear (caps and hats). Skirted garments were important, including for younger boys. we mostly see girls wearing dresses. This could be because most of the phiotographs, was studio photography. We have little informattion on blouses and skirts. We mostly see dresses. Suits were common for both ordinary and school wear as well as dressing up. Boys might have one suit for best and anolder suit for everydaywear. Younger boys wore destinctive styles like Fauntleroy suits and sailor suits. Stangely, sailor suits were not as common. Lapel sack suits were becoming standard. We still see some collar-buttoning jackets. Knee pants were standard for boys. We see some knickers, epecailly at some boarding schools. Long stockings were still common. High-top shoes were common, although not nearly universal as in America.

Created: 11:27 PM 9/19/2023
Last updated: 11:27 PM 9/19/2023