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English boys clothes -- chronology Edwardian Era the 1900s
English 20th Century Boys' Clothes: The 1900s--Garments
Figure 1.--Here we see the boys from an unidentified English family. It is an undated backyard portrait. As there is no stamp box, it was most likeky taken in the 1900s decade. The boys look to be about 2-14 years old. The two older biys wear identical suits jackets. The older bpys wears a necktie and regular collar wurg long pants. The younger boy wears a bow tie and Eton collar with knickers. The younger boys wear tunic suits with huge lace collars. All three younger boys wear dark long stockings.
As far as we can tell there was considerable similarities the 1900s with the 1890s and at least the early-1910s. Headwear was common for both boys and girls. School caps were particularly popular for boys, but there were other styles. Girls wore tams as we see here (figure 1). When dressing up girls wore wide-brimmed, often straw hats, but there were also other styles. Boys wore caps. The peaked cap was not yet universal. There were a variety of styles for younger boys in the 1900s. Fauntrlroy syits were going out of style, but some Fauntleriy elementts persisted. Kilt suits were also going out of styles. We see tunic suits when dressing up. For home wear and play, rompers became popular. We also see sailor suits. School age boys mostly wore suits for everyday wear, not just when dressing up, although we do see some boys wearing sweaters. Boys from stable families would have has a suit for best. Eton collars were very common, but as we see here not universal. We still see knickers suits in the 1900s, but knee pants were also very common. Sailor suits were popular, but generally for younger boys than we see on the Continent. As we see here even for working class boys (figure 1) Girls onky wore skirted garments. Dresses predominated. They wore pinafores over their dresses which we see in school photography. School age boys and guels continued wearing long stockings. Black long stockings were especially common. Younger children might wear socks. Footwear was varied. We see both lightop and low-cut shoes. This is different from America where children and adults mostly wore hightop shoes.
