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English boys clothes -- chronology Edwardian Era the 1900s
English 20th Century Boys' Clothes: The 1900s--Social Class
Figure 1.--Here we see a fisherman with a group of children about 1900. We care not sure whst has attracted the children. It may be a posed image. Onec source suggests thst he is giving themn fishing tips. We are not sure that is the case. Note that most of the boys are barefoot. The photograph is not dated. It could have been taken in the 1890s. We belive this is Whitby in Yorkshire. An English reader writes. "Yes, it is Whitby. The boy near the fisherman is very happy so what ever is going on it concerns him. He may be having a toy mended or being shown a process in fishing. What ever the focus of attention it is certainly holding the children's attention." Francis Meadow Sutcliffe (1853-1941) left us a wondrful record of life in Whitby.
Social class was still a major factor in how children dressed. Clothing was much more expensive in relative terms before the 20th century and this continued into the early-20th century. Here we are not talking about actual monetary costs. There have been enormoudly expensive garments througout recorded history. What we are talking about is the percentage of income families had to devote to clothing. A variety of factors were at play bringing down the cost of clothing: 1) factory manufacture, 2) the industrial recolution, 3) rising wages and family wealth, 4) falling family sizes, 5) expanding education systems, 6) technological advances, 7) improved social welfare system, and the 8) increasing use of cotton. by the turn of the 20th century these factors had even reached how the working class lived and dressed. We still see barefoot English children at the turn-of-the 20th century, especially the boys. Leather shoes are the most expensive clothing item. And at the turn-of the century, leather shoes still dominated footwear. But this is the last decade that we still see large bnumbers of barefoot English children. England at the time was the wealtheist European country which is why we still see barefoot children in other European countries until after World War II.
