Figure 1.--Here we see two boys, we thought at first they were brothers, but written on the back is Edward Fleetwood (2.5 years) and Henry Churchill (4.5 years). They were photographed in a rectory at Boughton, a city in Northamptonshire. Notice Edward is still wearing dresses. Also notice is pull horse toy. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1900s. |
After the turn of the 20th century the fashion of dressing boys in dresses declined rapidly. We still see some boys wearing dresses, but only very young boys. A good example is the two boys here in a chiuch rectory in Boughton (figure 1). By the 1990s boys by age 4 or even 3 years were wearing kneepants. This varied from family to family. Boys that did wear dresses tended to wear plain ones, not the frilly ones their sisters might wear. This varies somewhat for boys from rich families.
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