Figure 1.--We have only limited informtion on the early-19th century, but as best we can tell, the tunic was a poopular garment for English boys thriughout the 19th century. This CDV shows an uidentified boy wearing a tunic suit/ He looks to be about 5 years old. Notice the center hair part. The tunic suit has striped detailing and white long stockings. We would estimate the portait was taken about 1870. The Stdio appears to be Ingham in Stretford-Manchestr.

English boys have worn a variety of skirted garments. These garments have included dresses, kilts, pinafores, skirts, smocks, and tunics. These garments are generally associated with girls, but the situation in England is more complicated. They were, however, widely worn by boys, especially younger boys. Younger English boys for several centuries wore dresses. They were essentially the same garments as their sisters worn, although we do begin to see stylistic differences in the later half of the 19th century. We also see boys wearing smocks, although not as commonly as in France accross the Channel. Despite the association with girls, two skirted garments are strictly male garments. Tunics were for boys and widely worn through much of the century, although styles changed ovr time. Kilts were worn by males of all ages. Kilts were of course Scottish, but we see English boys dressed up in kilt outfits for special occassions. Queen Vivtoria drssed the princes in kilts, we see English boys wearing them as well, mostly boys from well-to-do families. Tunics continued to be wirn in the early-20th century, but different syles than worn in the 19th century. A kilt knockoff was the kilt suit which appeared in the second half of the 19th century. This was essentially a skirted suit, but often called a kilt suit. It was worn by younger boys before breeching.

Dresses

English boys, as did boys in other European countries and America, wore dresses when they were little until breched. The age of breaching varied from family to family and over time. The dresses for boys through much of the 19th century were indestinguisable from those worn by the boys' sisters. The styles were basically the same as those worn by English girls at the time. This did not change until the late 19th century when boy dresses became plainer than those worn by girls. Plaid was a popular fabric for boys' dresses, in part because it related to a boy's garment--the kilt. We do not know of any specifically English styles here. We do not know if the English pattern differed in any way with the general European pattern. At this time HBC has little information on England beyond information about the British royal family. A few available images does show that some boys continued to wear dresses beyond the normal breeching age of 4 to 6 years of age. It is likely that fewer older boys wore dresses than in the rest of Europe--especially across the Channel in France. This may in part be because it was very common in the 19th century, especially by the late 19th century, for British boys from affluent families to be sent to boarding school, often beginning at about 8 years of age. Thus there breeching would have to take place a least by this age. While younger boys of all social and economic classes wore dresses in the 19th century, it was primarily the boys from affluent families that wore them beyond the normal age of breeching. Such boys might still be educated at home with governesses and tutors.

Skirts

We have found relatively few portraits of English noys wearing skirts. Kilts seem more common, at least in the photographic record. Of course the photograohic record, at least in the 19th century, is heavily biased toward the afflkuent and dress up clothing. Most people dressed up for portrait and dressed up their children. While we see a number of English boys wearing drsses, blouses and skirts see much less common. We are not entirely sure this was a reflection of how boys were dressed or influenced by the formality of a studio portrait. It is possibkle that a simple dress was more practical than a blouse ahnd skirt, especially because some way had to be found to suspend the skirt. Our English archive is still fairly limited. Wihout a substantil number of images, we can not make relly valid assessments. Of course our English archive is realtively small, especially 19th century images. We do note one unidentified younger boy wearing a skirt in the late 1850s. We notice another boy about 1887 wearing a fancy blouse with a skirt. It is possible that boys had more utilitarian blouses and skirts for everyday wear. We notice English boys both pleated and unpleated skirts. American mothers masy have called a pleated skirt a kilt. English mothers presumably had a better idea of what a kilt was and thus probably called pleated skirts a skirt and not a kilt.

Kilts

An English monarch, Queen Victoria, popularized the Scottish kilt for boys. We have noted a number of English boys wearing highland kilts. We are unsure to what extent this mean Scotish ancestry as opposed to simply a fashion statement. We also have noted a few English boys wearing kiltsuits. The kilt is generally associated today with Scotland or the Gaelic peoples of the British Isles and Normandy. The kilts use as a style of boys' clothing is much more recent in origin. In the British Isles, the kilt is mostly associated with Scotland and to a lesser extent Ireland. Boys in England itself, however, also occasuinally wore kilts, especially after Queen Victorian began dressing the princes in Highland kilts during the 1840s. The full extent to which boys wore kilts is somewhat difficult to determine. Available photographs often do not indicate who the boy is or where he is from. Thus it is difficilt to determine if it is an English or Scottish boy involved.

Scottish Garments

We do not note English boys wearing ethnic clothing go any extent. One of the few exceptions is Scottish Highlands dress. Scotish-style clothing was not only worn in Scotland. Scottish clothes were made and worn in England. This began in the 19th century as the cult of Scotland grew in England. Sctland had been looked doen by most English, especially in the 18th century after the suppression of the '45 Jacobite Rising at Culloden. This changed only gradually. The Scottish regiments in the Napoleonic Wars brought great credit on Scotland. Romantic novels and poems about Scotland also affected public thinking. Even the Hanovarians which had replaced the Stuarts gradually were swept up with the public enthusiasm over Scotland. The last Hanovarian, Princess Victoria loved to read about Scotland. Affter becoming queen, she and Prince Albert began dressing the boys in Highland outfits. This was both a political statement and a relection of her love of Scotland. Other well to do English families also dressed their boys in Highland outfits. As far as we know this affectation was served for the affluent class, but this meant well to do middle-class families.

Pinafores

The pinafore is commonly assiciated with girls. Large number of images show English girls wearing imacuklate white pinnies to school. They were by both affluent and working class girls, although the better off girls normally had fancier pinnies. Other girls might have both pinnies for play and for more formal occassions. Some younger boys in England also are known to have been dressed in pinafores. Boys except for the very youngest would normally only wear pinnies around the home and not go to school in them like the girls. Also of course quite old girls might wear pinnies while only younger boys wore them. Pinnies were not, however, reserved only for the boys still in dresses or wearing smocks--although such boys were especially likely to also wear pinnies. Water colorist Helen Allingham outfitted her son in dresses and pinafores during the 1880s. We believe that this was realtively common, especially for affluent families, until the turn of the 20th century. It is not we documented in the photgraphic record, in part, because the children were normally dressed up for their portraits. There are, however, a few such images. We believe that these pinafores were much more common than is suggested by the photographic record.

Smocks

Smocks appeared in England, France, and other European countries as a kind of work uniform, much as farmers use to wear overalls. HBC begins noting them in the early 19th century, but they may appeared earlier. Initially there was no association with childhood. I am not sure precisely when busy mothers realized they would also be practical garments for children, helping to keep their clothes clean. By the late 19th century, the smock appears to have evolved into a child's garment, although it was not unknown in shops. Unlike the Continent, the smock was never an important school garment, although pinafores were extensively worn by English school children. Home and school smocks for boys were never as popular in the English speaking countries as they proved to be on the Continent. They were, however, worn in England in the 19th Century, but declined in popularity in the 20th Century.

Unknown Skirted Garments

We rely heavily on the photographic record in building HBC. And with only aphotoigraph it is often difficiculkt to make oiut important details. We see some outfits that seem to be a blur of different skirted garments. We notice this in the 19th century before garements were all ready made outfits were sewn at home. This makes for a more diverse mix. When garments were one of a kind creations sewn in millenaries rather than readymade, there was bound to be a wide variety of creations. The creators may have mixed various styles. We are not sure just how to classify them. A good example is an unidentified boy in Stalybridge, a suburb of Manchester. His outfit could easily be classified as dress ir a kilt/skirt suit. We will post images that we are having problems classifying here. Hopefully HNC readers will be able to provide valuable insights.

Tunics

I have seen relatively few images of English boys in turn of the 20th century tunic suits. Tunics were a common style in the early 19th Century and were still being worn at mid-century. We note the Tennyson boys wearing tunics in the 1860s, but are unsure how common that was. The tunics suits worn by American and French boys in the early 20th Century seem much less common in England. English boys seem to have worn short pants suits without the long tunics worn in France and America and were much more plain than the French suits. Both the sailor style and Russian blouse style were worn.

Mixed Skirted Outfit

We see some mixed skirted garments. We are not entirely sure about the different combinations. The most common mixed skieted outfits is surely pinafores worn, mostly with dresses. This was very common for girls in the 19th and early-20th century. Younger boys also might wear dresses and pinafores. We note some other complications. One of these combinations is tunic suits. We notice tunic suits worn with pants, pantaletes, as well a skirted garments. We can not always see what the boys are wearing, but often we can. Tunics with skirted garments seems the least common alternarive and we usually only see the skirt part of the garment. So we do not know if the garment is a skirt, kilt (meaning a kilt suit skirt), or dress. We have not note tunics with skirts very commonly, but we do notice a few examples. The examples we have found come mostly from the mid-19th century. We are not sure about the early-19th century because photography was not yet invented. We think the tunic-skirt combination was not common in the late-19th century. We have a fairly extensive archive and we see little evidence of it.

Created: 7:44 AM 5/9/2015
Last updated: 9:53 AM 3/22/2016