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We have found relatively few portraits of English boys wearing skirts. Kilts and dresses seem more common, at least in the photographic record. Of course the photographic record, at least in the 19th century, is heavily biased toward the affluent classes 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 possible 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. It us, however, growing. We do note one unidentified younger boy wearing a skirt in the late 1850s. We notice another boy, probably about 1890, 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. The boy here wears a pleated skirt (figure 1). And by skirt we mean plain skirted garments with no kilt elements, like a front pannel. American mothers may 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. We notice a range of blouses, including plain blouses albeit many with wide collars, fancy, Fauntleroy blouses, and sailor blouses. The boy here wears a rather plain bliuse with a widide collar (figure 1). There probably were other styles which may come to light as our archive expands.
We have found relatively few portraits of English boys wearing skirts. Kilts and dresses seem more common, at least in the photographic record. Of course the photographic record, at least in the 19th century, is heavily biased toward the affluent classes 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 possible that a simple dress was more practical than a blouse and 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. It us, however, growing.
We do note one unidentified younger boy wearing a skirt in the late 1850s. We notice another boy, probably about 1890, 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. The boy here wears a pleated skirt (figure 1). And by skirt we mean plain skirted garments with no kilt elements, like a front pannel. American mothers may 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.
The primary top worn by boys and girls with skirts was a blouse. This was shirt-like garments were at the time the most common top for children (both younger boys and girls) and women. The blouse was more common at the time than shirts, especially for the younger boys still wearing skirted garments. We notice a range of blouses, although we do not yet have a lot of photographs to go on. The blouses we have seen include plain blouses albeit many with wide collars, fancy, Fauntleroy blouses, and sailor blouses. We think Fauntleroy blouses were mostly worn with Fauntleroy suits meaning knee pants and knixkers. Actually this was a style moving mothers to breech their sons earlier than had been the case earlier. But some Fauntleroy blouses were worn with skirts. The boy here wears a rather plain blouse with a wide collar (figure 1). We notice three brothers wearing identical skirt outfits with unusual sailor collars, although we are not sure about how to date the cabinet card portrait. There probably were other styles which may come to light as our archive expands.
Kilt suits were an important style for boys in the 19th century, primarily in the second half of the century. They were not as common for boys as in America, at least based on prevalence in the photgraphic record. We get the impressiooriented for the well-to-do than in America. We also notice suits that were basically identical to kilt suits only there was no effort to make the skirt look somewhat like a kilt, eith with tartan fabric or an element of kilt construction. These we call skirt suits. Like kilt suits, skirt suits were also often done with vests.
These skirt suits were basically the same as kilt suits. Many of the kilts used in kilt suits were not true kilts, but just skirts dome in tartan fabric or some semblence of kilt construction. We are not sure what mothers may have called these outfits. They may called them kilt suits, we are just mot sure. We have never foujnd references to skirt suits.
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