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English boy clothes -- suits material fabric silk satin velvet
English Boys Fabrics: Velvet
Figure 1.--This CDV porttrait shows an unidentified Ebglish boy who looks to be about 10-years old. As was common ayt the time, his blouse has a very small collar. The stock/bow is also very small. The boy wears a cut-away jacket suit with knickers. We sre not sure how the knickers were closed. They do not apopear to be fully closed. He also wears striped long stockings and high-top shoes. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken about 1870. The studio was R. Hatt on New Cross SE London.
Silk was not commonly used for suits. One exception was velvet. Silk was not the most common material for boys' clothes because of its cost. It was mostly used for clothes for younger children from well-to-do families. We see younger boys wearing fancy velvet suits in the 19th century. True velvet is made with silk, but material with a velvet look can be made with cotton or ar a cotton-silk blend. Fancy velvet suits appeared well before the more famous Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. We note quite a number (1870s). Many had elaborate embroidery and trim. Some weere plain. The xuits here for ecazmpler only had piping. Thhy were. howevedr, were not worm with all the fancy Fauntleroy embekishnments trim untils the Fauntl=leroy Craze (1880s). The Fauntleroy suits appeared (1885). It is of course impossible to tell from the photographs to what extent the velvet-looking suits were true velvet made from silk. We suspect that many of the early velvet suits were done in silk velbet, but gradually cheper weaves were used, especially when the Fauntleroy suits became popular. That said, the Fauntleroy suit was never as popular in Eutope as it was in America -- it was probably most common in England anong the European countriues. We do, however, other than Fauntletoy suits see relatively more velvet suits in England than Americsa We also see velvet being used as trim on jackets and coats.
