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Italian boys garments : skirted garments German boys clothes: chronology -- the 1900s sailor suits
Italian Boys' Garments: Skirted Garments
Figure 1.---This CDV shows an unidentified Parma boy wearing a boater-like hat with a dress which has stripe detaling, but no other sailor features. Also notice the pantalettes, white stockings, abd high-top shoes. If you mlook closely byou can see a short wide stramer hanging from the n=back of the hhat. He looks to be about 5 yeras old. The portait is undated, but we believe was taken in the late-1860s. The studio on the back of the CDV mentioned that they won a London photographic prize in 1865. The studio was D. Lasagna in Parma..
Young boys in other European boys throughout the 19th century seem to have worn dresses. We know that this was the case in Europe, but at this time we havelittle information on specifically on the convention in Italy. We know that Yinger Italian boys wore dresses, but we do notbhave much indormation on prevalaence and social-class variations. And we have no information at all on skirts yet. Our 19th centuy Italian archive is very limited. Younger boys commonly wore dresses like their sisters in the 19th century. This was a common convention throughout Europe and America. The conventions and and styles varied from country to country. Oor information on Italian skirted garments is limited. This was a convention that was prevalent in the 19th century and earlier, but very rapidly disappeared after the turn-of-the 20th centurty. And unfirtunately our 19th century Italian archuve is very limited. We see tunics continued to be worn in the 1900s decade, but other than smocks, skirted garments were not common in the 20th century. The smock became a standard school garment, widekly worn by both bots and girls. Kilts were not common at all.
Young Italian boys like other European boys throughout the 19th century seem to have worn dresses, but we have little information on this. Our 19th centuy Italian archive is very limited. As a result, we have few specific details on this practice in Italy, such as dress styles and ages at which boys wore dresses. Nor do we have details on conventiions. We are left with the same basic questions that we have for this practice in other countries. Did Italian boys breeched all at one time or did they continue wearing dresses for a while after their first pants were purchased. The few exmples we have found seem basically the same as the styles we see in other European countries at the time. An issue here is socio-economic. Italy was a relatively poor country compared to many other Western European countries. And the practice of dressing younger boys in dressess seems tohve been in part a practice followed by more affluent families.
The tunic was a popular garment as far as we can tell throughout Europe in the 19th and early-20th century. The popularity and styles varied from country to country. We do not have much information on Italy, but suspect this is because of our limited Italian archive and not because the tunic was not particularly popular in Italy. We are just beginning to work on this topic and have only found a few images so we can not yet draw any conclusions about Italian trends. We note Italian boys wearing tunics into the 1920s. The kast one we see was a rather short tunic, similar to styles we see in Germany at the turn of the century. This was aittle later than wesee in America where yunics disappeared after the 1910s.
Smocks as in France were commonly worn by Italian boys. But again I have few details on the styles or the age of the children involved. Nor do I have any information on the conventions involved. When did a boy
wear his smock and when did he just wear his regular clothes. I also have no idea what Itlalian boys thought about smocks. If the pattern was anything like that which developed in France, Italian boys by the 1960s probably did not like the smocks which had a girlish look to them--especially the back buttoning style which was hard to put on and get out of without help.
