Scottish Suits: English Styles


Figure 1.--Here we see three unidentified Scottish children, They look to be about 3-8 years of age. The youngest child looks to be weating a pinafore. The middle boy wears a sailor blouse. The older boy wears a Fauntleroy lace collar with a collar buttoning jacket. All the children wear long stockings. The boys have low-cut shoes. We are not sure about the fate. We would guess the 1890s, although the card has sharp connors which is more associated with earlier periods. The studio is Smith of Peterhead. Peterhead is a small town in Aberdeenshire. Peterhead is a port and sits at the easternmost point in mainland Scotland. It is often referred to as The Blue Toun. Click on the image for a discussion of the image.

The images we have found show Scottish boys wearing suits that were virtually indistinguishable from English suits. Kilts were not as common as one might expect, especially in the Lowlands. And some fashion concious English mothers began dressing their boys in kilts. For some reason we do not see mothers dressing theor girls in Scottish styles. Around the turn of the 19th century we begin to see Englsh attitudes toward Scotland change. They were extremely negative in the 19th century. The exploits of Highland regiments in he Napoleonic wars were a factor. Authors like Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns were a factor. One enchanted fan was a young Princess Victoria. English mothers after Queen Victoria began to popularize Scotland and dressing the princes kilts started to take an interest in Scottish fashion. Many English mothers adopted the kilt fashion in the mid-19th century. But this affected a realtively small numbrr of boys. But what we mostly see in the photographic record is the vast majority of Scottish boys wearing the same popular styles we see in England. And this was not only in the Low Lands. In fact, unlike some European countres it is impossible to identify Scottish images in the photographic record just by looking at them. Of course kilts are a clue, but realtively few boys in portarits or later snapshots wear kilts. Anf there is even fewer girls wearing Scottish styles. And as mentioned we see kilts in England. Fortunately we can identify most 19th century images because most CDVs and cabinet cards identify the studio and city. Aftr the 20th century as the cabinet card faded in popularity, we no longer have this easy way of locating the images.







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Created: 9:20 AM 6/16/2011
Last updated: 9:20 AM 6/16/2011