Figure 1.-- This unientified Scottish caninet card shows a mother or possibly a grandmother with her two young children, a baby and a boy who looks to be about 5 years old. He wears a sailor suit with a white collar and dickey. The portrait is undated, but the mounts suggsts it was taken around the turn-of-the 20th century. The mount is a little different than American mounts, however, and we do not yet have a reliable archive to date British cabinet cards. The studio was Chas Mitchell in Glasgow.

Suits were very common in the 19th century, more common than in the 20th century. Even children commonly wore suits, especially after mid-century. We have less information about the early-19th century before the invention of photography. We believe that suits became more common in the 19th century in part because of the increasing prosperity and rising middle class resulting from the indusril economy. We note many different styles of juvenile suits worn by Scottish boys. They were basically the same as worn by English boys. The two best known were probably sailor suits and Fauntleroy suits. There were many ohers such as kilt suits which does not mean proper kilt outfits which were not specifically juvenile outfits. There were mostly styles worn by pre-school boys. There was, however, some cross over with younger school-age boys also wearing these juvenile styles. We even see mostly younger boys wearing sailor suits. We tend to see a wider age range for sailor suits on the Continent.

Fauntleroy Suits

We notice boys wearing fancy velkvet suits (1870s). The Fauntleroy craze emerged on the fashion scene with the publication of Mrs. Burnett's book (1885). It was an immediate senstation in America. The photographic record shows countless boys wearing Fauntleroy suits or suits with Fauntleroy styling. The fashion spread across the Atlantic, the first major fashion style to ,most eastward across the Atlantic. The Fauntleroy craze was important in Europe, but not nearly as important as in America. We do not think thst the Fauntleroy Craze was a probounced in Scotland as in England. Here are smaller Scottish archive may be affecting our asssessment. So at this time we are unable to sau how prevalkenbt Fauntleoy suits wrre in Scotland, The Fauntleroy Craze was most popular in the late-19yh cenbtury, about 1885-1905. We do not yet, however, hsve any 19th century examples. We have found some examples from the early-20th century. We have a portrait of an Edinburgh boy wearing a Fauntleroy outfit, but with a cape rather than a jacket. Some boys from well-to-do families wore Fauntleroy suits. We have found another ecample done as a kind of bloomer knicker romper suit or perhaps a tunic suit, it is a little difficult to make out, at about the same time. This is not precisely a Fauntleroy suit, but the velvet mterial and lace collr gives it a Fauntleroy look. None of the examples we have found so far look like outfits that would have been widely worn.

Kilt Suits

HBC has no indication that kilt suits were worn to any extent in Scotland. We have noted very few photographs of Scottish boys wearing kilt suits. We have a relatively small Scottish archive. Even so, we have found quite a few portraits of Scottish boys wearing Highland kilts. And if kilt suits were very common we would have noted at least a few. It is likely that Scottish parents familiar with the kilt probably would not have accepted a non-traditional usage. American mothers had no real idea what a real kilt was. Thus a skirt with a few pleats or perhaps a subdued tartan pattern were acceptable as a kilt. We uspect Scottish parents mostly wanted real kilts. A Scottish reader has provided an assesment of kilt suits in Scotland and England. His conclusion is that they were not worn to any extent. The kilt suit thus appears to have been a destinctly American garment although worn to a minor extent in some other countries.

Sailor Suits

We have not found many images of Scottish boys wearing sailor suits. It may have been that the sailor suit was less popular in Scotland than England, but our Scottish archive is still very limited, so we are unable to make any definitive assessments at this time. We do not notice any spcific Scottish stylistic trends. As far as we can tell, the sailor suits worn in scotland were essentially the same as the styles in England. Of course as both were based on Royal Navy uniforms, there were unlikely to be any great differences. We do not have much chronological informtion yet because our archive is so limited. Our earliest images date from about 1870. They look much like the the suit that the British princes wor in the 1840s which ws the beginning of the convention of dressing boys in sailor suits. By the 1880s we see more varied style divering from Royal Navy uniforms to a degree. We see, for example, button jackets rather than just the pull-over blouse Royal Navy sailors wore. We notice the various different types of pants, long pants, knee pants, and short pants. As in England, well-to-do boys went to private schools and wore school uniforms beginning about 8 years of age. This affected the prevalence and age conventions for sailor suits. Sailor suits in Europe were generally most popular with middle-class and upper class boys. This seems to be true in Scotland as well. There may have been some regional differences. The examples we have found so far have been in the Lowlands and not the Highlands. The Lowlands are the area of Scotland where English influences are the most pronounced. We note an unidentified boy from Grenock in the Lowlands south of Glasgow, we think about 1870. We also see an unidentified Scottish boy wearing a sailor suit, probably in the 1890s. It is like the sailor suits worn in England. Ayr is in the Scottish Lowlands where english styles were dominant.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Kilt pages:
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[Kilt suits] [Scottish kilts] [Scottish school uniform] [Highland dance] [Pipeband]
[Irish kilts] [Irish boys clothing] [Irish step dancing] [Greek kilts]

Created: 1:34 PM 11/11/2017
Last updated: 1:34 PM 11/11/2017