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United States boys clothes : chronology early 20th century tunics
United States Boys' Clothes Chronology: Early 20th Century Tunics
Figure 3.--The studio portrait is undated, but looks to be taken in the 1910s, perhaps the late-10s. Threy are the children of a young family--two boys and a girl. They look to be about 3-9 years old. Mother has beautifully prepared them for the portrait. Notice the hair. Big suster has a huge hair bow. The boys have different styles. One has ringlet curls. His older brother has bangs and a high cut around the ears. The girl ers a pinafore with klace edging. The boys wear tunic suits. The younger boy has a jacket-like tunic, Notice the strinng collar tie. His older brother wears a sailor syled tunuic. The only similsrity ios the wide cloth color. Notice the scalloped edging. Both have knee pants and dark long stockings. Sister has white long stockings. All three have high-top shoes.
One of the most characteristic styles of the early-20th century in America was the tunic and tunic suits. These tunic outfits are a destinctive style of the early 20th century. We see them primarily in the 1900s and 10s, but sime were also worn in the early-20s. They were not commonly worn to school in part becaue they were most common wih pre-school childrem. Thus they do not show up much in school portrairs, but we see a lot studio portraits wutybthese tunics. They were very commom in the early 20th century, especially in America. Tunics were not an exclusively American style, but they were very popular in America. Many mothers who might have dressed their boys in dresses, instead appear to have chosen the related tunic style. To many boys, tunics were preferable to dresses as they good wear knicker-like bloomers that showed they were no longer wearing girlish dresses. There were several types of tunics including sailor, Russian blouse, and Buster Brown styles were some of the most popular. All kinds of detailing was employed. We see both very plain tunics as well as tunics with alll kinds of features like pockets, often highlighted with contrastiung colors. The longer length tunics were especially popular in the 1900s and the shorter tunics in the 1910s. Unfortunately, many of the available photographs are bnot dated, complicating creating a stylistic time line. And in the late-1910s we begin to see tunics styled like jackets. Most tunics were done with bloomer knickers, but in the 1910s, especially the late 10s. We begin to see tunic suits done with knee pants. Hosiery varied. Boys commonly wore them with socks even though long stockings were common at the time. We also msee long stockings which were more common for formal occassions or in cooler weather.
