Figure 1.--While the fancy suits like Fauntleroy suits are the best known, many boys like this Denver, Colorado boy wore plainer suits. This boys suit jacket has both sailor and double breasted styling. The photograph was probably taken about 1890.

The rather non-discript, plain suits with short jackets worn with long pants changed in the late-19th century to better tailored jackets that look increasingly like modern jackets. Both formality and the vast wealth being created by the rapidly indiscrtimatling American economy were important factors. Another factor was the shift to ready made clothes. And we notice American boys wearing a wide rnge of suit styles. Generally the name of the suit was derived from the jacket or coat style. There were different types of pants, but they were worn with the various jacket styles and did not affect the suit names. We note both juvenile and more mature styles. Despite the extremely fancy styles which developed during this period, many suits had very simple styling. The Norfolk jacket which appeared in the late 19th century was one of the more elaborate. Some had double breasted styling. Most were much simpler. Sometimes stylistic elements were added from other styles like sailor suits

Blouse Suits

Jacket suits wer not common at mid-century for noys, especially younger boys. We do not see many in Daguerreotypes (1840s-50s). Jacket suits increased in popylarity during the 1950s and were fairly standard by the 1860s. We think that this was fairly common because it shows clearly in the CDVs which appeared inthe 1860s. And the number of CDVs are much largr than the earlier more expensive Dags and ambros. Many of the noys who are not wearing suit jckers wgere button-on blouse suits that look rather like one-piece suits because the waist buttond are commonly hidden.

Suit Jackets/Coats

Suits were very common in the late-19th centyry. Both formality and the vast wealth being created by the rapidly indisrtialing American economy were important factors. And we notice American boys wearing a wide rnge of suit styles. Generally the name of the suit was derived from the jacket or coat style. There were different types of pants, but they were worn with the vruous jacket styles and did not affect the suit names. We note both juvenile and more mature styles. The juvelile styles included cut-away Fauntleroy suits, sailor suits, and button-on styles. The more mature styles include: cut-away jackets, different styles of sack suits, like single- and double-breasted jackets, Norfolk jackets. There were also Eton suits. The popularity of these different suits and stylistic differences varied over time, including the three decades of the late-19th century. A complication here is the accompanying neckwear and collars can change the look of a suit. Eton and Fauntleroy collars for exmple can make a standard suit look like a very different suit. This wa especially the case in hate-19th century. We note more different styles of suit during this narrow period than any other similar historical period. And it is also the time that we see the fanciest suit styles, largely because of the Funtleroy Craze. .

Suit Pants

The pants worn with suits as well as for everyday varied during this period. We seeshortened pants beginning in the 1850s, but not very many unill the 1860s. Length at first wre ather lomg, often t calf level, byut gradually became shorter. . Knee pants in the 1870s were mostly for younger boys, but by the 1890s, quite old boys were wearing knee pants suits. Suits were made with both long pants, nickers, bloomer knickers, and knee pants. Knee pants were dominant in Americam, although the age conventions varied over time. Knickers were much less common in America than in Europe during the late 19th century. Mostly boys wore ling pants in the 1870s, but knee pants by the 1890s. The choice was primarily a matter of age, but there were also family differences. Boys wore both, but knee pants were very widely worn. Unlike earlier years, suits were now always made with matching material.

Created: October 6, 2000
Last updated: 1:29 PM 7/19/2016