Figure 1.-- Here we see a brother and sister dressed up in their best outfits during the 1910s. Boys began wearing hats less commonly in the 10s, but girls still wore them. Rather boys began wearing caps most commonly as headwear. While the fkat cap emerged as the most common style, we continue to see peaked caps. Notice thatthe boy's cap here matches his suit. This boy;s capnhas a very small peak (bill), almost looking like a beanie. Click on the kmage for an enlargement and you can more clearly see that there is a peak. .
We see many boys wearing British-styled peaked caps in the 1900s, but in the 1910s, while the peakd cap did not diappear, the flat cap became clearly dominant. The British-style peaked cap which was quite common in the 1900s declined in popularity. It also began to take on a more upper-class association and became more of a formal style worn with suits. Some had ear flaps although we are not percisely sure when they were added. We do not see these ear flaos in England. Peaked caps were mostly done it suiting colors and fabrics and might actully be purchased with a suit as a matching item. In fact the peak cap in the 1910s became a cap usually worn with suits. This was not the case in the 1900s when we see boys wearing peaked caps as one of several casual caps. We do not see the bright colors associated with school wear that we seen in Britain. Some private American schools adopted the flat cap as part of a school unifornm, but this affected a relatively small numbr of boys. The peaked caps we note in the early-20th century commonly had a relatively small peak or bill. We begin to see an age range convention developing betwww=een the peaked cap and the flat cap in the 1910s.
