Figure 1.--Here we see two boys with their grandfather, we think about 1890. Notice the plain suits to which mother has added identical lace collars and white floppy bows. The boys looked to be dressed identically, although we can't make out much detail as to the suits.

We note boys wearing lace collars during several centuries. Our information is limited on the 18th century. We know much more about the 19th century. We see boys wearing lace collars throughout the 19th century. The popularity and size of those collars varied substatially. We do not have much information on the early 19th century, but ruffled rather than lace collars seem more popular for fshionably dressed boys. At mid-century we note women and girls using lace, but not very commonly do we see boys with lsace collars. Collars at mid-century tended to be very small. We note some ruffled collars, but not lace collars. We still see small collars in the 1860s. This began to change in the 1870s. We begin to see larger collars and some lace collars. A good example is an unidentified Salem boy. Boys of various ages in the late-19th century might wear lace collars. We note them being worn both with and without floppy bows. It is a collar style common associated with the Little Lord Fauntleroy suits which became popular in the 1880s. They were worn before that, but as far as we can tell, they were not very common. We see lave collars in the very early 20th cebtury, but ruffled collars seem more common.

The 18th Century

We note boys wearing lace collars during several centuries. Our information is limited on the 18th century. There may be a few boys in the fashionable cities that had lace collasrs, but as far as we camn tell, it was not very common. A factor here is thast most Americans lived in rural areas on farms. We doubt if many farm boys had lace collars.

The 19th Century

We know much more about the 19th century. We see boys wearing lace collars throughout the 19th century. The popularity and size of those collars varied substatially. We do not have much information on the early 19th century, but ruffled rather than lace collars seem more popular for fshionably dressed boys. At mid-century we note women and girls using lace, but not very commonly do we see boys with lsace collars. Collars at mid-century tended to be very small. We note some ruffled collars, but not lace collars. We still see small collars in the 1860s. This began to change in the 1870s. We begin to see larger collars and some lace collars. A good example is an unidentified Salem boy. Another example is a Newark boy. Boys of various ages in the late-19th century might wear lace collars. We note them being worn both with and without floppy bows. It is a collar style common associated with the Little Lord Fauntleroy suits which became popular in the 1880s. Boys also wore them with dresses. An eample is two Rochester boys in 1884. They were worn before that, but as far as we can tell, they were not very common.

The 20th Century

We contunue to see some lace collars in the 20th century, but only the very early-20th century. Ruffled collars were much more common before large fancy collars began to decline in popularity in the late 1900s and 1910s. Some ruffled collars had lace mixed into them. A good bit of the lace we see is cut-out lace rather than the more expensive true lace. After the 1900s, lace collars rapidly fall out of style for boys. We have no images after World War I of boys, even toddlers, wearing lace collars. We continue to see some younger boys with large collars, often Eton or Peter Pan collars, but not lace collars.

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Created: 4:02 AM 2/23/2008
Last updated: 1:23 AM 8/22/2010