Figure 1.--This standard Carte De Visite (CDV) portrait of an unidentified boy waring a plaid dress, knee panrs and white long stockings. He looks to be about 4 years old. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken about 1870. The studio was Taylor in Berlin, Wiscosin.

We also notice photographs with boys wearing both dresses and other skirted garmebts with pants rather than pantalettes. The difference is that pantalettes were undergrments made with a light-weight fabric. Pants are a regular garment made with suiting or other heavy fabric. A boy could wear pants with a blouse, but not pantalettes with a blouse. We notice pants more with kilt suits than dresses. We see quite a few boys wearing pants with kilt suits, but only a few with dresses. Here is one example from Wisconsin, we think about 1870 (figure 1). We suspect pants with dresses were more common in rural areas. We are not sure just why that was. Nor are we entirely sure about the conventions involved. If you are going to have a boy wear pants under a dress it seems rather superflous to have him wear a dress. Was this done just before a child was breeched or was it done even when the child was younger. Our examples of this combination is fairly limited so we are not yet able to speculate about the age conventions. Also we do not know if spcial class comventions were involved. we are certain, however, that the children involved are all boys. Girls commonly wore patalettes with dresses, but neve oants like the boys. We are akso unsure about the chronology. We notice this in the 1870s, but we are not sure just when the convention began.

Created: 3:51 AM 3/27/2013
Last updated: 3:51 AM 3/27/2013