Figure 1.-- This unidentified child looks like a boy, probaby about 3-4 years old. He wars atrioed dress with a waist babd. Notice the very plain sttyling. And how the bodice could easily be a shirt. The cabindet card is undated, but we wiukd estumare was tajen in the 1890s. He akso has a dark straw hat. The studiob was E.R. Williamson in Rochester New York.

We not only see fewer boy dresses at the end of century, but we also see pronounced styles, Most of the boy dresses we see are bery plain. The actual styles of dresses chosen, however, were largely up to the mothers fashion sence. Some mothers dressed even dressed all the children alike. We mostlty by the 1890s see boys wearing plainer styles. The portrait on the previous page is a good example (figure 1). Notice how the boy's dress top or bodice is cut like a suit jacket or shirt. While his sister's dress is cut very differently. Her dress is much more stylish stylishly done in 1890s fashion. Note the shouilder trear=tment. These baloon or puff shoulders were all the fashion for dressed in the 1890s. Some of the boy dresses look more like tunics or kilt suits than dresses. It is often difficult to destingush them. The fundamental differences between boy and girl dresses was that the boy dresses tended to be very plain. Here we see a boyvwuith a vert olain striped dress. Remenbdr this was during the Fauntkleriy Craze. His boduce is stryled like a ahirt. Another example is Arthur N. Taylor, probably photographed in the late-1880s or early-1890s.

Created: 12:12 PM 5/23/2018
Last updated: 10:35 PM 4/27/2023