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Queen Victoria married Prince Albert (1840). Looking at the marriage ceremony, there is not a hint of plaid. The children were not long in coming and in large numbers. The Queen is often called the 'grandmother of Europe'. The Crown Princess, Victoria, was born before the year was over. This is important in the history of plaid because fashion in Europe was heavily influenced by the royal families, especially the important royal families. And American fashion while not affected by the frontier, was affected if not set by European fashion, especially British and French fashion. One fashion expert writes, "Another trend that I noticed with Victorians and plaid was that they loved to dress their little ones in it." 【Recollections】 Plaid became an important pattern after Queen Victoria began outfitting the young princes in tartan kilts (1840s). This created a fashion for boys outside of Scotland wearing Highland kilts. The Highland kilt never proved very popular in America, but the related kilt suit would become a major style even more important than plaid dresses. Women wore plaid dresses, but as far as we can tell, plaid was more popular for children's dresses. It took some time for Victoria's children to reach the age that they could wear dresses and kilts, but by the end if the decade the impact on the fashion world had begun. Photography was invented (1839) and we begin to see images (1840s). The industry spread like wildfire, much more rapidly than in Europe. By the end of the decade there were Dag studios in all American cities and an increasingly towns of any size. Dags were expensive, although only a fraction of the cost of a painted portrait. Thus the number while far more than painted portraits was still limited.
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