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As far as we know, plaid desses are a 19th century phenomenon. We have no infirmation on the early-19th century, but with the invention of photograpgy, we do have information by mid-century. Interestingly it is a fashion that was roughly conincident with photography which is HBC's principal source of information. 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 Higland kilt never proved very popular in America, but the related kilt suit did become a major style. A related development was that mothers began using plaid material for children's clothing. We are not sure how common this was in Britain, but we have seen English plaid dresses for boys. We know it was very common in America. Both boys and girls wore plaid dresses, but it was particularly popular for boys. We are not sure about the 1840s, but we definitely see American boys wearing plaid tunics in the 1850s. Mosr of the images we have found are from the secinf half of the 19th century. We think this is when plaid dressesfor boys were the most common, But id ciurse ir is also wheb photographic imnages becane increasingky common. Ogirigraog was obky inbcebted (1839). We are not real sure about the 1860s, but we see quite a number of plaid dresses by the 1870s. The boy's dress here is a good example (fugure 1). We see plaid dresses in many different styles. We continue to see American boys weating plaid dresses through the 1890s.
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