Figure 1.--This tin-type portrait and unidentified merican boy wearing a striped tune dress. The dress has a boyih collr and is wien with an Eton collar. He seems to be wearing matching knee pants or pantalettes. The outfit is completed wuth striped long stockings and high-top shoes. The portrait is undated, but looks kike the 1870s to us. A reader estimates the boy's age at 5-6 years of age. That seems about right to us. We might go to the 5-year pls side of that range.

We see some dresses that seem like tues without reflecting notable body contours, but simply cut stright down. The the size of the chest, waist and legs are all about the same dimensions--giving theappearance of a tube. We are not sure what this style was called at the time, tube is our term. We will change it if we discover what the style was called by contemporary sources. We do not know about the chronology, but note some examples in the 1880s. These dresses were in a variey of styles and detailing. Some were done with double-breasted styling. We have not yet archived sufiencr examples to know how common this was. We see some done with collars. We are not sure about the gender connotations. We think girls also wore these desses, but this needs to be confirmed.

Created: 6:00 AM 3/13/2015
Last updated: 6:34 PM 3/13/2015