Figure 1.--This unidentified boy in this cabinet card. He wears what we would call a suit dress. Notice the Norfolk styling. The studio was W. Meyers in New Maysville, Pennsylvania. It wa a very plain cabinet card without a front logo. Notice the early tricycle. Er are not sure how to date the portait, but would guess the late-1880s or early-90s. We do not see trikes being commonly used as props until the 1890s. We are not sure what to call his cap. It looks rather like the caps men wore with smoking jackets.

We are not entirely sure what to call these dresses, but they have details that look rather like boy's suits. The bodies are styled like suit jackets. This we are going to call the suit dresses. We welcome readers who know more about dresses to provide us more information on these drssses. Notably, we do not see girls wearing them. As far as we can tell, they seem to be a boys' dress style. They are different than kilt suits in that suit dresses are one piece garments. We notice these dresses in the late 19th century when Norfolk suits were popular. Thus we see these dresses commonly made with Norfolk detailing. The basic dresses were often made on a A-line basis although some are almost tubular with very little flaring of the skirt. They commonly had self belts.

Created: 6:06 AM 6/23/2010
Last updated: 6:06 AM 6/23/2010