Figure 1.--The dealer thought that this cabinet card portrait was a costumed child theater actor. We think he is more likely a boy in a fancy dress costume. There is more accomopanying information. The studio was Hardy & Van Arnam, Troy, New York. The portrait would have been taken in the 1890s based on the mount style.

We also see boys wearing Highland kilts as a kind of fancy dress costume. Fancy dress was popular among well-to-do fanilies in the late-19th and early-20th centurues. We see several examples in the phorographic record. The image here seems to be an example (figure 1). This were Scottish costumes, but without the meticulous accuracy of the Highland outfits. For these costumes, boys often wore plaid skirts rather than proper kilts. These images are relatively easy to spot because they usually lack the background that tells us that they were being worn as an actual garment in every day life. And they tend to be picture perfect examples of Hughland Kilts rather than something that mother has more or less thrown together based on an often very rudimentary understanding of Scottish fashions.

Created: 12:32 AM 11/12/2023
Last updated: 12:32 AM 11/12/2023