Figure 1.--Thus unidentified boy wears what we believes to be a jacketed dress and lace collar with matching lace cuffs. The dress seems be made to look like a kilt suit. The skirt is pleated. The cabinet card is undated, but looks to have been taken in the late-1880s. NOtice the Funtleroy lace collar. He wears black long stivkings abd high-top shoes. On the table you can see a tin toy horn and wood blocks, popular toys at the time. The studio was Chandler in St. Albans, Vermont.

Some dresses were made with matching or contrasting jackets made to be worn together. We are not entirely sure they were actual separate jackets. We see many women and girls wearing this style. They were also worn by boys. The jackets and dresses were done in many different styles. At times the jackets are easy to identify. At others times it is a bit more difficult, depending on the pose of the portrait. The jackets worn by girls and women tended to be small, not extending below the waist. These jacketed dresses look somewhat like kilt suits. Some of the these dresses were pleated, futher suggesting a kilt suit. We believe that this was done intentially as the kilt suit was such a populr style for boys during 3-4 decades. We note boys tended to wear larger jackets with their kilt suits which did extend below the waist. The small cut-away jacket was commonly used. for these dresses, at least when girls and women wore them. We are less sure about boys. The images we have found of boys seem to often have larger jackets than the boys.

Created: 2:48 AM 2/12/2013
Last updated: 2:48 AM 2/12/2013