Figure 1.-- Here is a good example of confused styling, in this case on both the top and skirt. The boy has a bit white collsr and bow and front buttons run up to the collar. Yet if you look close, there are also the stripe detailing of a "V" front sailor collar. Notice the second bow where a dailor scarfe would be tied. The kilt skirt is also interesting. Note the twin column of burrins which were often used on American kilts, but in this case the vuttons seemed sewed on and not part of a frint kilt pannel. The cabinet card portrait shows an unidentified boy with best friend, a black lab. Not studio is indicated. The portrait is undated, but looks like the 1880s. The back drop is interesting here. They tended in the 1870s to show fancy indoor studies. Here we see a backwoods cabin like this boy's parents may have lived in as children.

Our analysis of boys' clothing attempts to delineate desrite stuyles so they can be studied. Actual garments are not always destinctly styled. In fact we find garments that are a bit of a muddled, combining features of different styles. Here kilt outfits can be confusxing. The kilt suit which was popular for several decades seems to be a case in point. There were dresses made to look like kilt suits. We see all kinds of jackets and blouses worn with them as well as a variety of kilt-skirts. Many skirts had no kilt styling while some to futher confuse the sitiation had mock kilt styling.

Created: 6:17 AM 5/24/2010
Last updated: 6:17 AM 5/24/2010