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United States boys clothes: suits chrnology 19th century 1850s jacket suit pants
United States Boys' Suits Chronology: The 1850s--Jacket Suit Pants
Figure 1.--This Ambrotype portrait shows an unidentified boy, presuably in the late-850s. We do not know where the portrait was taken, but the individual is obviously a farm boy. He wanted to be photographed with his pet sheep. Ofcourse a decade later we begin yo have cinflicts between cattle barons and sheep herders.The boy wears a rounded crown hat with an unusually large crown. He has a dark collar buttoning jacket worn with light-colored check pants. Suits with jackets and pants that did notbmarch were common in the 1850s. The unidentified studio seems very basic.
There are two characteristics that match boys' suit pants in the 1850s, length and pattern. Often the suits we see in the 1850s had jackets and pants that did not match. We see here a boy with matching suit pants, but much more common were suits that did not have matching jackets and pants. In fact they were often done in contrasting colors. Patterned pants (stripes and checks were also common. This was so common that we suspect that it was not just a matter at purchasing the garments at different times. This seems to have been a concious fashion decision. This is not to say that there were no suits with matching jackets and pants, just that they were less common. And we tend to see the matching suits mostly in the latter part of the decade. Ambros and tin-types appeared about 1855 so were most taken in the late 1850s and early-60s. Younger boys might wear suits with bloomer knickers or long knee pants, although they were not yet very common outside of fashionable larger cities. Most boys, even younger boys, wore long pants. Most Dags and Anbros show boys wearing long pants, although this is not always clear because of the posing conventions. The image s were dominted by the head and torso. Most boys wore long pants. Long pants suits were by far the most common. Assessing the pants is a little difficult because posing conventions often cut off the pants. This was the general pattern in the 1850s. Beginning in the 1860s we begin to see more differences betweem cities and rural America. These shortened-length pants were a style more popular in Europe.
Often the suits we see in the 1850s had jackets and pants that did not match. This means both the color and if there was a pattern matched. We see boys with matching and unmatching suit pants on the previous page. Here we see a boy with a jacket and pants that did not match but in two desinct colors (figure 1). The most common were suits that did not have matching jackets and pants. This can be clearly seen in the substantial photographic record even before the appearance of the ubiquitous CDV in the 1860s. We do see many matching suits in the 1860s, but this was not the case in the 1850s. Suit pants were often done in contrasting colors. Of course we can not tell about the colors, but blue, brown and grey were probably the main colors. While we can not tell what the colors were, we can tell for the most part wether the colors match. And usually they did not. Non-matching pants were so common that we suspect that it was not just a matter at purchasing the garments at different times. We see patterned pants (stripes and checks) in the 1850s. The convention was to have either matching jacket and pants or a solid colored jackets and patterned pants. As far as we cam tell, most suits were solid colors. Unlike colors, patterns can be seen in high quality portrais. Many Dags and Ambros are, however, not high quality so it is not always easy to make out the patterns. These include some bold patterns, but our general impression is that the bold pattrns were more common in the 1840s because we see more examples in Dags.
Length
Younger boys might wear suits with bloomer knickers or long knee pants, although they were not yet very common outside of fashionable larger cities. Most boys, even younger boys, wore long pants. Most Dags and Anbros show boys wearing long pants, although this is not always clear because of the posing conventions. The images were dominted by the head and torso. Most boys wore long pants. Long pants suits were by far the most common. Assessing the pants is a little difficult because posing conventions often cut off the pants. This was the general pattern in the 1850s. Beginning in the 1860s we begin to see more differences betweem cities and rural America. These shortened-length pants were a style more popular in Europe.
