*** United States boys clothes: sack suit jacket chronology 19th century








United States Boys' Sack Suit Jackets: Chronology--The 19th Century

boys double-breasted suit 19th century
Figure 1.--Here we see a fashionable New York boy in 1896. He wears a double-breasted knee poants suit. Note the high-set lapels and flap pockets, three of them. He has a windsor tie and wing collar. The knee pants are stull cut below the knee and worn with black long stockings. Note that the pants do not yet have creases. He looks to be about 10-years old. The studio was Schaidner.

The sack suit first appeared in the mid-19th century. It began as a loose fitting single-breasted garment without a waist seam, but we soon see double-breasted versions as well. We are not sure where they first appeared, presumably Britain. Nor do we know who created the style. These were the two basis styles of the sack suit, but their were countles stylishic redering of these two basic sack suit styles. And the increasingly substantial photographic record provides a detailed decade by decade history of these fashion trends. These suits became popular at about the same time that large numbers of photographic image began to be taken. They were a style worn by school-age boys and adults. The popularity of the single-breasted and double-breasted styles varied over time as well as many other sylistic details, especially the placement and size of the lapels. The lapels were the single most important stylistic variation of lapel suits. There were other details, such as pockets. Flap pockets seem very popular in the 1890s. We see large numbers of double-beastred suits in the 1890s. These suits were worn mostl with long pants and knee pants depending on the boys' age and decade. Knickers were also worn by not nearly as commonm especially in America.

The 1840s

We believe that the sack suit originated in the 1840s, This is a little duifficult to tell, because without photography we have so few images to assess. Ee have found some 1840s examoles, butb so far nothing from the 1830s. Of course this in oart because photigraphy had not yet been invernted. A good example is an unidentified boy dated about 1847. The boy weeas a sark jacket abd a brightly colored plaid vest. The 1840s are almost all Dags, which are difficultb tondate, at least to distinguish between the 40s and 50s. .

The 1850s

The sack suit appeared in the mid-19th century. We see some in the late 1840s, but they seem nore common by the 1850s. So far the earliest examples are all singler-breasted. We are not sure when the double-breasted style appeared. These suits were commonly worn with vests, In the 1840s and 5os the vest coukld be brightly colored or at least contrasting colors. This was a style for oldrr boys. Younger boys wore cit-away jackets. We do not yet have a lot of examples needed for assess trends. They were commonly worn without matching pants. Pattrned pants were common in the 18490smandearly-mid-50s.

The 1860s


The 1870s


The 1880s


The 1890s

Flap pockets seem very popular in the 1890s. We see large numbers of double-beastred suits in the 1890s. These suits were worn mostl with long pants and knee pants depending on the boys' age and decade. Knickers were also worn by not nearly as commonm especially in America. We see very larghe numbers of portraits of boys wearing double-breasted jacket suits. The NewyorknCuty biy here in 1896 us a good examole (figure 1). And not only in studio portraits. We see boys wearing them to school. It was common to erar suits to school at the time in cities. We see a mix of styles, but double-breasted suits were very important. A good example is a portrait taken at the Lowell School. The school portaits are very hrlpful because they provide a good indicator of relative prevalence.







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Created: 5:44 AM 12/20/2013
Last updated: 1:37 AM 2/19/2023