Figure 1.--Rgus undated cabinet card shows two siblings about 1-7 years of age. The younger sibling wears a long ruffled white dress and has a bow in her hair. The older brother wears a snazzy tweed double-breasted knee pants suit. Note the high set lapels. He has a suit with the two basic components, the matching jacket and trousers. The studio was Rogers in New Haven, Connecticut. We would guess it dates to about 1900-05. .

A suit by definition are matched garments, generally done in the same material and color. And in the Unites States the term is commonly used to mean a formal outfit worn for a range of occassions here it is seen approppriate to dress up, which changed over time. The two primcipal components of thee duit or a coat also called a jacker and trousers commonly called pants in America. The jackets and pants come in a wide range of styles. There are alkso different colors, but a rlatively narrow range for boys. While these are the core component of suit, there are other garments, including headwearand vests (waistcoats). Matching headwear, almost always caps are the least common. Vests used to be very common, but declined in popularity after the 1930s as pat of the increasing popularity of casyal styles. Other items may be coordinated with the suit including headwear, vests, hosiery, and footwear bit are not actually part of the suit. Headwear and vests can be both part of the suit or a coordinated utem bought separatly. This mans that they may be different colors and are dome in different fabrics.

Headwear

Some suits came with matching headwear. Most did not, but matching headwear was seen as stylish. We haven't seen matching hats to any great extent, but colors could be matched if not fabric. And of course sailor hats could be worn with sailor suits. We have seen matching caps in both color and fabric, They were done in various styles. We notice some 19th century suits for younger boys with matching caps of various styles. Tams seem to have been popular. We also see matching caps in the 20th century. A matching peaked cap worn with an Eton or other styled suit was popular during the mid-20th century. A suit with a matching cap seems to have been especially popular with affluent families.

Blouse

We see many younger American boys wearing blouse suits. These were bloises made in suiting material, heavier than the shirtinh matrial of a noirmal blouse. The photographic images suggest that they were the same mnaterial as the pants. Matching material creating a suit. We also see boys wearing just blooses with suit pants but not the jacket, primarily during the summer. These blouses were dome in shirtinhg material and were usually white or a white color. But these are not the blouses for blouse suits. These were blouses worn with suits, both with and without jackets. Blouses suits were made without a jacket. The blouses were made to be worn without a jacket. They tended to be very plain. The blouse suits were done for younger boys and were less expensive than a jacket suit. We believe that the primary appeal was for families with more limited circumstances. Of course we do not have family details from just a portrait. But the way other family members are dressed can give some clues. The blouse suit blouses had collars done in various styles rather than lapels like the boy here (figure 1). We see these bloouse suits in the second half of the 19th century about 1870-1900. They were most common for boys up to about 10 years age.

Jackets

The style of a suit was primrily determined by the jacket style. The skeleton suit was popular in the early 19th century. We notice a variety of fancy styles in the 19th century for younger boys. The principal jacket style by mid-century was the cut-away jacket. We also see collar-buttoning jackets. Many of these suits were detailed with military styling. Of course the best known suit style in the late-19th century was the Fauntleroy suit. A good example is an unidentified American boy about 1870. Older boys' sack suit jackets could be quite plain. One popular style for many years was the Norfolk jacket with pleats and suilts. Eton suits appeared in the late 19th century. A juvenile Eton suit became a popular style for younger boys in the 1920s and continues to be worn today.

Vests

A popular suit component was the vest or waistcoat as it is called in Britain. The vest was an otional suit component. Three-piece suits were common in the 19th century and even early 20th century. Normally vests in the mid-19th century contrasted with the vest. At the time it was also not common for jackets and trousers to match. Color informtion is difficult top obain for the 19th century. We do, however, notice some brightcolors. Later in the decade it was more common for the vest to match the suit, especially after suits became matching jackets and trousers. Many suits were three-piece suits meaning that a vest was included. This has become much less common since World War II. We know less about vests than the other suit components for the obvious reason that they were normally covered by the boys' coat and it became very common by the late 19th century to buton up jackets so the vests were not vissible. We see very few examples of boys wearing vests without suit jackets in the 19th century. This began to change in the md-20th century. We see many boys wearing vests instead of a suit jacket as a kind of alternate outfit for younger boys.

Pants

American boys have worn suits over time with a variety of pants, including knee breeches, kneepants, knickers, bloomer knickers, short pants, and long pants. The styling and popularity of these types of pants as well as the age conventions have varied over time. Knee breeches were common during the 18th century. Long pants were worn during the early and mid 19th century. Knee pants and knicker bloomers appeared in the mid-19th century and kneepants were widely worn at the turn of the 20th century. Knickers gradualy became more important un the early 20th century. Short pants appeared after World war I, but knickers were more populasr. Long pants increased in popularity during the 1930s and rapidly replaced knickers in the 1940s. Of course the ifferent types of pants were worn during the various periods affected by age, family preferences, regional, seasonal, and social class differences.

Created: 10:16 PM 4/16/2014
Last updated: 10:16 PM 4/16/2014