American Advertising for Boys Clothings: Sleepwear (1916)


Figure 1.-- We note Best & Company, offerings in their 1916 Spring and Summer catalog. There are night shirts, night drawers, and pajamas. The nightgowns were for boys till age 10 and night shirts were for older boys. They had 1 piece pajamas till age 10 or so. There were girl and boy pajamas, but the gender differences wee not at all pronounced. The pajamas were done without collars and with oriental detailing.

Nightshirts were the dominant sleepwear in the 19th century. This changed, we think, about the turn of the 20th century. Pajamas were the dominant sleepwear for boys by the 1910s, but nightshirts were still available. We note Best & Company, offerings in their 1916 Spring and Summer catalog. There are night shirts, night drawers, and pajamas. The nightgowns were for boys till age 10 and night shirts were for older boys. They had 1 piece pajamas till age 10 or so. There were girl and boy pajamas, but the gender differences wee not at all pronounced. The pajamas were done without collars and with oriental detailing.

Sleepwear

Boys have slept in a variety of different garments. Many people slept naked, but by the 19th century, nightshirts were very common. Men and boys who wore night clothes for several centuries slept in similar night shirts. Boys and girls also slept in similar nightshirts. Only in the 20th century did children begin to wear pajamas and did specialized children's sleepwear developed. Pajamas appeared in the late 19th century and steadily increased in popularity. The primary sleepwear garments for most boys by the 1910s was pajamas, although there were variatioins from country to coybtry. There are several different styles of pajamas. There are also specialized sleepwear for younger children such as sleepers. This is not a topic that HBC has had time to reserch in detaoil yet, although we welcome reader comments.

Best & Compamy

Best & Company was an important New York Department store which had a large mail order business. Here we see some of their sleepwear offerings from the 1916 Spring and Summer catalog. There are night shirts, night drawers, and pajamas. The nightgowns were for boys till age 10 and night shirts were for older boys. They had one-piece pajamas till age 10 or so. There were girl and boy pajamas, but the gender differences were not at all pronounced. We suspect that there was another page that offered women's and girrls' sleepwear. Girls' pajamas were probably added here because pajamas (which of course had pants) were primarily seen as male attire. The pajamas were done without collars and with oriental detailing.







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Created: 9:47 PM 4/30/2005
Last updated: 9:47 PM 4/30/2005