Figure 1.--Queen Elizabeth liked to dress the boys in identical or matching outfits. Leopold wears a frilly outfit with kneepants, but Charles still appears to be wearing a dress styled just like his older brother's knee pants outfit. Note the bangs and curls. This photograph was taken about 1909 when the boys were 6 and 8 years old.

The boys when they were young were outfitted in dresses, as was still the fashion in the years before World War I. HBRC only has a few images of the boys in dresses. They appear to have been fancy white dresse4s with lace and ribbon, at least for formal protraits. One dress that Charles wore was made to march a fancy kneepants outfit that his older brother wore. HBRC has no written information on this, but available photographs suggest that Elizabeth appears to have breeched the boys by the time they were about 5 years of age.

Convention

The boys when they were young were outfitted in dresses, as was still the fashion in the years before World War I. European boys for several centuries wore dresses as younger children. For several centuries the dresses they wore were the same as those worn by their sisters. In the late 19th century especially designed boy dresses appeared. After the turn of te century this custom began to change, but was still quite common in the 1900s.

Styles

HBRC only has a few images of the boys in dresses. We have begun, however, to copile some basic information about the dresses that the children wore.

Plain white dresses

Princecss Marie Jose is pictured in a plain white dress. Presumably the boys also wore similar dresses when they were little. Several formal portraits show Prince Charles wearing fancy dresses. Presumably if the boys wore fancy dresses they would have also worn plain dresses for every day.

Fancy white dresses

They boys appear to have worn fancy white dresses with lace and ribbon, at least for formal protraits. One dress that Charles wore was made to march a fancy kneepants outfit that his older brother wore. Here Prince charles wears a skirted garment that looks like his older brother's outfit, only with a skirted botom rather than short pants (figure 1). We also have a photograph of Prince Charles wearing a fancy white dress with ribbons and lace. Is older brother almost certainly wore a similar dress if not the same one when he was younger. HBRC has no written information on this, but available photographs suggest that Elizabeth appears to have breeched the boys by the time they were about 5 years of age.

Smocks

HBRC does not yey have any photographs of the children wearing smocks. We believe, however, that they probably did. All of the available images are quite formal portraits where the children are wearing their best clothes. Thus they do not show what kind of outfits they wore from day to day.

Matching outfits

Princess Jose Marie was the youngest child. She was born in 1906 before Prince Charles was breeched. I'm not sure if the two were ever dresses identically, but some of the photographs of Charles wearing dresses are quite similar to dresses that his sister did wear.

Leopold and Charles were often outfitted in matching clothes. This began even before Chales was breeched. In one portrait, Charkes and Leopild appear to be wearing matching kneepants suits (figure 1). The outfits look identical, but actually Charles' outfit was a dressed that was styled just like his older brother's fancy kneepants suit. The outfits are colored, probably light blue--although this is just a guess on my part.

Created: June 16, 2001
Last updated: 2:36 AM 9/2/2004