Figure 1.--This unidentified boy wears an extrodinarily fancy Fauntleroy blouse with ringlet curls. He looks to be about 7 years old, certainly a school age boy. This outfit could have been found during the 1890s, the mount, however, suggests the portrait was taken about 1900-05.

Once breeched, gender is clear because in the 19th century, girls did not wear trousers. Thus no matter how girlish a child in ringlets may look, if the child is wearing trousers, he is a boy. And we see these boys in many different outfits. Two of the most common were Fauntleroy suits and sailor suits, but we also see them wearing regular suits as well. This is complicated because many boys wore refgular suits with some Fauntleroy trim. The stereotypical image is that Fauntleroy suits were associated with ringlet curls. And we see numerous boys in the photograohic record wearing Fauntleroy suits with ringlets. Here there were different types of Fauntleroy suits as well as boys wearing Fauntleroy blouses without jackets. Even so, it is important to note that only a minority of boys, a small minority, wearing Faunleroy suits had their hair dome in ringlets. Most boys despite the stereotype had short hair cuts. Probably more boys wore ringlets with sailor suits, simply because the sailor suit was such a popular style and so many boys wore sailor suits. We also notice boys wearin sack suits with ringlets, usually with a Fauntleroy blouse or trim. Many of the images of boys wearing ringlerts show them wearing suits because they were dressed up. We are less sure just how their hair was done on a normal day when they were not dressed up. Not all boys wore suits with ringlets, we also see fancy Funtleroy blouses being worn with ringlets. Here we see a good excample (figure 1).

Fauntleroy Suits

Some boys wore their Fauntleroy suits with long hair. American mothers commonly did the long hair in ringletds. This is the hair style most associated with Fauntleroy suits. That does not mean most boys wearing Fauntleroy suits wore ringlets curls. The photographed record suggests that it was not. Based on available photographs, we would estimate that ringkets were worn by less than 10 percent of the boys wearing Fauntleroy suits, esven proper Fauntleroy suits and not just suits with some elements of Fauntleroy styling. Because of the illustrations done for Mrs. Burnett's book, however, a strong association developed with long hair and Fauntleroy suits. The ringlets were a kind of loving addition by fawning American mothers. These longer styles were longer than common at mid-century, in some cases worn to shouldr length. American boys with long hair generally had in done in ringlet curls. This was much less common in Europe. Many boys had their curls cut when they were breeched. Some boys such as some of the boys wearing Fauntleroy suits had their curls cut later.

Sailor Suits

Many American boys wore ringlet curls with sailor suits. This was largely because the sailor suit was such a popular garment for boys. They were worn by both pre-school and school age boys. We mostly see this in the late-19th century, but also to some extent in the early-20th century. Mostly we see pre-school boys weating sailor suits and ringlets, but we have noticed a number of scgool-age boys as well. More boys may have worn ringlets with sailor suits for the simple fact that the sailor suit was such a popular widely worn garmet for boys. Not all boys in the late-19th century had Fauntleroybsuits. Most boys did have sailor suits. The fact that many boys wore ringlet curls with sailor suits is primarily a function of how common the sailor suit was rather than an association between tinglets and the sailor suit--as was the case for the Fauntleroy suit. Huge numbers of boys wore sailor suits so we fimd boys wearing them with just about every hair style. Period catalogs are full of pages of differentm styles of sailor suits. The popularity of the sailor suit to some extent cooincided with that of ringlet curls. The age thatvbboys began waering sailor suits was only a year or sonafter we bev brgion ton see younger boys having their hair done in riglets. Of course boys tended to wear sailor suits after they no longer had their hair done in ringlets with few exceptions.

Fauntleroy Blouses

Not all boys wore suits with ringlets, we also see many fancy Funtleroy blouses being worn with ringlets in tyhe photogrphic record. These blouses were very popular. Younger boys wore incredably fancy blouses, almost getting lost in the deluge of lace and flounces in which mother chose to outfit them. Most of the boys were pre-school boys, but we see some school age boys as well. Here we see a good example of a schoo-age boy in the early 20th century (figure 1). Older boys wore somewhat more constrained blouses. . Especially during the summer, younger boys wore fancy Fauntleroy blouses without their jackets. It is likely that many of the boys had jackets, but just did not always wear them during the hot summer weather. A fancy collar and plcket were manin feastures of the Fsungtleroy blouse. The floppy bows wre optionsl. We note these boys both wearing and not wearing floppy bows with their blouses.

Regular Suits

The stereotypical image is that ringler curls were worn with Fauntleroy suits and vloses as well as other juvenile outdits like sailor suits and kilt suits. Very young boy might wear ringlets with dresses. Even with Fauntleroy suits, ringlets were not all that common. But by the late-19th century, the photographic record swas so extensive and America was so prosperous that we have found and archived large numbers of images of boys wearing ringlets with a wide range of different outfits. And this included regular suits, not just the juvenile outfits normally associated with ringlets -- like the elaborate Fauntleroy blouse we see here (figure 1). This was the most common outfits worn with ringlets. But we so see a few worn with the various other suits that older boys wore. We do not see many examples of this, but we have found a few examples in the pjotographic record, mostly before the Fauntleroy Craze era (1885-1905). This is a little complicated because many boys wore regular suits with some Fauntleroy trim. The stereotypical image is that Fauntleroy suits were associated with ringlet curls. Ringlets were much less common than Fauntleroy trim with regular suits. This on the whole was less common than Fauntleroy suits and sailor suits because far fewer younger boys wore regular suits during the Fauntleroy era. Here social class was a factor. Boys from working-class families were less likely to wear Fauntleroy suits and much less likely to have their hair done in ringlets. This was most common with mothers from comfortable middle- and upper-class families with lots of free time on their hands. .

Casual Outfits

Here we have really two questions. First, what kind of casual clothing was worn with ringlets. This of course has to be asked in the framework that peope dressed more formally at the time ringlets were most common for boys. Second, how wasthe hair done on a normalm day. The hair had to be kept long for thev ringlets, but did mothers really go tomall the rouble to roll these baeutiful tight ringles everyb day? It was afterv all a time consiming, tediouys process. Perhaps HBC readers will know something about this. We note one image of an American boy wearing ringlet curks with overalls, but this was before modern conventions had been firmly established.

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Created: 12:59 AM 1/5/2009
Last edited: 1:14 PM 12/31/2022