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Brothers and sisters have been dressed in a variety of styles. Usually but not always the girl wears a dress or skirted garment. This means that brothers and sisters rately were dressed in identical outfits. We only see that in a few occasssions with very young boys. Boys on the other hand have worn much more diverse garments. So what we see
with brother-sister outfits is almost entirely coordinated outfits. With the detailing of different garments being coordinated. Tunics for a shorter period were a popular garment for boys that could be coordinated. Sailor suits were especially popular in these corrdinatred outfits for a much longer period. Not only styling could be coordinated, but color was also used as a coorrdinated fashion device. Coordinating the color can make even entirely different garments look like a similar outfit. Of course, all of this has changed over time with the varying fashion trends developing. The populatity of different garments changed, but the way of coordinating thev varying garments did not. One major shift in modern times has been the tendency of girls after World War II to just wear skirted garments. With girkls weraring opants, the possibilityn of coordinating outfits increased, although the popularity of tthis fashion conventioinn hasc feclined as well as family size.
Some parents liked to dress the children alike or in coordinated outfits. This convention was limited depending on the gender and age of the children. Often the approach was used with different outfits for the boys and girls. Sometimes styles could be coordinated. Here a popular choice was sailor styles. One of the limitations here during the 19th century was that girls did not wear pants (trousers) and only younger boys wore dresses. The age at with boys wore dresses, however varied from family to family. Thus we do see some mothers who dressed the entire family in dresses, sometines identical dresses. Brothers and sisters until the turn of the century might wear matching dress with few or very little differences. Younger brothers paired with older sisters were the most common, but sometimes it was an older brother. After the turn of the century, boys were less commoly attired in dresses and the dresses that were worn were plainer. Thus mothers might outfit a girl in a typically fancy dress with the required huge hairbow while the boy might wear a plainer Russian blouse outfit. There were other alternatives such as smocks. This was not a common approach in the 19th century, but we do see some instances of it in the photographic record. More common was age grading, but we do see anumber of families with all the children in dresses.
Some very young boys wore pinafores. Thus was not a common way of dressing brothers and sisters alike.
Smocks were a very common way of dressing all the children in a family, or all the younger ones, alike. This varied greatly, however, from country to country.
HBC has not noted photographs of brothers and sisters in matching rompers. We have noted photographs with the girls wear ing matching dresses/smocks and rompers. A romper suit in fact, except for the bottom can be quite similar. A good example is a 1957 French romper/dress pattern.
The kilt was initially a boys' garment. HBC has noted, however, girls wearing them by the 1890s and they may have done so earlier, not extensively. The fact that kilts were not worn by girls and the kilt outfits differed so greatly from dresses mean that there was relatively linmited opportunity to coordinate ouitfits.
Girls of course did not wear Eton suits, although we have seen the Eton collar used as fashion statement on girls' blouses and dresses. We have not yet seen this style used to any large extent in coordinating brother-sister outfits. We do not one example in a German catalog. These junior Eton suits were very popular for younger boys in America, but were never done as brother-sister outfits. They were exclusively boys' garments.
Boys began wearing sailor suits in the mid-19th century. At first it was an exclusively boys' outfit. Subsequently some sailor styling was employed in girls' cloothing. We have not seen, however, large number of girls wearing outfits looking ike traditional sailor suits. This changed after the turn of the 20th century when more and more girls began wearing middy blouses with skirts. There were alsomsailor dresses. The middy blouse with bloomers was widely used as a girl's gym uniform. These outfits were style like traditional sailor suits. As a result, there was increasing possibiities of coordinating brother-sister outfits. There were probably more girls wearing middy blouses in the 1920s than boys, at least in America. There were sustantial variations among countries. We have noted coordinated brother-sister sailor outfits as late as the 1950s, but rarely see them since the 1960s except infants.
One of the eaiest garmets The easiest garments to coordinate were vthe tops, both blouses and shirts. This was the case because until after World War I in the 1920s boys and not just girls woreb blouses. But even afer boys, even younger boys, began wearing shirts, itbwas fairkyb easy to coordinatev blouses and shirts. Just using the same color or patterns made the garments look similar even if the collar and shoulder sleeve treatment was different. Another option was to coordinate a boy's blouse/shirt with the bodice of a dress.
Some play clothes such as smocks and rompers were worn by both boys and girls. Other outfits were quite detinct, but could be coordinated. Beginning in the 1960s, girls began adopting boys' styles for play--especially jeans. With the onsent of the more casual styles, however, little thought was given to coordinating outfits.
One particularly easy way to coordinate brother-sister outfits were sweaters. Sweaters became a very popular children's garment in the 20th century. Sone sweaters could be styled for girls or done in colors popular with girls. But sweaters could be a uni-sex garment. And we see bothers and sisters wearing identical sweaters in bold colors. Some colors are identified with girls, but there are many colors worn by both boys and girls. And to make brother-sister outfits, the boy's pants can then be easily coordinated with the girl's skirt by simply matching the colors. Matching knee socks when short pants are worn can complete such outfits.
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