*** Eton collars: United States








Eton Collars: The United States

Eton collar
Figure 1.--These American children were proably photographed anout 1920. The oler boy wears an Eton collar with his above the knee knicker suit. Notice that he wears a necktie with his Eton collar.

The Eton collar was worn by a wide range of American boys on many different styles of clothes. The Eton suit is th most common, but it was just one of many styles. I'm not sure when Eton collars first worn in America. Based on available paintings and photographs, it looks like collars with an Eton look were being worn by the 1840s, but the more formal Eton collars appear to have been worn somewhat later, about the 1870s. This chronology is, however, just a guess on my part at this point. The Eton collar is generally considered a dressy collar for formal clothes. American boys about the 1920s began to wear some Eton collars on play clothes and a variety of informal ouitfits.

Origins

The origin of the Eton collar is of course the school uniform worn by boys at England's renowned Eton College. Just how the fashion appeared in the United States, I have no details. I think it was largely transferred by wealthy Americans with the time and money to travel to England and or acquire English fashions.

Chronology

I am not yet sure of the precise chronology. I have noted collars with the Eton look as early as the 1840s. I have not noted American boys wearing formal Eton collars during the 1860s. White collars were common, but they were gebnerally smaller and not as stiff as an Eron collar. The earliest Eton collars I have noted in America date to the 1870s the Eton collar had become increasingly important for a well dressed boy's wardrobe. We note them being worn with jackets that had Norfolk styling in the 1889s. The Eton collar was commonly worn through the 1910s, but less commonly. The style was little seen by the 1920s as soft collars made inwards. They were added to play clothes for yonger boys. The only exception to this was the small boys wearing blouses with collars looking like Eton collars and the American Eton suit. American boys wore this Eton suit style with a variety of collars. HBC has noted the Eton collar as late as the early 1950s with a Eton collar. Afterwards the Peter Pan collar became more common. American boys during the 1930s increasingly wore soft collars, but some boys also wore Eton collars with some informal outfits, including sweaters.

Style

We see different types of Eton collars in America. And they varied over time. The classic Eton collar in America was precisely the same style of collar worn by English boys. The classic Eton collar was a detacjble collar that was prominant, large, stiff most;y white collar. The sizes varied somewhat. Many were about 2 inches wide. While large by our modern standards, they were relatively small compared to the lace and ruffled collars many boys wore in the 1880s through the 1900s. These classic Eton collar certainly looked uncomfortable. We see American boys also boys wearing Eton collars thart differed from the classic English Eton collar. We see some that were much smaller and not detachble (1860s). And others that were not nearly as stiff and often much larger than the classic English Etons. Many look to be detachble, but this is not alwts clear from just a studio portrait. The collars began to increase in size (1870s nd then reched extremley large sizes, although notas lrge as some of the enormous ruffled collars. They were cerainly larger than the classic English Etons. Some seem much more pliant than the classic English Etons. They seem to lay down on the suit jacket or blouse rather than rise up at the neck. There are countless examples of both the classic stiff English Etons as well as the lefer, more pliant American Etons. A good example of these more pliant collars are two Massachusetts brothers. We see these pliant collars done as boyth Eton collars as well as rounded tip Peter Pan collsars. As the detachabke collars began to decline in popularity, we see some bli=oses dine with attched Eton collars, smller and mo so stiff. They were worn with the juvenile Eton lpelless suits appearing after wirkd war I (1920s). They became the stndard suit gor youunher oys foe several decades.

Size

We note Eton collars in many different sizes. I think the term Eton collar was primarily related to the shape of the collar. There were, however, oyher characteistics of a true Eton collar so some of the really small and large collars might not be precisely called an Eton collar, but they shaped like Eton collars. We see very small examples in the 1850s when collar sizes were especially small. And we see very large examples in the 1890s when large collars were popular. Some boys wore gigantic collars in the late-19th century. Usually these were ruffled collars. large Eton collars were much less common. The large collars were not as common as the small collars. And they did not stand up like the classic, stiff starched Wton collar. Instead the large collars lay down on the shoulders. We see mostly mid-range collars in the 20th century. The principal exception here was the small collared blouses worn by younger boys with junior Eton suits in the mid-20th century. A good example is the Keefer boys, we think in the 1940s.

Colors and Patterns

The standard Eton collar was a pristine plain white collar. We note some Eton collrs, as least collars done in the Eton style, that were colored and done with patterns. This was a relatively small prtion of the the Etons collars we have found in the photographic record. We can't identify the colors from the pgotograpic record. We can make out the patterns. The most common pattern seems to have been polkadots. The patterned Eton collars seem most common during the 1890s-1900s. We think they my have been more common on the Eton collars that girls wore. We do not know whst colors were used for the polkadots. We do not know yet if there were any age conventions.

Conventions

Some Americans, mostly wealthy northeastern families, did not believe a boy to be well dressed for a formal occasion without a Eton collar. A few exclusive northeastern schools, emulating English schools, required them. They were never as popular in America as in England and always had the image of an upper-class style. We note boys wearing similar wide white cllars, but with rounded collars which woukld be called Peter Pan collars. A good example is two Reading brothers in the 1890s. At this time we can not identify conventins such as social class or age associated with the two different styles.

Neckwear

We see American boys wearing very small collars in the 1850s and 60s done in the Eton shape, but rarely worn with bows. Boys in the 70s might wear a small bow looking like a bowtie with their Eton collars. This changed in the 1880s-90s when boys, especially younger boys, might wear quite large floppy bows with their Eton collars. A good example is two Reading brothers. This was in sharp contrast to England wear bows were less common. Not all boys wore bows with their Eton collars, but many did. A good example is an a American boy about 1890. After the turn of the century, it became more common for American boys to wear Eton collars more like English boys with no bow at all. Boys wearing Eton collars with kilt suits were most likely to wear a bowtie or small bow with the Eton collar. Some boys in suits also wore bows, but I think this was younger American boys and was less common in England. The vertical neck tie was never worn with Eton collars.

American Eton collars
Figure 2.--This boy in a photograph probably taken in the 1890s wears a bow with his Eton collar and kilt suit. Note the number of buttons on his jacket and the lack of any belt.

Hair Styles

Boys wearing Eton collars generally wear short hair. Many mothers in the late 19th Century thought long ringlet curls were an attractive hair styles for their sons. This was usually not the case for boys in Eton collars as most mothers considered the Eton collar a style for older boys and thus usually had the boys's curls cut before buying him an Eton collar. This began to change somewhat after the turn of the Century as play suits began to appear for younger boys. Some of these suits, although designed for play, appeared with Eton collars. I am not sure the Eton collar was similarly used in England. In America the Eton collar was used on many little boy outfits. As a result, some og the boys might have Buster Brown bangs or even ringlet curls--although not the shoulder-length ringlets worn wirh lace collars.

Clothing

The Eton collar was worn with a wide variety of different clothing style. The styles worn with Eton collars included many littkle-boy styles that were not as common in England. Boys in the 19th Century commonly wore dresses or kilt suits until they were 5 or 6 years of age, sometimes even older. Kilt suits were not really kilt suits, but rather skirted suits and not worn with Highland regalia. Highland outfits did commonly include Eton collars There were many different collars employed, especially for dresses. Eton collars were also used for tunics. Boys in the late 19th and early 20th century might wear a dressy blouse with an Eton collar. These were not worn by younger bous who more commonly might wear a ruffled or lace collar. School age boys might wear the Eton collar, although often school age boys up to about 12 or 13 in the 1890s often still wore the more juvenile lace and ruffled collar. After the turn of the century it was more common for these boys to wear an Eton collar instad of the large ruffled collars. After the turn of the century, a number of little boy outfits appeared in the United States. Rompers were one of the most popular styles. Other styles involved short pants. These were initially play suits whichbwere becoming increasingly needed as parents increasingly saw play as a constructive activity for children. American boys wore a wide variety of suits with Eton collars. The number of boys wearing actual Eton suits were quite limited. A much larger number of boys wore single breasted, doubled breasted, Norfolk, and other suits with the Eton collar. One feature of most of the suit jackets worn with Eton collars was that they buttoned to the collar and did not have lapels. Eton collars were most commonly worn by older boys after they had graduated from more juvenile clothes such as tunics, Fauntleroy suits, sailor suits and other styles for younger boys. A boys first real suit by the 1870s or 1880s would often have a Eton collar.

Ages

We do not have a great deal of age information concerning the age of American boys wearing Eton collars. We think it was primarily a school-age style. We see quite a number of boys wearing Eton collars in school portraits, especially in the late-19th and early 20th centuruy. This was especially true in city schools were the boys wore suits. Boys did not dress up as much in rural schools. It was, however, not just scholl-age boys that wore Eton collars. We do note, however, quite young boys wearing Eton collrs in the 19th century with outfits like kilt suits. We are less sure about the upper range for wearing these collars. Our initial assessment is that they were also worn by younger teeenagers. This needs to be confirmed. We have begun to collect assess our archive to determine the age trens. We are also not sure as at just what ahe the Eton collar was most popular.

Uniforms

Eton collars were in some cases worn as part of uniforms. Many boys wore Eton collars to school, but most American schools did not have iniforms. Some private schools had uniforms, but we do not have much information on this. Some may have required Eton collars in the late-19th or early-20th century There were a few boy choirs at about the same time. We notice the St. John's Boys' Choir in Denver, Colorado at about the turn-of-the 20th century.

Individual Boys

We have begun to collect individual recollections of American boys wearing Eton collars.

Eugene Meyer (1880s)

Washington Post publisher Katherine Grahame tells in her touuching memoir Pesonal History about her father's Eton collar in the late 19th century. She writes, "Early in 1884, my father moved with his family back to San Francisco, a city by then of 225,000 with much better educational and medical facilities than Los Angeles could offer the large Meyer family. It was also safer. I remember my father saying of his early days in Los Angeles that everyone carried a Derringer and almost every night someone was shot. But though my grandfather may have been pleased with the move, my father, a young boy of eight, immediately became embattled. He was a loner and a fighter, forced by his family to wear clothes -- including a white starched Eton collar -- that made him look "different." Older boys at school would put the younger ones in a circle, pitting them against each other. The fights would stop only when someone had a nosebleed, and this was usually my poor father. Nonetheless, he was forced to learn to fight to defend himself, all the while receiving severe reprimands from his father for his rough behavior. These encounters toughened him to the point where, when the family moved to Alameda, to improve his mother's health by removing her from San Francisco's fog, young Eugene outfought the local bully, who had previously ruled the playground. This victory had the dubious effect of making him the top troublemaker, both at school and at home. He led the younger children in rebellion against the housekeeper, generally made mischief, and teased the girls, especially harassing poor Rosalie." [Katherine Grahme, Personal History, 1997, chapter 1.] Additional information is available on the Meyer family. Katherine's brother Bill wore knickers as a boy, but apparently no Eron collars.

Pittsburgh brothers (1906)

Eton collars were still quite common in the United States in the early 20 century. This was especially the case for boys from affluent families. Only the younger brother in this Pittsburg family, however, wore an Eton collar. The photograph was taken in 1906. He was about 12-13 years old.

Sears Ad (1945?)

We still see some American boys wearing Eton collars in the 1940s, but it was becoming increasingly rare by the end of the decade. One image from the 1940s was in a Sears Sears long stockings advertisement. I'm not sure when Sears last offered and or pictured an Eton collar, but we would like to know and prepare a page on it,






HBC







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Created: May 25, 1998
Last updated: 4:22 AM 8/12/2015