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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.
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 might wear quite large floppy bows with their Eton collars. This was most common for youngr boys, but we see older boys into their younger teens wearing them. We see large numbers of boys wearing large Eton collars are Eton-like collars with floppy bows in the 1880s and 90s. A good example is two Reading brothers. This was in sharp contrast to England wear bows were less common. 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. This was the general pattern by the 1910s.
We note American boys wearing Eton collars both with and without neckwear. We are not precisely sure of the conventions involved. It seems to have been primarily the fashion sence of each individual mother. Not all boys wore bows with their Eton collars, but many did. We think this may have been more common in America than in Europe. American mothers seemed to have preferred the fancier look with the bow. And the Eton collars do not look as stiff as those worn in Europe, especially Britain. A good example is an a American boy about 1890. We seem to find more American boys wearing Eton collars with neck wear than without neckwear, but this is just a preliminary assessment. This changed after the turn-of-the 20th century. And Eton collars rapidly went out of style in the 1910s. This is different than was the case for the younger American boys that wore Eton suits after World War I. They mostly wore Eton or Peter Pan collar blouses without neckwear.
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. Suits with Norfolk styling seem especially common when we see boys wearing Eton collars.
American boys wore a range of neckwear types, including stocks, cravats, bows, ties, nd other items. We primarily note boys wearing floppy bows or bow ties when wearing Eton collars in the photographic record. There were different types of both. Some of the floppy bows in the 1880s and 90s are so large that we can barely make out the collar. The bows were done in a great variety of patterns and colors. We note different styles of bow ties in both colors and black. The vertical neck tie was rarely worn with Eton collars. We rarely see any other types of neckwear other than bows, in some cases large floppy bows, and bow ties bing worn with Eton collars.
The age conventions do not seem to be particularly important concerning Eton collars and neckwear. The Eton collar was primarily a style for schoolage boys. The upper age for the Eton collar seems to be about the same as the upper age for floppy bows. Thus we see younger school-age boys as well as younger teen agers wearing Eton collrs and floppy bows. As far as we can tell the same age range held for the oyjer popular style of neckwear with Eton collars--the bow tie. Younger boys wore noth bow ties and floppy bows, although floppy bows seem nore popular in the 1880s and 90s. Teen agers might continue wearing bow toes as they got older and stopped wearing floppy bows. They also, however stopped wearing Eton collars as well.
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