Figure 1.--Belgian Princes and Princesses are pictured here in a 1911 photograph. The boys wear matching Fauntleroy suits with large ruffled white collars. Note the old-style knee pants, but cut above the knee. They were worn with three ornamental buttons.

The classic boy's Little Lord Fauntleroy suit required a lace collar worn closed at the neck and, in America, usually worn with a large neatlt tied bow. Lace could, however, be quite expensive. This would be particularly the case as the size of collars for boys dress party suits incrreased in the 1880s and 90s. The lace for a large collar and matching wrist trim could significantly increase the price of a suit. And boys being boys, one can only assume that a boy could and often did make a nmess of his collar and bow when the cake, ice cream, and lemonade was passed around. For the rich it perhaps made little difference, but middle class mothers may have looked at it quite differently. One alternative which became increasingly acceptable at the turn of the century was a large ruffled collar instead of the more expensive lace collar. Not only was it less expensive, but the ruffled collars after the turn of the century were often worn without the bows in a comfortable looking open fashion.

Figure 2.--This Belgian Prince wears a open collared ruffled collar in a photograph taken about 1920. Ruffled collars were common in the late-18th and early 19th centuries. The style was revived in the 1910s, but was mostly worn by aristocratic or wealthy boys on the Continent.

Younger boys in the first decade of the 20th Century continued to wear Fauntleroy suits with lace collars. The styles for the collars changed significantly after the turn of the century. The enormous collars and bows began to decline in size. The collars did not become small, but they no longer engulfed the entire top of the boy's jacket. In addition, increasingly mothers began to choose plain ruffled rather than lace collars. These ruffled collars were worn in a comfortable open style during the 1910s and the early 1920s. I do not know why the lace collars and bows declined in popularity and the open ruffled collars became more popular. The ruffled collar style appears to have been most common on the Continent, where it was mostly worn by aristocratic or wealthy boys on the Continent. The Belgian princes were often dressed in this style as were boys in France. It was also occasionally seen in Britain and America. but was not nearly as popular as on the continent.

Ruffled collars after the turn of the century were less commonly worn with large wrist collars, especially by the 1890s. The one exception here was Fauntleroy suits. The Fauntleroy suit continued to be worn with both ruffled collars and wrist ruffles through the 1810s.

Created: March 12, 1998
Last updated: March 10, 2000