Figure 1.--This CDV shows an unidentified father (or grandfather) and son. The boy looks to be 4 years old. He wears what looks like a kilt suit. Notice what may be a kilt bottom matches the jacket--it is a little difficult to tell. He wears a glengary cap with a badge, a white bow, pantalettes, white socks, and high-top shoes with his kilt suit. He holds a little toy sailboat. The portarit is not dated, but looks like the 1860s to us. The studio is Robinson & Thompson in Liverpool and Birkenhead.

There are many components to the various kilt outfits worn by English boys. They od course varied as to what kind of kilt outfit ws being worn. Heaswear might be Scottish bonnets--Balmorals or Glengarys. But the headwear was not limited to Scottish bonnets. These of course were not bonnets in the true sence, but the Scotts referred to them as bonnets. Many other non-Scottish caps and hats were also worn. Most Scottish outfits included jackets. The two best known were black jackets with milirary detailing and tweed jackets. There were also kilt suit jackets, but these varied widely. Boys also wore kilts suits with sweaters for casual wear, but this was not very common. The jackets commonly covered shorts and blouses. We do often note boys wearing kilt outfits with Eton collars. there were also jabots worn with formal outfits. Of course the primary component was the kilt, usually a plaid kilt. The exception here was the kilt suit. Often the kilt here had only a vague resemblence to a kilt. Some were really just skirts. Although there was more use of actual kilt-like garnents than in America. There were also a range of accessories, mostly associated with Highland kilts. They included sporans, eagle feathers, plaids, dirks, and pins. Argyle knee socks were often worn, but we also see white knee socks and white ankle socks. We also see grey knee socks as they became so common with school uniforms. We see arange of foowear, including buckle shoes, strap shoes and other shoes. Sandals are less common, bcause kilt outfits are mostly formal wear.

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Created: 3:15 AM 5/31/2019
Last updated: 3:15 AM 6/1/2019