Figure 1.--Here we see an unidentified English boy wearing a blouse with a kilt or skirt. He looks to be about 6 years old. It is a good example as to how the English boys wearing kilt outfits tended to ncome from well-to-do families. Alnost all boys this age who were in school or about to begin school had been breached. The fact that he is still wearing a skirted garment suggests that bhe is being tutired at home. The skirt that he is wearing may have been called a kilt at the time because it looks to be pleated. We have not found many images like this becaue mothers usually dressed up their children in their best outfits. The portait is undated, but looks as if it was taken in the early-1890s. The 1880s is possible because Penny Farthing bicycles were being replaced with modern bicycles by the late-1880s. The studio was W & D Downey in London.

Some English mothers bought kilts for their sons for casual wear. This was part of the convntion of dressing younger boys in skirted garments. It had been a convention persisting for centuries and continued throughout the 19th century, although began to decline by the end of the century. This inclided several skirted garments including dresses, skirts, kilts, and tunics. We see English boys wearing kilts like skirts with blouses. We suspect that these kilts were seen by many mothers as just a plaid skirt. Some may have liked the Scottish connection. They may have been part of an outfit like a kilt suit or Highland kilt outfit, but just the kilt worn for everday or in the summer in warm weather. This is a little difficult to tell as casual kilts, especially in England, were mostly worn in the 19th century before the the family snapshot became tecnologically possible. This meant that most of the photographic record was studio portraits. And usually mothers dressed the children up in their beat outfits to go to the photographic studio. Thus casual clothing is under repesented in the photographic record. Again this was mostly boys in affluent families. This may have been most common for English families which spent time in Scotland or the north of England.

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Created: 6:49 PM 8/10/2019
Last updated: 6:50 PM 8/10/2019