Figure 1.-- The unidentified boy here is shown standing in front of a studio prop wood fence. He wears a kilt suit with the jacket open so we can see his matching vest. The vest does not have a bottom notch and buttons at the collar. Notice the large lace collar and rather small bow. He holds a walking stick in his right hand. The photographer was D. Hinkle, Germantown, Pennsylvania. The portrait is undated, but we would guess dates to the 1870s. Click on the image for an enlarged view. A reader asks how old the boy was. We would guess 4-5 years.

Many kilt suits were worn with matching vests or waistcoats for our British readers. At mid-19th century contrasting vests predominated, but by the 1870s when kilt suits became popular, matching vests were almost universal. Some boys wore blouses without vests, but vests were very common. We know less about the vests as they were normally covered by the jacket. We know that contrasting vests were less common. The construction of the vests, however, is often difficult to ascertain because the vests are usually covered by the jackets. As best we can tell the vests were collar-buttoning garments. Boys at the time did not wear neckties, thus vests did not have V-front cuts. The buttons extended from the waist to the collar. The number of buttons varied. Some vests at the waist notch while others were cut straight along the bottom hem. We are not sure how the back was done. Boys wearing kilt suits with a vest, sometimes wore the jacket open or partially open. We do not, however, note boys wearing just the vest with the kilt-skirt. We see blouses and kilts, but not vests and kilts. The vest may have been worn seasonally, but we are not positive about that as few of the available images are dated.

Prevalence

The vest was an optional item. We see kilt suits both with and without vests. Vests seem to hve been the most popular option, but we alo e kilt suits without vests. The Fauntlrroy Craze created a desote for boys to wear fancy blouses rather than vests. The choice of jacket made a difference. Collar buttoning jakets were not worn ith vests. Cut-away jackets and lapel adack suit jackets often were worn with vests.

Vest Options

Many kilt suits were worn with vests or waistcoats for our British readers. The vest was an optional garment. Some boys wore blouses without vests, but vests were very common. We know less about the vests as they were normally covered by the jacket. The vests could be matching or contrasting material. We know that contrasting vests were less common. We also see a variety of cuts or styles. The construction of the vests is often difficult to ascertain because the vests are usually covered by the jackets, but we often can see the front of the vest. The buttons extended from the waist to the collar. The number of buttons varied. Most vests buttoned at the collar while others had 'V' front, in some cases with lapels. As best we can tell, most of the the vests were the collar-buttoning style garments. Boys at the time did not wear neckties, thus most vests did not have V-front cuts. At mid-19th century contrasting vests predominated, but by the 1870s when kilt suits became popular, matching vests seem almost universal. Some vests had a front waist notch while others were cut straight along the bottom hem. We do note a few vests done like cut-away jackets. We are not sure how the back was done as the photographic record only shows the front of the vest.

Prevalence

We note quite a few boys weating vests with kilt suits. The vests were very common. We do not yet have a good fix on prevalence, but it seems that simethinh like about half the kilt uits wrre done with vests, at least a substantoal number were.

Convenventions

The vast majoriaty of kilt suits were worn with suit jackets. We see many different styles of jackets, but most of the boys wore some kind of jacket or jacket-like blouse. The primary exception is that during the warm summer month, boys were allowed to wear just blouses with their kilt suit kilt-skirs. We have found only a few instances of boys wearing just vests with kilt-suit outfits.

Kilt suit jackets

Vests were very common as part of kilt suits. The great bulk of the vests we have noted as part of kilt suits were worn with the jackets. We believe that most kilt suits were sold with jackets and that the vests involved were three piece-suits sold woith jackers. The fact that the matetial matches almost ertainly means the were sold together as three-pice suits. We notice diffeent styles. They were mostly worm with jackets. Boys wearing kilt suits with a vest, sometimes wore the jacket open or partially open. In these instances were get a giid view of the vests. Often the jackets were buttoned or partially closed. Almost all of the kilt suit images in the photographic record show boys wearing suit jackets and to a lesser extent just blouses, probably during the summer. This is a little difficult to tell with any certainty as the jackets often cover the vests or almost all of the vests..

Vests without Jackets

We do not note boys many boys wearing just the vest with the kilt-skirt. We have found very few exceptions in the phoographic record. We see blouses and kilts, but rarely just vests and kilts. his is very rare in the photograpohic recird. he vest may have been worn seasonally, but we are not positive about that as few of the available images are dated. It is possible that the photographic record, which is mostly studio portaits, may not accurately reflect actual conventions. It could be that mothers wanted images of the boys dressed formally and not how they might actualy dress informally during the summer. We have found onlyh a few images of boys wearing just vests without jackes when wearing kilt suits. More likely, however, the jackets were commonlky worn as kilt suits and not just the vests. Like the jackets, the vests seem to have been done in the same material as the kilt skirt. Nor are we sure if there were any noticeable trends regarding the kilt-skirt styling. They were not very common, but not unknown. We see boys wearing cut-away jackets even small cut-away jackets, but vests are realtively rare. We are not sure just how common vests in general were for boys, at the time, at least worn without a jacket. We do not have enough examples yet to know anything about chronological trends.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 1:07 AM 5/15/2008
Last updated: 9:22 PM 12/8/2014