Figure 1.--All we know about this English CDV portrait is that the photographer was H. Franklin. The portrait was undated, but looks to be taken in the 1860s. The unidentified child looks to be about 6 years old. Because of the ringlet curls we at first get the impression that the child was a girl. We believe, however, that the child was a boy. Boys in the 19th centuty might have ringlet curls. The child is clearly wearing a kilt suit, although the skirt-kilt is unpleated. Girls at the time did not wear boys' clothing and the kilt suit was a boys' garmentt. Also pertinent was the depiction of he child as a student with a book. At the time the emphasis was on educating boys.

The kilt suit was an outfit for boys. The kilt itelf was a male garment and won by both boys and men. And we only see boys wearing kilt suits. Of couse we can not say that girls never wore them, but we see no evidence that they did. The same is true in America for which we have a much larger photographic record. The problem here is that only a few of the portraits have the child identified. In many cases the child's genfer is obvious. Nut some girls had short hair and some boys had long hair. So assessing gender is not as esay as one might think. Kilt suits except for the kilt were very much like the other suits boys might wear. An important fashion consideration at the time was that girls did not wear boys' clothes. Younger boys wore girls' clothes, but girls and women did not wear boys and men's clothes. For this reason we do not think that girls wore kilt suits. And there is no indication in the photographic record that girls did so. We have not found any portraits of children identified as girls. We have found images of some children who look like girls because they have long hair, but as best we can tell they are actually boys.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing kilt pages:
[Return to the Main English kilt suit page]
[Return to the Main British kilt suit page]
[Return to the Main kilt page]
[Return to the Main English garment page]
[Scottish kilts] [Scottish boys clothing] [Scottish school uniform] [Highland dance] [Irish kilts] [Irish boys clothing] [Irish step dancing]
[Greek kilts]

Created: 2:20 AM 8/7/2019
Last updated: 2:20 AM 8/7/2019