Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows an unidentifid boy about 4 years old. He wears a kilt suit with what appears to be a plaid vest. The pleated kilt is also done in a muted plaid. The kilt matches the vest rather than the jacket. The studio was Arthur Glines, Boston, Massachusettes. The portrait was taken in 1890, the date is printed on the back of the card.

We notice a range of garment worn with kilt suite. This includes both the suit garments meaning primarily the top and kilt-skirt garments. We also notice the many associated garments that were not part of the suit. The two basic kilt suit garments are the tops and kilt-skirt bottoms. We see a range of both. We also see that the boys often wore suit jackets with the kilt suit. Thre were various types of suit jackets. Some were specifically done to be worn as kilt suits. Others could just as easily be worn with knee pants. we also see blouses done in a heavy material than a normal blouse, but this as not always the case. We also notice the kilt/skirt garments bottoms. They were done in a range of tyles from actual kilts to plin skirts and many permutations in between. While the tops ahd kilt/skirt bottoms were the two pricipal kilt suit garment, they were not the only one. We also see many wearing vests. They were optional, but very common. We notice many different styles done in both contrasting and identical fabrics. As these were suits, the jackets and kilt-skirt often matched, but this was not always the case. The boy here has a solid color flannel jacket and plaid vest and kilt-skirt (figure 1). We also see many kilt suits with matching jackets and kilt skirts. A good example is an unidentified Minnesota boy about 1895. Associated garments incluse headwear, neckwear. collars, hosiery, and footwear. We notice boys wearing aramge of headwear with kilt suits, including tams and sailor syles, although commonly we headwear is not in the portrait. Many boys wore floppy bows although neckwearwas optional. Most of the portraits show the boys wearing dark, probably black, long stockings. Most boys wore high-tip shoes.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing kilt pages:
9[Return to the Main American kilt suit 1890s page]
[Return to the Main American kilt suit chronology page]
[Return to the Main American kilt suit page]
[Return to the Main kilt page]
[Lace collar] [Floppy bows] [Cut-away jackets] [Kilt suits] [Stiped long stockings] [Shoes]
[Scottish kilts] [Scottish boys clothing] [Scottish school uniform] [Highland dance]
[Irish kilts] [Irish boys clothing] [Irish step dancing]
[Greek kilts]

Created: 5:07 AM 3/30/2013
Last updated: 3:32 PM 3/10/2019