Figure 1.--These English brothers are a good indication of how boys were dressed in the 1880s. Notice the age-graded appraoch. This cabinent card is unidentified, but was taken in Newmarket. This mother believed in only dressing the baby of the family in a pinafore, at least for the portrait. Interestingly the baby has his hair done rather like his older brother. Perhaps it was not thoick enough yet to style like his brother on theleft. We do not know what was common paractice at home. Image courtesy of the MD collection.

The pinafore is generally seen as a girl's garment, but younger boys did wear them. English boys except for the very youngest would normally only wear pinnies around the home and not go to school in them like the girls. We do note that some English mothers in the 19th century did also send very young boys to school in pinafores so as not to spoil theie clothes. We see contless girls in contrast wearing pinafores. And girls of all ages. We see girls wearing pinafores for play. And we see girls in school in pinafores so as not to spoil their clothdes. Quite old girls might wear pinnies while only younger boys wore them. Pinnies were commonly worn in the 19th and even early 20th century child's nursery. An English child which soiled his or her pinafore would be described as "messing" his or her pinny. Some mothers only dressed the baby of the family in pinnies (figure 1). Other dressed all the children in pinnies while they were young, especially for everyday wear at home (previous page). Often boys wearing pinnies have not yet been breached, but we do know that some English boys wore pinnies even after breaching. We do not yet have discussions of pinafores from 19th century publications. A reader has sent us an item from a 1912 publication entiteled "Mud-pie pinafotes" suggesting the evolving usage of the pinafore and a new comparable garment for boys--overalls. The subheading read, "Holiday Pinafore and Overalls - When Children are Paddling - The Crawling Child - Pinafores for Boys". The text was, "When a child is told not to soil her frock a holiday is robbed of half its pleasure. Either she has a dull time trying to keep clean while longing to scramble about or engage in rather grubby but very pleasant pastimes, or she gives herself up for lost, decides to disregard orders and have a pleasant time, but with the consciousness that a scolding is sure to come. We are suggesting pinafores and overalls of a thoroughly practical nature not only for the children's benefit, but also for the mother's. The knowledge that the boys and girls can have a good romp without hurting their clothes is a real boon to a busy mother with none too much time on her hands for extra mending and brushing." [Mud-Pie Pinafores] Curiously there was an illusration on the page, but it was not about pinafores, it was a MacIntosh romper, but called MacIntosh knickers.

Sources

"Mud-Pie Pinafores," Every Woman’s Encyclopaedia (1910-12). We do not yet know much about this publication. It was published from 1910-12 in eight volumes. Appearently it dealt 'exhaustively' with domestic matters. From this I think it must have been a serial publication in some periodical. We are trying to find where.

Created: July 10, 2003
Last updated: 4:28 PM 9/21/2017