Figure 1.--This Boston boy, Frank A Castle, wears a short tunic-style jacket. Notice how the emroidered decoration is repeated on the bloomer knickers which are blouced well below the knee an worn with white stockings. Thus portrait is undated, but was taken in the 1860s, oprobably the late-1860s. Notice the bloomer knickers.

The tunic was basically a plain, utilitarian garment without a lot of decorative trim. While we are not sure about the origins, the tunic was an imprtant boy's garment for more than a century. Although it seems to have been more of a garment worn by middle-class than working-class boys. There were some exceptions concerning the plain styling of these garments. Mothers being mothers, many could not restrrrain thenselves from adding some decorative trim. This is a little difficult to assess, because in the early-19th century when tunics seem to have been particularly popular, photography had not yet been developed. Thus we have very few images to work with. So we are not sure about decortion during this period. We see some examples that were very plain. We note them bring worn to school, but this was at a time when public schools systems in which working-class children could attend were not yet fully established. We do note two periods of decotative styling for tunics. One was the 1870s when diagonal styling providing opportunities for decoration. Then there was the early-20th century (1900-20) when mothers began adding lace and ruffles to dress tunics. Clearly this was the impact of the Fauntleroy craze. We also see embroidery used to decorate the tunics. A good example is the Wisconsin boy on the previous page. Here we see a Boston boy with a simple saw-type stitch decoration (figure 1). We also notice Illinois boy Dayton Sizer, Jr. Mother has added a flower embroidery to a diagnonal element. And we note various other decoative trim added. Another example is an unidentified boy in 1908. Notably many of the examples we have found do not come from the fashionable northeastern cities.

Created: 4:00 PM 1/9/2023
Last edited: 3:25 PM 1/9/2023