Figure 1.--This unidentified English boy wears an Eton collar with a single breasted jacket. It has rather the look of a cut-away jacket, albeit there are buttons which could be closed. He wears knickers as part of the suit. It could be a school uniform. The cabinet card was taken in the Lauder studio in Liverpool. The portrait is undated, but we would estimate was taken in the 1900s, based on the mount style. Here we have a better fix on dating American cabinet cards than British cards.

We see many English boys wearing other jacket types worn with Eton collars. The Eton collar was so popular that in the late-19th nd early-20th century, just about every type of jacket was worn with Eton collars. Some may have been school uniform jackets, but this is difficult to tell jnless we have a group portrait. And other schools did not wear the same jacket the Eton boys wore. They were not precisely Eton jackets, but have to be considered in our assessment. Actually this is a bit complicated because some jackets may have had some features of the classic Eton jacket. The Eton collar is just a dominant style, that it rather gives the impression of an Eton suit, no matter what the type of jacket that is worn. Some may have even been called Eton jackets oe Eton suits. We see some jackets done with a variety of Eton jacket features. And we see other jacjets without any Eton features at all, only that pristine white Eton collar. with

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

Created: 12:20 AM 7/11/2011
Last updated: 12:20 AM 7/11/2011