** American Juvenile Eton suits: chronology 1910s








Unidentintified Family Children (1910s)


Figure 1.--Here we see some unidentified siblings, dressed for summer we think in the late-1910s. The children look to be about 7-13 years old. The girl's huge hair bow help date the portrait to the 1910s. This is one of the earliest American Eton suits we have found although mother has chosen more of a Peter Pan collarand the jacket has a touch of Norfolk styling. Notice the boy is still wearing knee pants rather than short pants. By the 1920s these Eton suits were almost always done with short pants.

Here we see some unidentified siblings, dressed for summer we think in the late-1910s. The children look to be about 7-13 years old. The girl's huge hair bow help date the portrait to the 1910s. This is one of the earliest American Eton suits we have found although mother has chosen more of a Peter Pan collarand the jacket has a touch of Norfolk styling. Notice the boy is still wearing knee pants rather than short pants. By the 1920s these Eton suits were almost always done with short pants. A HBC reader had providdd some detaaild comments.

Little Brother: Eton Suit

Little brother looks to be about 7 years old. This is one of the earliest American Eton suits we have found although mother has chosen more of a Peter Pan collar and the jacket has a touch of Norfolk styling. Notice the boy is still wearing knee pants rather than short pants. By the 1920s these Eton suits were almost always done with short pants. One might ask, why is this an Eton suit if the jacket has Norfolk styling. The reason is that an Eton jacket was not always worn with Eton collars. Actually by the 1950s we see more Peter Pan than Eton collars. The primary characteristic of Eton Jacket is a short jacket with a V-front without lapels. It usually is a plain jacket, but the defining characteristic is the lack of lapels. In this case the Eton style lapel-less style is very new, and Norfolk styling very popular. Eton suits were mostly worn with short pants. And we begin to see short pants in the 1910s, but knee pants were still common. Most boys shifted to knickers in the 1910s, buy some younger boys still wore knee pants that dominated American boys wear for several decades. Notice the three buttons at the knee hem. He had white knee socks and white low-cut shoes. Our reader adds, "Notice that the Eton suit has Norfolk styling (the box pleats in front ending in horizontal stitching that runs across the jacket). From the stitching at the jacket cuffs the suit appears to be of a light material possibly linen and not white like his collar, socks and shoes. The three white jacket buttons are very prominent. The short matching trousers have the three decorative buttons at the pants legs. Also white but much smaller than on the jacket. The white Eton style collar is rounded and slightly too large for the boy. Maybe a hand me down or that was the style or purchased for him to grow into it. His white knee socks are of a very light material, I would guess cotton and his white low cut lace shoes appear to be buck and not highly polished. His hair style is identical to his brother."

Older Brother: Sports Shirt

The older brother looks to be about 10 years old. The wears a sports collar blouse with a tie. Sports collars were not made to be worn with a ties, but mothers at the time thought neck wear important. He also wars light-weight simmer knickers with white three-quarter sicks that had colored bands. This was a popular style in the 1910s, mostly for younger children. And he also has white low-cut shoes. Our reader adds, "His older brother wears a sports collar blouse (from the way it blouses out) with a plaid tie (maybe madras material). He wears what I believe are above the knee knickers. It is not 100% possible to tell, but it appears that the knickers lack a fly which would suggest that they are side opening and have elastic at the knees vs. cuffs but that is just a guess. Unlike his brother his socks go only to the calf and have multi colored stripe to them. He also seems to be wearing low cut lace shoes maybe tennis shoes." We are not sure about the shoes. They may be tennis shoes, but not sneakers. It is not entirely clear.

Big Sister: Giant Hair Bow

Big sister looks to be about 13 years old. The girl's huge hair bow helps date the portrait to the 1910s. She seems to have small ringlets and wears a plain white summer dress. She has white knee socks with black patent leather strap shoes. Our reader writes, "The sister wears a huge bow on top of her head a white (possibly pearl necklace) and a white summer frock with a ruffle at the bottom hem of dress and at the sleeves. I believe the sleeves would be called kimono style as they only reach to the elbows. There appears to be a lace collar at the neck. There may also be two front pleats but I cannot be certain from the image. She too is wearing white knee socks but notice the top is rolled down slightly and she has black patent leather ankle strap shoes." We are not entirely sure why she has rolled down her socks.









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Created: 10:44 PM 11/1/2021
Cpell chcked: 2:01 PM 11/4/2021 Last updated: 2:02 PM 11/4/2021