American Little Lord Fauntleroy Suits: Garments--Jacket Types

Figure 1.--This American boy wears the classic cut-away jacket as part of his Fauntleroy suit. It was of course designed to show case the fancy Fauntleroy blouse. In this case the ciffs were part of the blouse.

A variety of jackets could be worn as part of a Fauntleroy suit, rather complicating our discussion of Fauntleroy jackets. Some jackets were specificically designed to be a Fauntleroy suit. These were the small cut-away jackets designed to show off the fancy Fauntleroy blouses. Others jackets were just the standard suit jackets made to look like Fauntleroy suits by adding the fancy trim. Thus actually identifying a Fauntleroy suit and jacket is a little complicated. The variety of jackets used somewhat expanded the ages at which Fauntleroy outfits were worn. The classic Fauntleroy jacket was a small cut-away velvet jacket. This was the classic Fauntleroy suit worn by younger boys. There were other small open front jackets, but not done in the cut-away style. Older boys also wore fauntleriy suits, but not wih the classic cut-away jackets. The Percy boys are a good example about ages and the choice of jackets. We also note collar-buttoning jackets worn as Fauntleroy outfits. We also note boys wearing sack suit jackets with Fauntleroy trim added. Any jacket could be worn and made to look like Fauntleroy outfits by adding a fancy blouse or pin-on collar. Many of these jackets could be worn with other collars for an entirely different look.

Classic Small Cut-away Jackets

Some jackets were specificically designed to be a Fauntleroy suit. This was primarily the classic cut-away jsackets. Cut-away jackets becam very poplar in the 1860s. At the time, however, they were not worn with fancy blouses. The cut-away jacket declinerd in popularity during the 1870s. This changed in the mid-80s when Mrs, Burnett publidhed her book and poplarized the Little Lord Fauntleroy style. This revived the popularity of the cut-away jacket. The small cut-away jacket was perfect to show off all the details of the the fancy Fauntleroy blouses tht rapidly became popular. The classic Fauntleroy jacket was a small cut-away velvet jacket. The jackets were cut in many different ways. They differed in the angel of the cut and how much of the blouse was exposed. The jackets also has both sharp and rounded corners at the waistline. Theu also varied in length. Commonly they were short enough that the Fauntleroy bloused actually blouced out between the bottom of the jacket and the waitline of the pants. The jackets also varied in size. Some were dominated the outft. Others were quite small and almost engulfed by the fancy blouses. Of course this was also affected by the blouse. Some of the jackets were plain and others were heavily embroidered. Some had pockets. They were worn modstly open, but has different types of attachment at the top. The classic suit was done in velvet, but other materisls were used. This was both to create less expensive suits and an effort to use lighter-weight jackets for the summer. Some mothers preferred, however, to just let the boys wear the blouse without a jacket during the summer. This is probably why most of the Fauntleroy suits we see had dark, often velvet jackets. We also normally see younger boys wearing these classic Fauntleroy jackets. They were not exclusively worn by younger boys, but the vast majority of portraits we see were worn by pre-school boys.

Figure 2.--This unidentified boy looks to be about 8 years old. He wears an open-front Fauntleroy suit, we think in the 1890s. The studio was Jas. Campbell in Oxford, Indiana.

Closed Small Jackets

The classic Faintleroy suit consisted of a small cut-away jacket designed to show off the fancy front of the elaborate Fauntleroy blouses. This is the vast majority of Fauntleroy suits that we have found in the photographic record. Of course fauning mothers and fashion designers are endlessly creative. And we note small jackets with closed fronts. One we found had doublr-breasted styling, ab unrekated styke thatvwas very popular during the Fauntleroy-Craze era. As with the standard suits, the jackets were small, often not reaching to the waistline. These were not at all very common. In fact they are so rare, that we are not sure that they were manufactured or manufactured in any numbers, so strong was the desire of mothers to show off the front of the beautiful Fauntleroy blouses. The ones we have found may be the product of home sewing which was common at the time. That does no mean that the mothers did the sewin. Some of these biys came from affluent families who had hired home help or who patronized dress makers rather than the stores with ready-made clothing.

Open Lapel Jackets

There were other jackets that we see being worn open to show off Fauntleroy blouses. These do not appear, however, to be actual Fauntleroy jackerts or jackets that were made vto be worn open. These were jackets that were not done as small jackets in the the cut-away style. These jackets commonly had lapels. As far as we can tell they were the standard lapel jackets worn by boys at the time. We have not seen a great deal written about these jackets. They fell far below the waistline, a little above mid-thigh. This contrasted with the cut-away jackets which were cut at waistline level. They looks to be suits tat could be buttoned, but were worn open to show off the fancy blouses. As the boy grew older, they could be worn buttoned with a less juvenile blouse and collar. We do not often see boys wearing these lapel jackets buttoned when wearing Fautleroy blouses, in large mmeasures because mothers wanted to show off the blouses. We are still assessing the blouses worn withbthese jackets, but this seems to be the general convention. Most look to be double-breasted jackets. Some look like they could be buttoned, but were just work open to show off the fancy Fauntleroy blouse. We are not entirely sure about this. They may have been especially made as Fauntleroy jackets. Often the elaborate blouses cover up most of the jacket so it is not always easy to tell. We hope to acquire more information as HBC expands. Jackets were almost always woire buttoined except as Fauntleroy suit.

Figure 3.--This boy wears a standard double breasted suit. His suit had very high-set lapels. a popular style at the time. The lapels are covered by the large ruffled collar. The boy was from Waconia, Minnesota. T.J. Burfield was apparently the photgrapher.

Standard Lapel Suit Jackets

Not all Fauntleroy outfits employed Fauntleroy jackets. We see many boys wearing standard suit jackets made to look like Fauntleroy suits by adding the fancy trim, especially large white collars and commonly matching wrist cuffs. Any jacket could be worn and made to look like Fauntleroy outfits by adding a fancy blouse or pin-on collar. Many of these jackets could be worn with other collars for an entirely different look. This was useful for boys who could then wear the jacket as he got a little older. These included standard sack suit jackets with lapels. These were plain suits, but were done with many different variations including lapels and pockets. Here we usually see double-breasted rather than single-breasted jackets, but there was no definitive rule. Suits in the late-19th century often had high-set lsapels, thus when covered by a large collar te jackets also look like collar-buttoning jackets. Thus actually identifying a Fauntleroy suit and jacket is a little complicated. The variety of jackets used somewhat expanded the ages at which Fauntleroy outfits were worn. These jackets were not especially desgned as Fauntleroy suit jackets. So the Fauntleroy blouse could easily be replaced with other types of blouses and shirts, giving a more mature look. This enable the mother to use the jacket over a wide age range as well as hand-me-downs. A good example is Harmon King about 1899.

Figure 4.--This American boy wears a collar buttoning jacket with Fauntrleroy trim added. Fauntleroy blouses could not be worn with these jackets. So pin-on lace collars were popular. Note the sash added here. Also note the matching lace cuffs which were not part of a blouse.

Collar-buttoning Jackets

We also note collar-buttoning jackets worn with Fauntleroy trim. These were not Fauntleroy suits, but regular suits worn with varios Fauntleroy trim items. The Fauntleroy items like large collars and floppy bows were so visually overwealming that it fives th impression of a Fauntleroy suit. The collar-buttoing jacket became popular in the mid-19th century. There were different styles. At first we see a military style jacket, blue with a prominant role of brass buttons. After the Civil War (1861-65) non-military colar buttoning hackets became more popular. They were worn until after the turn-of-the 20th century. We also note collar-buttoning jackets worn as Fauntleroy outfits. Here they were somewhat limited as a Fauntleroy jacket, bt we are still assessing prvlence. It is not always easy to determine the type of jaxket. This is because the collars and floppy bows were often so larrge that th topp of the jacket is covered up. and some lapwl jackts had small, high-set lapels. Fauntleroy blouses were not worn with these jackets. There is no sence buying a fancy, expensive blouse for a boy if his jacket buttons at the collar abd covering it all up. As a result, it was normally pin-on collars worn to give a Fauntleroy look. This might mean a lace collar (figure 4). There were also pin-on ruffled collar, but the ruffled collars are more associated with th Fauntlroy blouses. We see a range of ages wearing these Fauntleroy collar-buttoning jackets. They included pre-school boys, but also boys in primary school. This in basically reflects the basic age range for collar-buttoning jackets.

Open Sailor Jackets

We notice boys wearing open-front saior jackes as part of Fauntleroy suits. These jackets are similar to the open lapel jackets described above only with sailor jackets. This was a formal outfit. The examples tend to be boys that are very well dressed, we think from affluent families. This is not a Fauntleroy style we noticd at first. It looks like a cut-away jacket which was the classic Fauntleroy suit. And a fancy Fauntlkeroy blouse dominated the look, especially with the open front. Thus the ovewealmng impression is that of a Fauntleroy suit. If you look closely, however, what you have is a an open-frontd sailor javket. The sjackets are dome with a range of sailor serailing, Many but not all have the traditional three-stripe detailing. All of the jackets have the V-front and back flap. Often this is covered up by large Fautleroy ruffled collars that ar part of the Fauntlerpoy blouses. Floppy bows are also commonly added with cover up more of the jacket. We notice these jackets mostly in tghe 1890s and early-1900s. We see these jackets in Europe as well, especially Germany.

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Created: 10:18 PM 3/4/2010
Last updated: 11:59 PM 6/29/2020