* Little Lord Fauntleroy suits: American garments jacket types
American Little Lord Fauntleroy Jackets: Small Closed Jackets
Figure 1.--Here we have an undated Maryland cabinet card showing a boy on a tricycle, notice the metal wheels. The mount suggests it was taken in the 1890 which would be consisent with rge boys's Fauntlertoy suit and ringlet curls. The suit is a little unusual. It is a small jacket, but not a cut-away jacket like the standard Faunrtleroy jacket. The studio was Roy's in Baltimore. A HBC reader writes, "Fasciating image. How old would you guess the boy's age is. His face does not have the baby fat of a 3 year old so I am guessing 5 or 6. The curls are ringlets and he has bangs and hair on top of head pulled back in a top knot that hangs down the back (probably another ringlet curl). The large satin or silk bow and the double breasted jacket are interesting. The boy wears ruffled-collar blouse. I suspect the cuffs and collar are attached to the blouse which billows out the bottom suggesting that the trousers are buttoned to an under waist. The knee trousers have cambric cuffs for buttoning the side buttons which makes me think those are more than decorative. He is wearing black long stockings and button shoes. He would obviously not get all than ob=n by himself. Let alone the effort invlved with the curls." Helpful discription. We would guess that the us 4 years old, perhaps 5. Our reader provides a very accurate description, although the knee hem buttons look ornanental to us.
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 double-breasted styling, ab unrelated 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.
