Little Lord Fauntleroy Suits: Knee Pants Suits--Heavier-weight Material

Figure 1.--Here we see three unidentified Ohio children they look to be about 9-14 years old. The boys wear identical knee pantrs suit in a rather loud pattern and very fancy Fauntleroy blouses. Their bigb sister with unusually short hair wears a white dress. It is difficult to make out details in all that white, but there looks to be a large fancy collar and sleeve work. While they all have fancy collars, only the boys have floppy bows. Notice that these are not cut-away jackets. They are jackets made to be buttoned up, but areb left unbuttoned to mshowv of thev fancy frontn placketofthe blouses. The portrait is undated, but looks like the 1890s. The studio was DeWees in Amesville, Ohio. Amesville was a very small village in southeastern, Ohio, smaller than where most photographic studios were located. It would have ben a farming community. Click on the image for a closer look at the jackets and blouses. You have to click the plus button to get the full sized images.

We mostly see suits done in heavier weight suits. A factor here is a much larger proportion of the American population lived in the northern states in the 19th century. This was because without air conditioning the warm climate in the Southern states was seen as oppressive by many. And given the short summers and long, cold winter without central heating, people needed to dress more warmly than is the case today. Unfortunately it is virtually impossible to discern most of the various weaves from a photograph. Velvet and sometimes corduroy are fairy easy to identify, but other fabrics much more difficult. Other weaves virtually impossible. This information is available in catalogs, but they cannot be connected to the photographic record. he only aspect of the material that is easy to identify is the patterns. We do not normally see suits done in loud patterns. We see flat (plain) weaves or very muted patterns. Of course here we are not talking about the iconic cut-away jackets worn with the classic Little Lord Fauntleroy suits, but rather standard suits worn with Fauntleroy blouse and trim. This is the Fauntleroy outfits that school-age boys might wear, at least boys beyond th very early primary years.

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Created: 2:05 AM 12/13/2023
Last updated: 2:05 AM 12/13/2023