Figure 1.--We don't see lapels until the very late 18th century and then only for men and older youth. This 1798 portrait of Mrs. Noah Smith and her children by Ralph Earl is a good example. The older boy wears a jacket with lapels. The younger boys wear brightly colored skeketon suits without lapels. Click on the image to see the entire painting. ,

The lapel was a relatively modern innovation. There were no lapels on 18th century suits. These suits cold be quite elaborate, but there were no lapels. The suit had become an important garment in the 18th century, but they were done without lapels. The lapel was the creation of the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815). We see lapels just before the the turn of the 19th century, but no one knows for sure who created the lapel. The general belief is that an officer in the heat of battle or perhaps during manuvers on a hot day, opened his tigthly buttoned coat at the collar and folded it back. And so we begin to see lapels in the 1790s. A good example is the Smiyth family in Vermont during 1798 (figure 1) From that point on the lapel became the major feature of men's suits, but not a first on boys' suits as we can see in the Smiyh portrait. We have a few painted poortraits to shoiw the evolving style.