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"Finding Neverland is an elaborately costumed film. We have some doubts, however, about the accuracy of the costumes. We note the berets were worn by the boys. This is an accurate depiction. Many of the other outfits are more open to question. In "Finding Neverland" the boys seem to wear jackets rather than smocks. The costuming differs somewhat by age, but mostly the boys seem to weak Norfolk suits. We also notice some blouses without shirt tails. The boys do wear Eton collars. We notice in the bedroom scenes that the boys wear pajamas rather than nightshirts which would have been more common at the time. We would be interested in any assessments readers may have on the accuracy of the costuming.
We note the berets were worn by the boys. This is an accurate depiction. In the film the berets are depicted, but the boys often do not wear them. We think that at the time that when outdoors that the boys would hsve commonly worn their berets or other heafwear.
We also notice some blouses without shirt tails. The boys do wear Eton collars. Note the blouses work with Eton collars and short tyles. The blouses aree cut short and a belt is worn over them (figure 1). These garments look like short smocks, but we are not quite sure how to classify them. We have never see actual photographs of boys wearing garmenhts like this. The actual photographs of the boys show them wearing garments looking moire like actual smocks.
A reader writes, "I'd say that the smock type costumes were based both upon contemporary family photos and clothing styles worn by boys from 'artistic' families of the period. " I'm not positive, but it seems to HBC that some of the boys seem to be wearing smocks in the scenes where they are casually dressed. The smocj=ks, however, look different than the smocks we note in actual photographs of the children. One curious aspect of the film is that in one scene, three boys wear Norfolk suits, including the oldest and the youngest, but one of the middle boys wars a kind of smock or tunic outfit--I'm not sure quite how to describe it. Mor am I sure why one boy was dressed differently.
Many of the other outfits are more open to question. In "Finding Neverland" the boys seem to wear jackets rather than smocks. The costuming differs somewhat by age. The younger brother here wears a kind of junior suit. We also notice the same suit done in grey. Wecare not sure what this style was called, but we have noted the term junior suit. Mostly the boys seem to weak Norfolk suits. There were both cream and grey colored suits.
The boys seem to be wearing knickers, both with blouses, jackets, and smocks. The boys all wear knickers. This seems to accurately represent what the boys actualy wore. I think at the time many boys wore kneepants. Knickers may have been seen as a bit more sporty.
Before Barie arrived in their lives, the boys appear to have lived a fairly conventional life. Barie introduced imagination and play in their lives, including costumed play. Here we see the boys dressed up as pirates. Of course pirates and the Lost Boys appeared in the eventual Peter Pan story.
The boys are shown wearing black long stockings. This appears to be what the bous actually wore. We are somewhat less sure how common black long stockings were in Britain at the time.
We notice in the bedroom scenes that the boys wear pajamas. Actually is a dream scene with the boys flying off the Neverland right out of Peter Pan. We do not know a lot about nighwear. We think, however, that nightshirts eaher than pajamas would have been more common at the time.
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