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Boys under Five wearing Skirts
One of the most interesting aspects of clothing for young children and babies is that boys were often dressed in girls clothes - in the UK.
I first came across this in Scotland. However I recently came across this in Longleat where there was an exhibition of the Marquis of Bath's family history.
Google: children dressed as girls
Dressed for the photographer: ordinary Americans and fashion, ... - Google Books Result by Joan L. Severa - 1995 - Art - 592 pages At about nine months, children were dressed in shorter clothing in order to give active legs a chance to grow strong. Very little boys and girls were still ... books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0873385128... Unfortunately it is not possible to cut and paste from this article. However it does prove my point with an example from American culture. Dressed for the photographer: ordinary Americans and fashion, 1840-1900 By Joan L. Severa Page 210 Childrens Styles "Untill the age of five, boys were kept in skirts"
Victorian Vintage Clothing: #1784 Boy's wool suit at Vintage Textile
In the Victorian world, little boys under age six often wore skirts. ... from Harper's Bazar (1871) shows suitable attire for a little boy 3-5 years old. ... www.vintagetextile.com/new_page_233.htm - Cached - Similar +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Even as late as 1870, it was still considered proper for an upper (middle) class boy to be dressed in a skirt. But as America approached the 20th century, this was seen less and less. As a newly muscular emerging world power, the United States perhaps felt less comfortable with a feminine image for boys. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Another example with photo of clothing
Boy's linen skirt suit, 1870s http://www.vintagetextile.com/new_page_71.htm The skirt measures: 25" waistband and 15" length.
Figure 1.--Prince Albert Victor of Whales, eldest son of Edward VII in a rather frilly lace trimed dress for a 1868 photograph.
Note the lace trimmed pantalettes and short white stockings. Eddy, as he was called by the family, was a favorite of Queen Victoria. He died at the age of 27, probably a blessing in disguise as his private life would have scandalized the Victorians. http://histclo.com/Chron/c1860.html * It is interesting to see how Americans spell 'Wales' - The Prince of Whales. http://i1.iofferphoto.com/img/item/587/457/51/o_N1210866405.jpg Full page from the Illustrated London News dated 1866 Figure 2.--Low necklines in dresses did not signal that the child was a girl, but rather just reflected the styles of the day. This boy was probably painted in the 1850s or 1860s. The little blue ribbon which is the only signal that the child was a boy. Note the side hair part. While most younger boys might wear dresses, generally it was boys from wealthy families that were kept in dresses the longest. Pantalettes are undergarments covering the legs worn by women, girls, and very young boys (before they were breeched) in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantalettes The pantalettes worn by English boys by the 1860s were worn to show just at the hem of the boy's dress. Little boys in dresses wore fancy hats of widely varying styles, just like those worn by girls. Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web dress pages: [Return to the: main dress page] [Pinafores] [Sausage curls] [Smocks] [Bodice kilts] [Kilts] [Fauntleroy dresses] [Sailor dresses] [Fancy dresses] [Dresses: 16th-18th centuries] [Dresses: Early-Mid-19th century] [Dresses: Late-19th century] [Dresses: Early 20th century] [Difficult images] [Movie dresses] I can only describe this as deeply shocking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there"
The Go-Between is a novel by L.P. Hartley (1895 – 1972) http://histclo.com/Style/skirted/Dress/dresss.html Boys' Sailor Dresses and Kilts Young boys for centuries were oufitted in dresses identical or virtually identical to their sisters. This practice continued throughout the 19th century. The styles of boys' dresses, however, began to become increasingly destinct from those for girls after the mid-19th century. Although some mothers still preffered the fancier styles for girls. There were, however, no clear distinction and if a mother saw a dress she liked, she could buy it for her son regardless of who it was designed for. Many dresses were sold as children's dresses without identifying gender.
I jest of course....truthfully I've never heard of boys being dressed as lassies either back home in Scotland or anywhere else in the UK. If indeed it was a widespread practice, unlikely as it most probably was, I'm pretty damn sure I'd have heard of it during my pretty exhaustive and inclusive study of British social history.
I can't ever in my wildest fantasies imagine my grandfather being dressed as a lassie when he was a bairn, nor myself either and that's for sure!
One of the most interesting aspects of clothing for young children and babies is that boys were often dressed in girls clothes - in the UK.
**************************** That's true. In the 19th Century, it was quite common for British parents to dress their sons in female clothes. There is an 1842 photo of Charles Darwin holding a child in his lap. The child is wearing a dress - but it's his eldest son William. Boys often wore dresses until they were five years old. The photo is here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Charles_and_William_Darwin.jpg/180px-Charles_and_William_Darwin.jpg
It is not to be marvelled at, Robin Michael.
Your mistake is to assume that boys were dressed in girls' clothing. That is not the case. Boys when very young were dressed in the same clothing as girls. Therefore the clothing was neither girls' nor boys' clothing. Only in retrospect does it appear to be girls' clothing, because very young boys are no longer dressed like that.
No, not at all - I had a thick mop of blond floppy hair when I was a wee bairn - I still do in fact, but I'm certain I was never dressed in girly gear - all my baby pics seem to show me wearing things like reasonably masculine blue rompers and tops bearing very laddish looking logos which made it ever so much easier for me to follow my natural instincts of kicking a ball around the garden and being nasty to my older sister.
Please learn to spell my name correctly. |