Boys and girls were still kept in similsr dresses, even past the
toddler period--often until about the
age of five or six years. Both wore
"dresses" of cotton or wool around the house. Occasionally, a boy's
dress would still be worn
over matching "drawers" or panteletts, which showed beneath the dress, but
less fancy than in the early decades of the 19th Century. The usual child's dress
was long or short
sleeved to suit the season, with slim sleeves, round or boat-shaped
neck and the waist
was lightly fitted with a set-in belt. Preferred fabrics were linen and cotton, for ease of
care.
The Victorians, however,
introduced many new styles for boys. Victorian boys, after they
graduated from their toddler
dresses at about 5 or 6 years of age, were put into various styles of
fancy suits. There was the sailor suits of past generations which the Queen helped to popularize even
more. There were other new styles such as
kilts. Various other styles, including
Russian box pleted tunnics with matching bloomers were also
popular.
Styles were heavily influenced
by Britain's Queen Victoria in the mid-19th Century who dressed her
sons in kilts and sailor suits. Victoria apparently disliked throwing
anything a way, including clothes. Thus the chidren's clothes were
available for the grand children.
The appearance of the kilt for boys was an innovation as it had
virtually disappeared in Scotland.
The Victorians were extremely fond of these styles and there
popularity carried over into the
Edwardian period before the First World War.
As children matured into pre-teen and teen years, their clothing
more and more
resembled that of adults. Tennage boys in the 19th Century increasingly
were dressed in destinctive juvenile fashion, such as knee length pants.
This was much less common
at mid century. Their duties were adult. They were often aprenticed or
went to work by the time they were 12 or 13 years old. There
was no "teen culture" as we now know it. Certainly there was no
particular fad clothing for youth. Boys often wore
hand-me-down clothing of their
parents, unless the family was very wealthy. Even wealthy families
might pass clothes down. Queen Victoria, for example, reportedly
never threw clothes away. In middle class families as well as working
class families, it was usual for
clothing to be passed down
from child to child, even shoes.
Related Links: Careful these links will exit you from the
Boys' Historical Clothing web site
Clothing in the 1830s
Civil War era reenactors
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