Is that a kilt or a dress? Adorable studio portrait of Alick Newberg taken in 1900. Remember young boys and girls were dressed the same until they reached a certain age to make diaper changes easy.
My maternal uncle was born in '29 and did not get pants until he got his first haircut. My mom said he cried and cried when the barber cut off his golden ringlets. He apparently liked getting pants, though :)
It is not a Kilt . If it was, kiIt only comes to mid knee. Also has a Highland Pin. This is a dress which boys wore then.Also it has buttons at the front . Kilts have belts and Buckles .
Gender-blind clothing was utilized due to the fact that most clothing was handmade, and having one set of clothing for both boys and girls facilitated that. Children grow rapidly and by dressing boys and girls in what look like dresses, you have garments that can accommodate a growing body faster than tailored clothing like pants which have a finite waist and inseam. This also represents a time when parents do not develop too much of a personality or identiy for their child as they have a very high chance of losing the child to death. When a child lived through its primary, formative years then they received clothing specific to their gender. When boys are given male clothing it was called "being breeched."
A kilt doesn't have to be of Celtic/Gaelic origin. A kilt is a pleated skirt with a flat waist. It's not a dress. A dress is a one piece garment where the bodice and skirt are attached.
I have a fine charcoal portrait of my grandfather, when he was roughly that age, and around the same year as well. He had a similar large bow on his gown.
It's an oversized kilt that used to belong to his older sister!...I have a picture of my father, who was born in 1918, wearing a lace trimmed dress. Lots of teasing ensued. In the end thankfully he switched to trousers. Today they might have left him in the dress and deemed him "trans-gendered" and left it at that.
For diaper changes, but also because the buttons and buckles on boys trousers and breeches were complex and time consuming to undo. They often weren't recommended for boys younger than 8 or so.
After the "Gay Nineties", 1900 - 1909 was a quieter time
This decade began with a lot of changes: After 63+ years on throne, Queen Victoria died. William McKinley was assassinated and Teddy Roosevelt became President. Wilbur and Orville Wright flew the fir...
Portrait photographs and paintings of our loved ones and ancestors.
Before photos we had paintings of family members - most usually these were reserved for the well off. The era of modern photography began with the daguerreotype, in 1839. Since the advent of photogr...