Boys' Clothing - A History

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Children once they had passed the toddler stage used to be dressed as mini versions of their adult parents. Frills, ruffles, waistcoats and ties were items that boys wore in just the same way as their fathers and uncles. Often clothes were cut down and remodelled from outfits that older siblings had grown out of but still in the same style. There was miniature room for individuality and boys, as all children then, were seen and not heard. It was a long and hard lesson for mothers and their sons to adjust to the new thinking that children were not tiny adults but a group in their own right with a need for clothes to suit their active exploration of their environment in the garden, at the park, on the street, by the river or poking straight through old building ruins in quest of treasure, intrigue and adventure.

Back then as something passed out of fashion for older boys, mothers persisted in dressing younger sons in it. Thus a single style didn't become old fashioned as much as it became immature and the object of mockery, "You're still wearing kids' stuff!" To illustrate, think back to the use of overalls in 1920s and 1930s rural America. By the end of the 1930s rural teens were increasingly wearing lowly trousers and younger boys still wore overalls, being hand-me-downs, as a matter of procedure for a decade longer. So it was that overalls became identified with younger wearers and by the late 1940s overalls were without fail immature wear, and had become as beloved for urban children as for country boys. Now as a garment in a niche age group the style of overalls had become more immature too, with much simpler and less durable hardware. Arresting a decade on and by the mid 1950s they were worn practically exclusively by pre-school children. The fashion was temporarily resurrected while the 1970s when bands like Dexy's Midnight Runners popularised them again. In the Uk short trousers were the bane of immature youths who felt they were closer to manhood and 'long trousers' though they were compelled by their age group to ill-suited clothing they resented, especially when it recommend immature overtones.

Clothing Active

Now that children and teenagers have sure fashion tastes and a right to be heard, today they are seen in Arresting colours and heard with loud voices wearing clothes that motion to their age group and rejoinder to changes in trends and fashions led by designers and celebrities who are much-photographed in the media. Formal blazers and jackets are no longer de rigueur, if they are in vogue and you can customise them and funk them up then they are worn but it is a matter of preference and selection for boys now. Shorts are something to wear on the beach or when playing sports and no longer an identification of juvenility, except in some hidden schools that still have them as part of their uniform for junior boys along with peaked caps that must be doffed to seniors and staff.

Boys' Clothing - A History