Fashion in the 1880s: How Men, Women, and Children Dressed • FamilySearch (2024)

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How did children dress in the 1880s? ›

What Did Children Wear in the 1880s? Infants and toddlers, both boys and girls, wore dresses. Dresses were usually long and white and were used because they allowed toddlers to move and play. At age five, boys were introduced to pants, a tradition known as breeching.

During the early 1880s, women wore their hair in chic updos and tidy chignons, particularly as many dresses and bodices had high collars. Tall, narrow hats, trimmed with bows, flowers, feathers, and often stuffed bird specimens, perched precariously on heads.

1890s Fashion for Teens and Children

Boys wore pants with Norfolk or lounge jackets. Girls typically wore dresses with leg-o-mutton sleeves, cinched waists, and flowing skirts. The skirts on girls' dresses were shorter than their mothers' dresses and gradually lengthened as they grew older.

Flat-chested women were about to become fashionable. Hats were small, worn over neatly coiled hair. Evening dresses were often low cut, supported only by shoulder straps and made in exotic materials and colours. The man's lounge suit fits tightly and still retains its long jacket.

Full-length trousers were worn for most occasions; tweed or woollen breeches were worn for hunting and other outdoor pursuits. Knee-length topcoats, often with contrasting velvet or fur collars, and calf-length overcoats were worn in winter.

Children's Clothing in the 1880s

Then, as they became toddlers, both girls and boys were dressed in skirts or dresses. These long gowns were usually white cotton, which made them easy to bleach and wash. White caps, adorned with lace trims, ruffles, or embroidery, were equally common on infants.

Along with her nightgown and cap, a lady might sleep in silk hose, wool stockings, and drawers. (There were pockets crafted that could be tied into the crotch of drawers, suspended from the drawstring front and back. In the pocket would be a handkerchief or some kind of absorbent wadding.)

But, in the nineteenth century, women started wearing a form of trousers again. These were worn only for horse riding, although they wore full skirts on top of them to keep them hidden. By the 1880s, women in the West finally started wearing trousers for leisure activities.

While there were some women who championed pants in the 19th century, pants as an acceptable everyday clothing option for women didn't truly catch on until the mid-20th century. The adoption of pants as a popular item of dress for women in Western society traces its roots to the mid-19th-century dress-reform movement.

Like their mothers, girls often wore dresses with padded bustles. Similarly, boys started with short trousers that lengthened as they grew older. The older they got, the more they dressed like adult men.

Why were little boys dressed like girls in the 1800s? ›

Children were to remain innocent (translate “sexless”) as long as possible. In many old photographs it is difficult to tell boys from girls. It was very common for children to remain in this state of dress until they entered formal school or even later if the boy was schooled at home.

It is much easier to change a diaper with a dress than pants and during potty-training it would be easier for the child who didn't have to fumble with button closures on breeches. Another reason for imitating women's style was that it illustrated the dependence of the child on his mother.

The main reason for keeping boys in dresses was toilet training, or the lack thereof. The change was probably made once boys had reached the age when they could easily undo the rather complicated fastenings of many early modern breeches and trousers.

A typical Victorian schoolgirl would wear a black, knee-length dress with a white cotton apron over the top (often trimmed with lace) and long black stockings. Her shoes would have been flat and boot-like, and she may have worn a bonnet on special occasions. More often, though, she would wear white ribbons in her hair.

Here are the reasons. Potty training. It's easier to teach a baby how to poop in a bucket when he has skirts instead of pants/breeches. Easier to remove.

By the early 1800s, babies were taken out of swaddling around 3 months of age and put into “slips,” which were long linen or cotton dresses with fitted bodices and full skirts that were several inches longer (many up to a foot longer) than the child's height. These “dresses” were referred to as “long clothes.”

A typical Victorian schoolgirl would wear a black, knee-length dress with a white cotton apron over the top (often trimmed with lace) and long black stockings. Her shoes would have been flat and boot-like, and she may have worn a bonnet on special occasions. More often, though, she would wear white ribbons in her hair.