Breeching is an occasion when a little boy first wore a pair of pants or trousers. From the mid-16th century to the end of the 19th or early 20th century, boys in the Western world were unmarried and dressed in dresses or dresses until age varying between two and eight. The relatively subtle forms of difference usually allow others to tell little children from little girls, in codes that can be understood by modern art historians.
Breech attitude is an important ritual in a boy's life, looking forward with lots of fun, and is often celebrated with small parties. This often marks the point at which the father becomes more involved with raising a boy.
Video Breeching (boys)
Reason
The main reason for keeping boys in dresses is toilet training, or lack thereof. The change was probably done once the boys had reached the age when they could easily undo the rather complicated binding of many modern pants and modern trousers. Prior to about 1550 various styles of long robes were generally worn by adult males of various kinds, so boys wearing it may not be said to form different phenomena. Dresses are also more easily made with space for future growth, in an age when clothing is much more expensive than it is now for all classes. The "age of reason" is generally thought to be about seven, and the breech relates roughly to that age for most of the period. Many portraits of Charles Balthasar, Prince Asturias (1629-1646), son of Philip IV of Spain, showed him wearing a pair of pants from around the age of six.
For working class children, about whom we know even less than prosperous people, it may mark the beginning of a working life. The debate between his parents about the heroism of Trisam Shandy (1761) suggests that the timing of the event can be somewhat arbitrary; in this case it was his father who suggested the time had come. The seventh-century French scholar and writer François-TimolÃÆ' Â © on de Choisy, supposedly dressed in women's clothing until he was eighteen years old.
Maps Breeching (boys)
Celebrations
In the 19th century, photographs were often taken from boys in his new trousers, usually with his father. He may also collect small money prizes by going around the neighborhood showing off his new clothes. Friends, mother as many boys, may gather to see his first appearance. A letter from 1679 from Lady Anne North to her widowed and absent daughter gave a long explanation of her grandson's granddaughter: "... There is never a bride to wear on her wedding night more hands about her, some legs and some armes, the taylor buttn'ing and others wearing the sword, and so many observers on which i am not ffinger [ sic ] among them i can not see it.. when he stops the drest he acts his part as well as one of them.... because you can not have the first sight I decide you have to have a full relationship... ". The dress he wore before he called the "coat".
Uncultured boy
The first development, for boys and girls, is when they are abbreviated or taken out of long dresses that come deep under the feet worn by babies - and who have survived as modern baptisms robes. It's not possible to walk in this, which no doubt dictates the time of change. Toddler dresses often feature the main ropes, which are cloth straps or narrow bands attached to the shoulders and held by adults while the child is learning to walk.
After this stage, in the Early Modern period it is usually not too difficult to distinguish between young boys and girls in assigning portraits of the rich, even when the exact identity is no longer known. Little figures of small children in genre paintings have less detail, and painters often have no trouble inserting props that differentiate as they do in portraits. Working class children may be more likely than rich to wear derived clothes used by both sexes. In portraits of clothing colors often keep the rough gender differences we see in adults - girls wear white or pale, and darker boys, including red. It may not fully reflect reality, but the difference in hairstyle, and in the style of clothing on the chest, throat and neck, waist, and often cufflinks, is possible.
In the nineteenth century, perhaps when childhood became sentimental, it became increasingly difficult to distinguish clothing between the two sexes; Hair remains the best guide, but some mothers turn out unable to resist themselves to keep this for too long. At this age breeching age falls closer to two or three, where it will remain. Boys in most periods have short hair, often cut on straight edges, while women's hair is longer, and in previous periods are sometimes worn "up" in adult style, at least for special occasions like portraits. In the 19th century, wearing hair itself became an important transition rite for girls at puberty, as part of "going out" into society. Younger girl's hair is always long, or woven. Sometimes a large or large curl emerges from under the boy's hat. Boys tend to have the side, and the middle part of women.
Girls' bodies usually reflect an adult style, at least in their best outfits, and low corsets and necklaces are common. Boys often, though not always, have dresses that are closed to the neckline, and often buttoned on the front - rare for girls. They often wear a belt, and in times when a woman's dress has a V at the waist, this is often seen in little girls, but not in boys. Linens and lace on the neck and cuff tend to follow the adult style for each gender, although once again the clothes worn in the portrait undoubtedly do not reflect the everyday clothes, and may not reflect the best clothes accurately.
The noble children who are not sisters are sometimes seen wearing swords or daggers on their belts. Speech by King Leontes of Shakespeare The Winter's Tale implies that, as common sense suggests, it can not be drawn, and purely to show:
- He also calls her dress as "coat"; "cote" is a French and English term, dating from the Middle Ages, to older adult male dresses and seems to have been used for boys' clothing to maintain some gender differences.
Usually jewelry is not worn by boys, but when worn it may be dark, like the coral beads worn by the Flemish boys above. Corals are considered by the medical authorities the best materials to use for dental aids, and combined rattle and whistle (in silver) and toothpicks (on corals) can be seen in many portraits.
In portraits even very young girls may wear necklaces, often from pearls. In Van Dyck's painting of Charles I children, only the absence of necklaces and the color of her dress distinguishes the unmarried (four-year-old) James from her youngest sister, Elizabeth, while their brothers and sisters, at the age of seven and six. , has switched to mature style. If there is any doubt, painters tend to give boys a masculine toy to hold such as a drum, a whip for a horse toy, or a bow.
Next step
At the end of the 18th century, a new philosophy of upbringing led to clothing that was considered very suitable for children. Toddlers wear a washable dress called a linen or cotton skirt. English and American children after three may start wearing shorts and short jackets, and for very young boys a skeleton shirt is introduced. It provides the first real alternative to dresses, and becomes fashionable throughout Europe.
The frame suit consists of long pants and tight jackets, buttoned together at the waist or higher; they are not like the monkey clothes that were introduced in the early 20th century. But the dresses for the boys are not lost, and again become common from the 1820s, when they are worn around the knee, sometimes with visible pantaloons called pantalettes as underwear, a style that is also worn by little girls.
As the next stage, from the mid-19th century boys usually develop into breeching shorts - again more accommodating of growth, and cheaper. Trousers suit is also popular. In the UK and some other countries, many school uniforms still require shorts for boys up to about nine or ten years old. Boys' jackets after breeching do not have an adult tail, and this may have affected adult tailless styles developed, initially for casual wear of various kinds, such as jacket-smoking and sports coats. After the First World War, wearing a boy's dress seems to have died, except for a baby.
Gallery
Note
References
- Ashelford, Jane: The Art of Dress: Clothing and Society 1500-1914 , Abrams, 1996. ISBNÃ, 0-8109-6317-5
- Baumgarten, Linda: What Clothing Reveal: The Language of Apparel in Colonial and Federal America , Yale Press University, 2002. ISBNÃ, 0-300-09580-5
- Netherton, Robin, and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, editors, Medium Textiles and Textiles, Volume 3, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, and Rochester, NY, Boydell Press 2007, ISBN 978 -1-84383-291-1
- Payne, Blanche; Winakor, Geitel; Farrell-Beck Jane: The History of the Costume, from Ancient Mesopotamia to the 20th Century , 2nd Edn, pp.Ã, 424-25, HarperCollins, 1992. ISBNÃ, 0-06-047141-7
External links
Media related to Boys dress on Wikimedia Commons
- "Boys Dress" from the Childhood Museum, London. (accessed 17 September 2007)
- MOIFA, Santa Fe. (accessed 17 September 2007)
- Skirt and Breeching, Open University, accessed September 17, 2007.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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