The image all came out of old delineator magazines from 1898-1899. The archives are available for free online! Please also keep in mind before you WELL ACTUALLY me that this is a one minute video so of course there’s a ton more information/ nuance to the topic that isn’t going to fit in a single 60 second video. For example children’s “corsets” did exist but were more like a stiff cotton vest than what we would think of as a real corset. Boys under five also did sometimes wear trousers, both were certainly an option.
Didn't they put boys in "short trousers" as well as skirts? Depending on the day and activity of course. And what class you were in. Isn't that the reason that boys in the Royal Family, under 10, 11 or 12 (I can't remember off the top of my head), are only really seen in shorts/short trousers, in and out of school, unless they're going to a function - like attending Wimbledon for example, and are required to wear proper trousers? I know there is some strange etiquette rule in there somewhere, but I forget what the specifics are
@@thesewloartist Lol it's so funny what Americans don't know. I thought the fact children wore aprons was as much common knowledge as women wearing corsets
And boys had their curls cut at around that age. There's a family photo from the early 20th century. One little boy looked about 2 and had his curls in two bunches with ribbons, although he was wearing a sailor-suit with short trousers. I'll bet he hated that picture!
I grew up in a very formal clothing wise. My dad wore a dress when he was little thank you for posting this. So many people don't realize that the photos of the baby or children of their dad uncles brothers couisns and friends are not always little girls. So many people tell me they found lots of photos of girls none of their dads. Their shock when I tell them it very well could be their missing family photos
I have a photo collection from Victorian era. I have seen both genders in aprons / pinafores. And I find my hill people were slower to change styles. Both often have mullet hair cuts. I have seen it all !. It taught us so much. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
The childrens clothing styles were often based on simpler adult styles - wrappers and sportswear - especially when quite young. Hence you can see very dressy garments in very simple silhouettes
the skirts for all kids makes a lot of sense. theyd be way easier to adjust for growth compared to pants, which you cant really adjust at all lol, which would save money and time in the long run.
Mothers were advised to use pleats and tucks that could later be let out and put back for their kids clothing and never to cut, only to hem or piintuck, clothing that was currently too big for their child. Part of building your bridal trousseau and then preparing for a baby would be making a few of these size-adjustable outfits, then each pregnancy would be making sure they were 'reset' again.
I do a lot of genealogy and I actually have some old family photos of little boys wearing ruffled white dresses. One of the photos is of my Great Grandfather as a baby, taken around 1924. Another is of my Great-Great Uncle taken around 1915. It can make it difficult to figure out who is who in old family photos where there are alot of children because its hard to differentiate the girls from the boys.
I was about to ask this! Thanks for the info. How was it different, more “relaxed?” I can’t imagine not wearing a bra or corset by the time I was like 12.
@@jenel4282usually very lightly boned or corded with more flexibility. Similar to an exercise corset or “health corset”/“couch corset” they’re more flexible and less rigid, and often have more options of adjustment for growing bodies. Most of them did not have the rigid busk down the center until teen years, but instead had hooks and eyes or buttons, and from my experience making and wearing these types of corsets along with the more “rigid” ones with the busk, you cannot tight lace the buttoned “soft” ones AT ALL. It’ll rip the buttons off or rip the eyelets out. It is extremely gentle and just comfortable pressure/support around the torso. Despite what a lot of biased and misinformed articles will say, people were not tightlacing their children or “molding their bodies to be ideal when they’re older” with the adolescent corset, it’s pretty close to a tight vest in terms of pressure, it wasn’t permanently altering ANYTHING about their bodies. And all of the ones I’m seeing for children as young as 6 yrs are all straight sided with no waist shaping, it seems like it’s just something to get them used to the feeling of wearing something around their torso like that. They gradually increase the waist and bust shaping as the girl grows up, and by 16-17 they’re considered adults, so they’re most likely getting their first REAL grown up corset around that time. Not even to mention, corsets in general don’t change anybody’s body shape permanently unless you tight lace TRAIN for YEARS in a dangerous way, and even then, it will eventually shift back to its old shape if you leave the corset off long enough. And as an avid fan of corsetry, if your corset is pinching you in any place or it is hard to breathe, it doesn’t fit. Period. A good fitting corset should have room in the bust and hips for breathing and movement and/or bust/waist padding/“improvers”, and the waist should be the only thing that you can feel more pressure from, the rest should feel like a hug. The waist shouldn’t dig in like a tight waistband, but have even pressure all around with no pain, and a lacing gap of 2” or less at the back, with no more than 3” waist reduction (most people get 1-2”, but some have longer waists and more room to squish), after that you’re in tightlacing territory. Always start breaking in your corset like a new pair of shoes by wearing it laced just tight enough to fit comfortably, for longer and longer each time, stopping whenever you start to feel a bit sore. It will eventually mold to your body and get very comfortable and you can start to lace it tighter/to what you’re comfortable with as the fabric relaxes. Sorry that’s a lot of information that was probably not 100% relevant but it’s a special interest!
@@jenel4282 Liberty bodices were relatively snug-fitting, similarly to corsets, but had no bones. Sometimes they had cords sown on to provide a little reinforcement. They were basically "training corsets", although grown women with jobs, like housemaids, would apparently also sometimes wear them, for the extra "liberty" they allowed in bending at the waist.
The increased ruffles, pleating, etc make sense with smaller children because thats fabric you can let out as they grow, so the garment is usable for a much longer period of time
I need SO much more info on this! The novel I'm writing features children between the ages of 3 and 14, coming from different times in history (late 17th century to early 20th century) And it's been a PAIN trying to find a good variety of references
Old magazines from the period always have a ton of info for kids! You could look up Ladies Home Journal archives and it’ll have pics of their clothes, info about games that children played, and the advice for mothers might be useful too! It talks about the kinds of food for children for example, or how to nurse a sick child. You can get them for free on internet archive 😊
That's true you can even see in royal baby boys photos wearing "dresses" it would not be for my children if I have any. But that was the fashion in those periods.
Modern children’s clothes have elastic waistbands and snaps and all sorts of other advantageous features that weren’t available in the 19th century, so you have more options for your potential future children than people had back then.
Well...ACTUALLY...I have a Tremendous Admiration both for your Intellectual Acumen as well as the depth and breadth of your historical research ...AND your passion to display it so brlliantly! YOU win the Internet Today!! On behalf of all your FANS.. Thank you for many hours of joy, entertainmentand intellectual stimulation🎉❤!
Boy have things changed... It wasn't until I was 21 that people started treating me like an adult. 18 - 20, they were concerned for my well-being and kept telling me that I was "really mature for my age."
I like that you pinned some extra information on the time period, etc, in the comments, but I feel like not even briefly verbally or visually mentioning the time and places during which this pattern of clothing children was common makes it more likely to lead to confusion or overly generalized views of the past in a casual viewer. Other than that, I thought it was a fun and informative video with great visuals!
I wonder if there were girls who started wearing corsets earlier because they developed faster or if they had a solution for this. I needed a bra really early so I can imagine a well-fitting corset makes a huge difference in daily comfort.
Corsets or stays were worn earlier. At about age 5, the skeleton suit would be introduced for the boys and stays or corsets would be introduced for the girls. Which actually makes a lot of sense to get the body used to the added pressure and different feel of a suit or stay as compared to the childhood dresses. Edit, I love your outfit, by the way.
I actually have a picture of my great-grandfather, born in 1898 though I think he was about 3 in the pic, wearing a dress-type outfit when he was really little. I love history bites like that
As someone who disliked putting her tiny daughters in dresses, because she could tell it delayed and frustrated their ability to roll over and crawl and learn to walk, I have to wonder if, with all that bulky clothing, children were mobile consistently later than they are in the modern day?
One might think. I wore tristeppers, which actually hurt. But as long as they aren't painfully fitted/ ill Fitted kids are so resilient. My nephew hated hats. If you put one on him, it was seconds and he would have it off. Lol !
Babies were sometimes kept from being mobile early in life... Think of swaddling. For a working woman,it might be that any amount of time the baby is strapped to you and not crawling around your un baby safe home is a win.
@@mikeymullins5305 in an era of non-babyproofed homes, leading strings existed to keep your child from toddling into the fire or knocking over the lamp. But yes, babies too young to crawl or toddle were kept immobile frequently, but they were also often just kept in playpens like we do today.
Dresses wouldn't stop me climbing a tree! Back in my day girls would run, cartwheel, and ride bikes in skirts and dresses. Better for female hygiene too.
@@user-gt2eq7zb9qI've seen corsets run $150 and up. You MIGHT find one cheaper, but it's keeping an eye for sales. If you are looking for a modern silhouette still look "modern" try a push up bra and a girdle. Also go for lacy blouses from the 70/80s the Gunne Sax dress was a romanticized version of Victorian dress
You can find free patterns or cheap patterns in the internet, and fabric in the thrift shop curtain section. Look around in your local secondhand groups for a sewing machine - you don't need any fancy one to begin.
Do remember that for earlier years, you would wear training corsets for almost your whole life, and I do remember seeing something about a baby corset but I don’t remember where I saw that
Children’s “corsets” did exist but they were more like a stiff cotton vest than what we would think of as a real corset. They usually buttoned up the front and were stiffened with cording instead of metal. Kids also wore something along the lines of a chemise (although they did look a little different) which had a fitted top and a full skirted bottom. I imagine for smaller busts that would provide a little bit of stability.
Some girls (depending on time and location) were wearing corsets younger than 17. They appear in diaries of younger girls who presumably developed faster than their counterparts. This is also a fairly middle class and up group described in the video, working class girls could be in positions as servants at a younger age and were not exactly considered 'children'. They'd be wearing something like the pretty housemaid corset along with their uniform.
Toddlers of any gender wore stay bands (basically a soft unboned corset, stiffened with cording and cardboard), with girls transitioning to more adult-like corsets during childhood.
But I really have to wonder what underpinnings girls between the ages of 12-16 were wearing when they weren’t grown enough to wear a corset, yet still developing, physically, as young ladies. I have seen one example for a sort of ‘training corset’ with a gathered bust… It’s possible that girls then just experienced puberty differently than we do now, but I know that my own bust was fully developed by the time I was 14, and the idea of having little choice but to wear an oversized training bra until the age of 17 - it sounds unpleasant to say the least. Surely there had to’ve been something that girls of the past wore that was just as supportive as a corset without actually being a corset.
I was always under the impression that dresses were more difficult to crawl in, so babies stayed put a bit more easily. No idea if that's actually true or just some hold over idea in my weirdly "old fashioned" family.
Do you have information or resources on men and boys fashion from the late Victorian era or Edwardian? I’d like to learn more but whenever I try to research I can’t find very much
im not expert but from what ik they typically wore something similar to what you see English style horseback riders wear during shows, not as sure abt it for the Victorian era but it was what was worn during Regency, and most of the images i see of men from the Victorian era are in a similar get-up
😮 This makes so much sense! How come our dress "devolved" in a sense? All this practicality thrown out the window. I would've loved clothes i can grow with. I hated shopping and always felt weird in new clothes anyhow, wondering how goofy i looked.
Laura Ingalls said the corset wearing started about 14ish. No exact age, but in one of the books Mary told her she needed to sleep in her's so she could have a nice figure......which Laura basically said she was crazy and she hated that thing.
My dad wore something similar till he was 6 in the 1960s. It was a dress but he wore tiny shorts underneath...so I suppose it was more like a smock than a dress ^^"
Could you cover girl scout uniforms? I recently was telling my little brothers about some of the goofy sh*t we were told back when I was a "Brownie" (terrible name btw)
Brownies are called that because a brownie is a type of fairy that is very fun and helpful, there's a whole story behind it! But I agree, she should do a video on this.
There were pregnancy corsets that were formed so that they wouldn't put pressure on the belly and just hold up the breast or even give support to the belly and back. I saw a RUclips short about them somewhere and they look really comfy tbh And i don't think corsets changed the bones of anyone because _people didn't tight lace them_ that's a Hollywood myth. There was a few noble people who might have done that for special occasions but that's the equivalent to seing Kim K squished in shapewear after loosing 20 pounds to still ruin a historical gown and thinking everyone does this on a regular basis lol. Doesn't happen
They waited until 17 for that?! I was under the impression they did that a lot earlier! I guess it depends upon a lot of factors, but i thought by 17 they would already be out in society and considered women?
And I'm sure pants take aaaages to sew by hand compared to skirts. Considering how fast kids grow sometimes, keeping up with pants for them would be a nightmare.
She mentioned in another video that there were "kid corsets". I'd compare that to bras with underwire and those without, though we don't really have an age distinction for that
People matured later. I think the average age for the first menstrual period was around 18 at the time. So I imagine that other markers of maturity happened later on too
@@kikidevine694 it's actually a myth that menstruation happens earlier today. Humans have been procreating from as early as age 12 throughout history, all though it's true that the best age to give birth is 18-20 (even today). "Junior corsets" seem to be the answer.
its basically for posture if i remember correctly, also unlike what basically all of modern media says, corsets are not extremely uncomfortable if worn properly
first of, all support for the bust and back. also distributes the weight of all those heavy skirts and protects the waist. secondarily, to create a fashionable silhouette/waist reductio though it depended on the era and social standing.
Weren't some girls (from middle, upper middle, but more upper class families) made to do "corset training" at home, at a scarily young age, like from around 15? Because they _did_ know any younger than that wasn't good for a growing child (although you are still growing at 15 so...)
Corsets were very practical and comfortable and basically had the same function as a bra. So a girl would start wearing them around then due to puberty
I don't know the answer but in some situations 17 is still the age people can start doing something. For example you're a legal adult at age 18 in the Netherlands, but you can join the army at 17 iirc. I also think it's a good thing she mentions 17 being the start of adulthood back then because some people still think it started much earlier (like 12 to 15) and use it to excuse something gross or to complain about "the youth these days".
I noticed about 15 yrs ago that children clothes started to change. I noticed that the kids clothes were just a smaller version of adult clother. Ive seen father son, toddler, new born wearing the same suit clothes just different sizes...it always seem a little creepy to me
I think it had to be worn up when you got married? [It most likely also really depends on what region you're in exactly, i'm german so definitely western culture but my family is from a very rural area and when i hear stories or see old photos and drawings it really shows that the region had it's own traditions and clothes (not completely detached from the styles and silhouettes of the time but definitely not an exact match).]
I think this applied mainly to upper and middle-class families. The working poor and the kids that worked did not have, literally, the time nor money to purchase or wear these fashions.
The very basic structures of these garments - the baby dresses, the skirt length varying with age, the base undergarments and pinafore - would be typical across society. The styles would be much simpler and more appropriate for many different daily occasions, and many children only had one or two work dresses, one or two school dresses, and a best suit or dress for church, town, and traveling.
I'd imagine it would be a strange thing to try wearing one just for fashion, because why would you ever wear one if you weren't working class or doing a specific hobby/activity where you'd need one? Aprons were meant to protect your clothes from dirty chores and labor - and the richer/"better mannered" you were, the less likely you were to "soil your hands" with such work. Among the bourgeois or higher classes, even raising your own children was "what the hired help do" even if the mother was just at home not having to work. The real flex if you had any kind of money was having servants and house staff for as much of the housework and care tasks as possible. I think aprons meant for fashion (ribbons, ruffles, etc) came along later in the mid-20th century when 1) working/middle and upper class weren't as strongly divided as before, and 2) new household inventions (vacuum cleaners, washers and dryers, the "latest" fridge, electric stoves...) made it easier to glamorize housework
@@athena608 because if you wore a silk apron, that would be destroyed by just looking at a dirty sink, not only were you telling people that you could afford it, but that there was no way you would wear it for anything other than decorative purposes.
They actually did wear less stiff versions of a corset. Much like today breast did not magically appear once you turn of age so support might be needed at a younger age 😊but it’s very much the age where society and neighbours would start talking if you don’t adhere to the norms 😅
If you are going to do a video on fashion or anything, please sit on your hands. You're waving them around and it takes away from what you ate saying. It's distracting.
@@thesewloartistWow, if they found THAT too distracting, I imagine they'd lose their mind watching Saul on Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul! By the way, I love your videos! 🥰
You're not going to get a supporter on that claim 😅 Do you get distracted by other people who use body language while talking? Why does it make any difference when the video is on fashion? I'm genuinely curious why this bothers you.
The image all came out of old delineator magazines from 1898-1899. The archives are available for free online! Please also keep in mind before you WELL ACTUALLY me that this is a one minute video so of course there’s a ton more information/ nuance to the topic that isn’t going to fit in a single 60 second video. For example children’s “corsets” did exist but were more like a stiff cotton vest than what we would think of as a real corset. Boys under five also did sometimes wear trousers, both were certainly an option.
I want to see more of these archives! Can you point me to the deposit/fonds you used?
Didn't they put boys in "short trousers" as well as skirts? Depending on the day and activity of course. And what class you were in.
Isn't that the reason that boys in the Royal Family, under 10, 11 or 12 (I can't remember off the top of my head), are only really seen in shorts/short trousers, in and out of school, unless they're going to a function - like attending Wimbledon for example, and are required to wear proper trousers? I know there is some strange etiquette rule in there somewhere, but I forget what the specifics are
The apron for the kids is ingenius, they get everything dirty
Agreed! And the white even kind of makes sense so you can really scrub/ bleach it without worrying about it fading.
@@thesewloartist Lol it's so funny what Americans don't know. I thought the fact children wore aprons was as much common knowledge as women wearing corsets
@@Vix2066You don’t have to be condescending lmfao..
@@perpetualsick sorry it genuinely baffled my mind🤣
@@Vix2066 it's assuming all Americans don't know something that makes it condescending...
As someone with 2 boys under the age of 4 they don't want to wear pants anyway.
Dresses would make toilet training so, so easy
This is why you sometimes read about child characters being "breeched" - they were old enough to wear breeches.
And boys had their curls cut at around that age. There's a family photo from the early 20th century. One little boy looked about 2 and had his curls in two bunches with ribbons, although he was wearing a sailor-suit with short trousers. I'll bet he hated that picture!
I grew up in a very formal clothing wise. My dad wore a dress when he was little thank you for posting this. So many people don't realize that the photos of the baby or children of their dad uncles brothers couisns and friends are not always little girls. So many people tell me they found lots of photos of girls none of their dads. Their shock when I tell them it very well could be their missing family photos
I have a photo collection from Victorian era. I have seen both genders in aprons / pinafores. And I find my hill people were slower to change styles. Both often have mullet hair cuts. I have seen it all !. It taught us so much.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Yeah we have an old family photo of my granddad and his siblings and the two youngest brothers are in dresses
Layette sets included only dresses for babies until the 1950s.
My father was born in 1947 and we have some pictures of him in a dress
The childrens clothing styles were often based on simpler adult styles - wrappers and sportswear - especially when quite young. Hence you can see very dressy garments in very simple silhouettes
the skirts for all kids makes a lot of sense. theyd be way easier to adjust for growth compared to pants, which you cant really adjust at all lol, which would save money and time in the long run.
Plus if the second child was the opposite gender, they didn't need to buy new clothes since they all wore the same thing
Mothers were advised to use pleats and tucks that could later be let out and put back for their kids clothing and never to cut, only to hem or piintuck, clothing that was currently too big for their child. Part of building your bridal trousseau and then preparing for a baby would be making a few of these size-adjustable outfits, then each pregnancy would be making sure they were 'reset' again.
Also, easier toilet visits for younger but no longer nappy-wearing children who might not have that great interoception or fine motor skills.
I do a lot of genealogy and I actually have some old family photos of little boys wearing ruffled white dresses. One of the photos is of my Great Grandfather as a baby, taken around 1924. Another is of my Great-Great Uncle taken around 1915. It can make it difficult to figure out who is who in old family photos where there are alot of children because its hard to differentiate the girls from the boys.
Younger girls would wear a Liberty Bodice, which was the relaxed version of a corset
I was about to ask this! Thanks for the info. How was it different, more “relaxed?”
I can’t imagine not wearing a bra or corset by the time I was like 12.
@@jenel4282usually very lightly boned or corded with more flexibility. Similar to an exercise corset or “health corset”/“couch corset” they’re more flexible and less rigid, and often have more options of adjustment for growing bodies.
Most of them did not have the rigid busk down the center until teen years, but instead had hooks and eyes or buttons, and from my experience making and wearing these types of corsets along with the more “rigid” ones with the busk, you cannot tight lace the buttoned “soft” ones AT ALL. It’ll rip the buttons off or rip the eyelets out. It is extremely gentle and just comfortable pressure/support around the torso.
Despite what a lot of biased and misinformed articles will say, people were not tightlacing their children or “molding their bodies to be ideal when they’re older” with the adolescent corset, it’s pretty close to a tight vest in terms of pressure, it wasn’t permanently altering ANYTHING about their bodies. And all of the ones I’m seeing for children as young as 6 yrs are all straight sided with no waist shaping, it seems like it’s just something to get them used to the feeling of wearing something around their torso like that. They gradually increase the waist and bust shaping as the girl grows up, and by 16-17 they’re considered adults, so they’re most likely getting their first REAL grown up corset around that time.
Not even to mention, corsets in general don’t change anybody’s body shape permanently unless you tight lace TRAIN for YEARS in a dangerous way, and even then, it will eventually shift back to its old shape if you leave the corset off long enough.
And as an avid fan of corsetry, if your corset is pinching you in any place or it is hard to breathe, it doesn’t fit. Period. A good fitting corset should have room in the bust and hips for breathing and movement and/or bust/waist padding/“improvers”, and the waist should be the only thing that you can feel more pressure from, the rest should feel like a hug. The waist shouldn’t dig in like a tight waistband, but have even pressure all around with no pain, and a lacing gap of 2” or less at the back, with no more than 3” waist reduction (most people get 1-2”, but some have longer waists and more room to squish), after that you’re in tightlacing territory. Always start breaking in your corset like a new pair of shoes by wearing it laced just tight enough to fit comfortably, for longer and longer each time, stopping whenever you start to feel a bit sore. It will eventually mold to your body and get very comfortable and you can start to lace it tighter/to what you’re comfortable with as the fabric relaxes.
Sorry that’s a lot of information that was probably not 100% relevant but it’s a special interest!
@@jenel4282 Liberty bodices were relatively snug-fitting, similarly to corsets, but had no bones. Sometimes they had cords sown on to provide a little reinforcement. They were basically "training corsets", although grown women with jobs, like housemaids, would apparently also sometimes wear them, for the extra "liberty" they allowed in bending at the waist.
The increased ruffles, pleating, etc make sense with smaller children because thats fabric you can let out as they grow, so the garment is usable for a much longer period of time
I need SO much more info on this! The novel I'm writing features children between the ages of 3 and 14, coming from different times in history (late 17th century to early 20th century)
And it's been a PAIN trying to find a good variety of references
Old magazines from the period always have a ton of info for kids! You could look up Ladies Home Journal archives and it’ll have pics of their clothes, info about games that children played, and the advice for mothers might be useful too! It talks about the kinds of food for children for example, or how to nurse a sick child. You can get them for free on internet archive 😊
Thank you so so much! That's going to help a ton!@@thesewloartist
Shoot, in my family, the 13 or 14 yr. Old girls were
Married women.
Ruth Goodman's "How To Be A Victorian" is a great reference for day to day info on Victorian life
My grandfather was born in 1890, and i remember him talking about young boys, himself included, wearing dresses!
I truly appreciate the history of clothing. Thank you very much
That's true you can even see in royal baby boys photos wearing "dresses" it would not be for my children if I have any. But that was the fashion in those periods.
Modern children’s clothes have elastic waistbands and snaps and all sorts of other advantageous features that weren’t available in the 19th century, so you have more options for your potential future children than people had back then.
The plates in those floral sleeves are perfect!
Well...ACTUALLY...I have a Tremendous Admiration both for your Intellectual Acumen as well as the depth and breadth of your historical research ...AND your passion to display it so brlliantly! YOU win the Internet Today!! On behalf of all your FANS.. Thank you for many hours of joy, entertainmentand intellectual stimulation🎉❤!
Boy have things changed... It wasn't until I was 21 that people started treating me like an adult. 18 - 20, they were concerned for my well-being and kept telling me that I was "really mature for my age."
I like that you pinned some extra information on the time period, etc, in the comments, but I feel like not even briefly verbally or visually mentioning the time and places during which this pattern of clothing children was common makes it more likely to lead to confusion or overly generalized views of the past in a casual viewer. Other than that, I thought it was a fun and informative video with great visuals!
I wonder if there were girls who started wearing corsets earlier because they developed faster or if they had a solution for this. I needed a bra really early so I can imagine a well-fitting corset makes a huge difference in daily comfort.
I understand that little girls wore corsets too, although there was usually less boning.
Interesting. I always wondered about that for children in Victorian times. Both genders had different clothes styles.
Corsets or stays were worn earlier. At about age 5, the skeleton suit would be introduced for the boys and stays or corsets would be introduced for the girls. Which actually makes a lot of sense to get the body used to the added pressure and different feel of a suit or stay as compared to the childhood dresses.
Edit, I love your outfit, by the way.
I actually have a picture of my great-grandfather, born in 1898 though I think he was about 3 in the pic, wearing a dress-type outfit when he was really little. I love history bites like that
Little girls wore corsets too, although often with less boning.
As someone who disliked putting her tiny daughters in dresses, because she could tell it delayed and frustrated their ability to roll over and crawl and learn to walk, I have to wonder if, with all that bulky clothing, children were mobile consistently later than they are in the modern day?
I presume not, as 1 year old babies are depicted walking just the same as modern typically developing infants.
One might think. I wore tristeppers, which actually hurt. But as long as they aren't painfully fitted/ ill
Fitted kids are so resilient. My nephew hated hats. If you put one on him, it was seconds and he would have it off. Lol !
Babies were sometimes kept from being mobile early in life... Think of swaddling. For a working woman,it might be that any amount of time the baby is strapped to you and not crawling around your un baby safe home is a win.
@@mikeymullins5305 in an era of non-babyproofed homes, leading strings existed to keep your child from toddling into the fire or knocking over the lamp. But yes, babies too young to crawl or toddle were kept immobile frequently, but they were also often just kept in playpens like we do today.
Dresses wouldn't stop me climbing a tree! Back in my day girls would run, cartwheel, and ride bikes in skirts and dresses. Better for female hygiene too.
Can anyone give me some advice on how to start dressing historically if I don't have much money?
I'm not expert but maybe you can start with a corset because is important to give form to the dress. There's also the special undergarment.
@@AngelaMerici12 isn't it really expensive to buy a good one? And bad corset can hurt you
@@user-gt2eq7zb9q Sorry, I thought you'll make the garments but buying will depend. Not many people do this kind of clothing.
@@user-gt2eq7zb9qI've seen corsets run $150 and up. You MIGHT find one cheaper, but it's keeping an eye for sales. If you are looking for a modern silhouette still look "modern" try a push up bra and a girdle. Also go for lacy blouses from the 70/80s the Gunne Sax dress was a romanticized version of Victorian dress
You can find free patterns or cheap patterns in the internet, and fabric in the thrift shop curtain section. Look around in your local secondhand groups for a sewing machine - you don't need any fancy one to begin.
Do remember that for earlier years, you would wear training corsets for almost your whole life, and I do remember seeing something about a baby corset but I don’t remember where I saw that
Yep...that was brief.
What did teens with larger breasts do about support, did they get to wear corsets too?
Children’s “corsets” did exist but they were more like a stiff cotton vest than what we would think of as a real corset. They usually buttoned up the front and were stiffened with cording instead of metal.
Kids also wore something along the lines of a chemise (although they did look a little different) which had a fitted top and a full skirted bottom. I imagine for smaller busts that would provide a little bit of stability.
@@thesewloartist Thank you for the thoughtful response!
Some girls (depending on time and location) were wearing corsets younger than 17. They appear in diaries of younger girls who presumably developed faster than their counterparts. This is also a fairly middle class and up group described in the video, working class girls could be in positions as servants at a younger age and were not exactly considered 'children'. They'd be wearing something like the pretty housemaid corset along with their uniform.
Toddlers of any gender wore stay bands (basically a soft unboned corset, stiffened with cording and cardboard), with girls transitioning to more adult-like corsets during childhood.
Thank you for your education. 🙏❤️😇
I freaking love pinafores!
But I really have to wonder what underpinnings girls between the ages of 12-16 were wearing when they weren’t grown enough to wear a corset, yet still developing, physically, as young ladies. I have seen one example for a sort of ‘training corset’ with a gathered bust…
It’s possible that girls then just experienced puberty differently than we do now, but I know that my own bust was fully developed by the time I was 14, and the idea of having little choice but to wear an oversized training bra until the age of 17 - it sounds unpleasant to say the least. Surely there had to’ve been something that girls of the past wore that was just as supportive as a corset without actually being a corset.
It's my understanding that in realty little girls had their own corsets.
I was always under the impression that dresses were more difficult to crawl in, so babies stayed put a bit more easily. No idea if that's actually true or just some hold over idea in my weirdly "old fashioned" family.
they are slightly harder to crawl in if theyre past knee length because often times you'll step on the dress with your knees and sometimes hands too
I think it's really neat how we've always made kids clothes cute
Hey love your videos I have one doubt what the hell was the purpose of stockings??
Same as hose, today. One wasn't properly dressed without them and, in an era of no central heating, they helped keep you warm.
حلووو ❤
That's why Alice from Alice and Wonderland wore an apron!
Do you have information or resources on men and boys fashion from the late Victorian era or Edwardian? I’d like to learn more but whenever I try to research I can’t find very much
im not expert but from what ik they typically wore something similar to what you see English style horseback riders wear during shows, not as sure abt it for the Victorian era but it was what was worn during Regency, and most of the images i see of men from the Victorian era are in a similar get-up
Love it - bring back dresses for boys
I like your nails!! They're cute!
So you could tell how old someone was by whst they wore?
This is what i wanna go for. It's such a good inspiration, because i don't like floor lengh skirts (my shoes look too good to be hided XD
At what age did children's corsets start to be worn?
😮 This makes so much sense! How come our dress "devolved" in a sense? All this practicality thrown out the window. I would've loved clothes i can grow with. I hated shopping and always felt weird in new clothes anyhow, wondering how goofy i looked.
Interesting!!!😮😮
Laura Ingalls said the corset wearing started about 14ish. No exact age, but in one of the books Mary told her she needed to sleep in her's so she could have a nice figure......which Laura basically said she was crazy and she hated that thing.
My dad wore something similar till he was 6 in the 1960s. It was a dress but he wore tiny shorts underneath...so I suppose it was more like a smock than a dress ^^"
So interesting!
Dresses also fit longer and more body types than pants do, especially when pin tucks could be taken out
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THESE DRAWINGS 😭😭😂
So cute 🥰🥰
Shorter skirts totally make sense. Interfers less with playing, climbing, running etc
I thought the video was made for kids 😅
Could you cover girl scout uniforms? I recently was telling my little brothers about some of the goofy sh*t we were told back when I was a "Brownie" (terrible name btw)
Brownies are called that because a brownie is a type of fairy that is very fun and helpful, there's a whole story behind it! But I agree, she should do a video on this.
Didn't start until 1909, the uniforms resembled standard ware of the time, for the first couple of years.
I loved being a brownie. The brown uniform with its yellow scarf was awful though.
At first I thought it said "chicken" 😭
How did corsets and pregnancy go together?
And did the kids corset style change the shape of their bones?
There were pregnancy corsets that were formed so that they wouldn't put pressure on the belly and just hold up the breast or even give support to the belly and back. I saw a RUclips short about them somewhere and they look really comfy tbh
And i don't think corsets changed the bones of anyone because _people didn't tight lace them_ that's a Hollywood myth. There was a few noble people who might have done that for special occasions but that's the equivalent to seing Kim K squished in shapewear after loosing 20 pounds to still ruin a historical gown and thinking everyone does this on a regular basis lol. Doesn't happen
the only thing corsets change is the position of internal organs, which become positioned in a way similar to how they would be during pregnancy
look up pregnancy corsets! super cool!
So what do boys wear 6-12 ans 12-17
They waited until 17 for that?! I was under the impression they did that a lot earlier! I guess it depends upon a lot of factors, but i thought by 17 they would already be out in society and considered women?
And I'm sure pants take aaaages to sew by hand compared to skirts. Considering how fast kids grow sometimes, keeping up with pants for them would be a nightmare.
So, women basically wore large children's sized clothes back then while men moved on to trousers.
She became an “adult” when she got her long skirts.
What era are we talking here? Victorian?
My mum wore a liberty bodice,
Corset from 17yo is quite late really. We couldn't imagine a bra less 16yo today.
She mentioned in another video that there were "kid corsets". I'd compare that to bras with underwire and those without, though we don't really have an age distinction for that
People matured later. I think the average age for the first menstrual period was around 18 at the time. So I imagine that other markers of maturity happened later on too
@@kikidevine694 it's actually a myth that menstruation happens earlier today. Humans have been procreating from as early as age 12 throughout history, all though it's true that the best age to give birth is 18-20 (even today). "Junior corsets" seem to be the answer.
Hi, Just curious.. what is the function of a corset? Apologies if you have explained in earlier vids, too many vids to flick through.
its basically for posture if i remember correctly, also unlike what basically all of modern media says, corsets are not extremely uncomfortable if worn properly
Support of bust(kind of like a bra), support of posture and an aid to achieve the desired silhouette
first of, all support for the bust and back. also distributes the weight of all those heavy skirts and protects the waist. secondarily, to create a fashionable silhouette/waist reductio though it depended on the era and social standing.
Bust support, back support, distributing the weight of all the clothing layers, fashionable silhouette, etc.
Weren't some girls (from middle, upper middle, but more upper class families) made to do "corset training" at home, at a scarily young age, like from around 15? Because they _did_ know any younger than that wasn't good for a growing child (although you are still growing at 15 so...)
Corsets were very practical and comfortable and basically had the same function as a bra. So a girl would start wearing them around then due to puberty
When did adult age go from 17 to 18?
I don't know the answer but in some situations 17 is still the age people can start doing something. For example you're a legal adult at age 18 in the Netherlands, but you can join the army at 17 iirc.
I also think it's a good thing she mentions 17 being the start of adulthood back then because some people still think it started much earlier (like 12 to 15) and use it to excuse something gross or to complain about "the youth these days".
Lol tell this to all the parents who say boys can't wear dresses
Where did you get your dress and apron?
She made then! Her channel name is a sewing pun.
I thought they were their hair up *AFTER* they were married, as a sign that they were married.
Also girls were considered eligible for marriage at 16.
Teen girls didn't wear corsets? My back is SCREAMING at that though! I was a D cup by 14!
they definitely did sometimes. there were also unboned, corded 'training corsets' that were worn from a very young age
I noticed about 15 yrs ago that children clothes started to change. I noticed that the kids clothes were just a smaller version of adult clother. Ive seen father son, toddler, new born wearing the same suit clothes just different sizes...it always seem a little creepy to me
But the woman in this illustration still has her hair down behind her? Did women get into trouble for wearing it down?
I think it had to be worn up when you got married?
[It most likely also really depends on what region you're in exactly, i'm german so definitely western culture but my family is from a very rural area and when i hear stories or see old photos and drawings it really shows that the region had it's own traditions and clothes (not completely detached from the styles and silhouettes of the time but definitely not an exact match).]
Sweet 17 for girls ➡️ woman in this case. 😅🎊
I think this applied mainly to upper and middle-class families. The working poor and the kids that worked did not have, literally, the time nor money to purchase or wear these fashions.
The very basic structures of these garments - the baby dresses, the skirt length varying with age, the base undergarments and pinafore - would be typical across society. The styles would be much simpler and more appropriate for many different daily occasions, and many children only had one or two work dresses, one or two school dresses, and a best suit or dress for church, town, and traveling.
Could adults wear aprons as a fashion piece? Not as working clothes
This did happen several times throughout history, usually they where more highly decorative. Like made of silk, embroidery, lace, etc.
I'd imagine it would be a strange thing to try wearing one just for fashion, because why would you ever wear one if you weren't working class or doing a specific hobby/activity where you'd need one? Aprons were meant to protect your clothes from dirty chores and labor - and the richer/"better mannered" you were, the less likely you were to "soil your hands" with such work. Among the bourgeois or higher classes, even raising your own children was "what the hired help do" even if the mother was just at home not having to work. The real flex if you had any kind of money was having servants and house staff for as much of the housework and care tasks as possible. I think aprons meant for fashion (ribbons, ruffles, etc) came along later in the mid-20th century when 1) working/middle and upper class weren't as strongly divided as before, and 2) new household inventions (vacuum cleaners, washers and dryers, the "latest" fridge, electric stoves...) made it easier to glamorize housework
Absolutely.
@@athena608 because if you wore a silk apron, that would be destroyed by just looking at a dirty sink, not only were you telling people that you could afford it, but that there was no way you would wear it for anything other than decorative purposes.
@@kikidevine694 i had said something similar and put a link to a museum example, but o think RUclips deleted it :(
Was told corset training started at 8 yrs of age back in the day
You mean stays
depends on the era she's talking about. Corset was the term used from 19th century onwards i believe
lol could you imagine telling a teenager "hey honey, its time for you to start wearing a corset"
I mean thats what is done with bras lol
They actually did wear less stiff versions of a corset. Much like today breast did not magically appear once you turn of age so support might be needed at a younger age 😊but it’s very much the age where society and neighbours would start talking if you don’t adhere to the norms 😅
What's the weird part? 😂 My grandma said that about bras when I was 8.
Yeeah? That’s how people get bras
yes...? why would that be weird? it's underwear, like a bra
I thought girls started wearing corsets at about age 10. Starting with a small waist they already have at that age.
Its funny all the rules humans have created for social appearances in our time.
Oh how bad things have gotten since they got the right to vote. 😂
I learned that wearing your hair up meant you got married.
At this point, it just meant you were considered to be considered as a grown woman
Now little kids are wearing booty shorts and crop tops. 😅
If you are going to do a video on fashion or anything, please sit on your hands. You're waving them around and it takes away from what you ate saying. It's distracting.
If you don’t like how I make videos go watch a different one.
@@thesewloartistWow, if they found THAT too distracting, I imagine they'd lose their mind watching Saul on Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul!
By the way, I love your videos! 🥰
I don't agree. I think her demeanor is engaging.
You're not going to get a supporter on that claim 😅 Do you get distracted by other people who use body language while talking? Why does it make any difference when the video is on fashion? I'm genuinely curious why this bothers you.