Breeching - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Breeching was the occasion when a small boy was first dressed in breeches

Breeches

Breeches are an item of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles...

or trousers. From the mid-16th century until the late 19th or early 20th century, young boys in the Western world

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

were unbreeched and wore gown

Gown

A gown is a loose outer garment from knee- to full-length worn by men and women in Europe from the early Middle Ages to the 17th century ; later, gown was applied to any woman's garment consisting of a bodice and attached skirt.A long, loosely-fitted gown called a Banyan was worn by men in the 18th...

s or dress

Dress

A dress is a garment consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice or with a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment.Dress may also refer to:*Clothing in general*Costume, fancy dress...

es until an age that varied between two and eight. Breeching was an important rite of passage

Rite of passage

A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....

in the life of a boy, looked forward to with much excitement. It often marked the point at which the father became more involved with the raising of a boy.

Reasons

The main reason for keeping boys in dresses was toilet training

Toilet training

Toilet training, or potty training, is the process of training a young child to use the toilet for urination and defecation, though training may start with a smaller toilet bowl-shaped device...

, or the lack of it. 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. Dresses were also easier to make with room for future growth, in an age when clothes were much more expensive than now for all classes. The "age of reason" was generally considered to be about seven, and breeching corresponded roughly with that age for much of the period. For working-class children, about whom we know even less than their better-off contemporaries, it may well have marked the start of a working life. The debate between his parents over the breeching of the hero of Tristram Shandy (1761) suggests that the timing of the event could be rather arbitrary; in this case it is his father who suggests the time has arrived. The 17th century French cleric and memoirist François-Timoléon de Choisy

François-Timoléon de Choisy

François Timoléon, abbé de Choisy was a French author.-Life:He was born in Paris. His father was attached to the household of the duke of Orléans, and his mother, who was on intimate terms with Anne of Austria, was regularly called upon to amuse Louis XIV...

is supposed to have been dressed in girl's clothes until he was eighteen.

Celebrations

In the 19th century, photographs were often taken of the boy in his new trousers, typically with his father. He might also collect small gifts of money by going round the neighbourhood showing off his new clothes. Friends, of the mother as much as the boy, might gather to see his first appearance. A letter of 1679 from Lady Anne North to her widowed and absent son gives a lengthy account of the breeching of her grandson:"…Never had any bride that was to be dressed upon her wedding-night more hands about her, some the legs and some the armes, the taylor buttn'ing and other putting on the sword, and so many lookers on that had I not a ffinger [sic] amongst them I could not have seen him. When he was quit drest he acted his part as well as any of them…. since you could not have the first sight I resolved you should have a full relation…". The dresses he wore before she calls "coats".

Unbreeched boys

The first progression, for both boys and girls, was when they were shortcoated or taken out of the long dresses that came well below the feet that were worn by babies - and which have survived as the modern Christening robe. It was not possible to walk in these, which no doubt dictated the timing of the change. Toddlers' gowns often featured leading strings

Leading strings

Leading strings are strings or straps by which to support a child learning to walk. In 17th and 18th century Europe, they were narrow straps of fabric attached to children's clothing which originally functioned as a sort of leash to keep the child from straying too far or falling as they learned...

, which were narrow straps of fabric or ribbon attached at the shoulder and held by an adult while the child was learning to walk.

After this stage, in the Early Modern period

Early modern period

In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...

it is usually not too difficult to distinguish between small boys and girls in commissioned portraits of the wealthy, even where the precise identities are no longer known. The smaller figures of small children in genre painting have less detail, and painters often did not trouble to include distinguishing props as they did in portraits. Working-class children presumably were more likely than the rich to wear handed down clothes that were used by both sexes. In portraits the colours of clothes often keep the rough gender distinctions we see in adults — girls wear white or pale colours, and boys darker ones, including red. This may not entirely reflect reality, but the differences in hairstyles, and in the style of clothing at the chest, throat and neck, waist, and often the cuffs, presumably do.

In the 19th century, perhaps as childhood became sentimentalised, it becomes harder to tell the clothing apart between the sexes; the hair remains the best guide, but some mothers were evidently unable to resist keeping this long too. By this time the age of breeching was falling closer to two or three, where it would remain. Boys in most periods had shorter hair, often cut in a straight fringe, whilst girl's hair was longer, and in earlier periods sometimes worn "up" in adult styles, at least for special occasions like portraits. In the 19th century, wearing hair up itself became a significant rite of passage for girls at puberty

Puberty

Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...

, as part of their "coming out" into society. Younger girls' hair was always long, or plaited. Sometimes a quiff or large curl emerges from under a boy's cap. Boys are most likely to have side partings, and girls centre partings.

Girls' bodice

Bodice

A bodice, historically, is an article of clothing for women, covering the body from the neck to the waist. In modern usage it typically refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the upper portion of a modern dress to distinguish it from...

s usually reflected adult styles, in their best clothes at least, and low bodices and necklace

Necklace

A necklace is an article of jewellery which is worn around the neck. Necklaces are frequently formed from a metal jewellery chain. Others are woven or manufactured from cloth using string or twine....

s are common. Boys often, though not always, had dresses that were closed up to the neck-line, and often buttoned at the front — rare for girls. They frequently wear belts, and in periods when female dresses had a V at the waist, this is often seen on little girls, but not on boys. Linen

Linen

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....

and lace

Lace

Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...

at the neck and cuffs tend to follow adult styles for each gender, although again the clothes worn in portraits no doubt do not reflect everyday wear, and may not reflect even best clothes accurately.

Unbreeched boys of the nobility are sometimes seen wearing swords or daggers on a belt. A speech by King Leontes from Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale
The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...

implies that, as common sense would suggest, these could not be drawn, and were purely for show:

Looking on the lines

Of my boy's face, methought I did recoil

Twenty-three years, and saw myself unbreech'd

In my green velvet coat, my dagger muzzled,

Lest it should bite its master, and so prove

(As ornament oft does) too dangerous.

— he also calls his dress a "coat"; "cote" was a French and English term, dating back to the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, for earlier adult male gowns and seems to have been kept in use for boys clothes to preserve some gender distinction.

Usually jewellery is not worn by boys, but when worn it is likely to be dark in colour, like the coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

beads worn by the Flemish boy above. Coral was considered by medical authorities the best material to use for teething aids, and a combined rattle and whistle (in silver) and teething stick (in coral) can be seen in many portraits. In portraits even very young girls may wear necklace

Necklace

s, often of pearl

Pearl

A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...

s. In the Van Dyck

Anthony van Dyck

Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...

portrait of the children of Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

, only the absence of a necklace and the colour of his dress distinguish the unbreeched James

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

(aged four) from his next youngest sister Elizabeth

Princess Elizabeth of England

The Princess Elizabeth of England and Scotland was the second daughter of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France. From the age of six until her early death at the age of fourteen she was a prisoner of Parliament during the English Civil War...

, whilst their elder brother

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

and sister

Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange

Mary, Princess Royal, Princess of Orange and Countess of Nassau was the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland and his queen, Henrietta Maria of France...

, at seven and six, have moved on to adult styles. In cases of possible doubt, painters tend to give boys masculine toys to hold like drums, whips for toy horses, or bows.

The next step

In the late 18th century, new philosophies of child-rearing led to clothes that were thought especially suitable for children. Toddlers wore washable dresses called frock

Frock

Frock has been used since Middle English as the name for an article of clothing for men and women .- History of the frock :...

s of linen

Linen

or cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

. British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

boys after perhaps three began to wear rather short pantaloon

Pantaloon

Pantaloon or Pantaloons may refer to:*Pantaloons, a style of trousers*Pantaloon Retail India, a large retailer in India*The Pantaloons, an English touring theatre company*Pantaloon, a character in the Harlequinade-See also:...

s and short jackets, and for very young boys the skeleton suit

Skeleton suit

A skeleton suit is an outfit of clothing for small boys, popular from about 1790 to 1830, consisting of a tight short- or long-sleeved coat or jacket buttoned to a pair of high-waisted trousers. Skeleton suits are often described as one of the earliest fashions to be specifically tailored for...

was introduced. These gave the first real alternative to dresses, and became fashionable across Europe. The skeleton suit consisted of trousers and tight-fitting jacket, buttoned together at the waist or higher up; they were not unlike the romper suit

Romper suit

A romper suit is a one-piece garment worn by children and sometimes women. Somewhat similar to a coverall, it is loose fitting and usually has shorter legs that may be gathered at the end. Puffed pants are particularly associated with rompers...

introduced in the early 20th century. But dresses for boys did not disappear, and again became common from the 1820s, when they were worn at about knee-length, sometimes with visible pantaloons called pantalettes

Pantalettes

Pantalettes are undergarments covering the legs worn by women, girls, and very young boys in the early- to mid-nineteenth century....

as underwear, a style also worn by little girls.

As the next stage, from the mid-19th century boys usually progressed into shorts

Shorts

Shorts are a bifurcated garment worn by both men and women over their pelvic area, circling the waist, and covering the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to or even below the knee, but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they are a shortened...

at breeching — again these are more accommodating to growth, and cheaper. The knickerbocker

Knickerbockers (clothing)

Knickerbockers are men's or boys' breeches or baggy-kneed trousers particularly popular in the early twentieth century USA. Golfers' plus twos and plus fours were breeches of this type...

suit was also popular. In England and some other countries, many school uniform

School uniform

A school uniform is an outfit—a set of standardized clothes—worn primarily for an educational institution. They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries . When used, they form the basis of a school's dress code.Traditionally school uniforms have been largely subdued and...

s still mandate shorts for boys until about nine or ten. The jackets of boys after breeching lacked adult tails, and this may have influenced the adult tail-less styles which developed, initially for casual wear of various sorts, like the smoking-jacket and sports jacket. After the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

the wearing of boy's dresses seems finally to have died out, except for babies.

Gallery

Image:Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. 012.jpg|Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1568, Boy from The Peasant Wedding
The Peasant Wedding
The Peasant Wedding is a 1567 painting by the Flemish Renaissance painter and printmaker Pieter Brueghel the Elder, one of his many depicting peasant life. It is currently housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.-Scene:...

; the hat gives the gender.
Image:Hilliard Elizabeth Stuart and Son c. 1615.jpg|Nicholas Hilliard

Nicholas Hilliard

Nicholas Hilliard was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, up to about ten inches tall, and at least two famous...

, Elizabeth Stuart, Electress Palatine, and her son Frederick Henry

Frederick Henry von der Pfalz

Henry Frederick, Hereditary Prince of the Palatinate, was the eldest son of Frederick V, the Winter King, and his wife, Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I of England....

, with leading strings

Leading strings

, 1615.
Image:Ulrik Prince of Denmark.jpg|Prince Ulrik of Denmark

Ulrik of Denmark (1611–1633)

Prince Ulrik of Denmark, was a son of King Christian IV of Denmark and his consort Queen Anne Catherine of Brandenburg...

, 1615. The hair (and active dog) show the gender.
Image:Anthonis van Dyck 012.jpg|Anthony van Dyck

Anthony van Dyck

, Lomellini family, Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

, 1623.
Image:Lucy Family c 1625.jpg|The Lucy family, English c. 1625. Two boys at the front, plus one with his mother, holding a bow as tall as himself. The baby with the nurse may be a boy.
Image:Príncipe_Baltasar_Carlos,_by_Diego_Velázquez.jpg|Velázquez

Diego Velázquez

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...

. The eldest son of Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...

has a sword, Marshall's baton

Baton (symbol)

The ceremonial baton is a short, thick stick, carried by select high-ranking military officers as a uniform article. The baton is distinguished from the swagger stick in being thicker and less functional . Unlike a staff of office, a baton is not rested on the ground...

and armour

Armour

Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action...

gorget

Gorget

A gorget originally was a steel or leather collar designed to protect the throat. It was a feature of older types of armour and intended to protect against swords and other non-projectile weapons...

.
Image:Charles II Prince of Wales Egmont.jpg|Charles II of England

Charles II of England

, before he was "shortcoated", holding a teething coral, 1630.
Image:LouisXVchild.jpg|Louis XV in 1712
Image:François Boucher 022.jpg|François Boucher

François Boucher

François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...

, 1750, Philippe Egalité

Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans

Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans commonly known as Philippe, was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the ruling dynasty of France. He actively supported the French Revolution and adopted the name Philippe Égalité, but was nonetheless guillotined during the Reign of Terror...

, then Duke of Montpensier, aged three, with toys prophetically including playing-cards.
Image:David Lüders Knabenportrait.jpg|German boy, mid 18th-century, with gun, hat and dog.
Image:Schnaebele Knabenportrait 1769.jpg|German boy aged three, 1769
Image:Thomas Gainsborough 008.jpg|Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...

, The Blue Boy
The Blue Boy
The Blue Boy is an oil painting by Thomas Gainsborough. Perhaps Gainsborough's most famous work, it is thought to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall, the son of a wealthy hardware merchant, although this was never proved...

, c. 1770, reviving the style of Van Dyck

Anthony van Dyck

's period as semi-fancy dress
Image:Francisco de Goya y Lucientes 067.jpg|Goya

Francisco Goya

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...

, 1784. A skeleton suit

Skeleton suit

or similar outfit.
Image:Boy from the Taylor Family.jpeg|Rembrandt Peale

Rembrandt Peale

Rembrandt Peale was an American artist and museum keeper. A prolific portrait painter, he was especially acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson...

, 1812. American boy wearing special boy's suit.
Image:20849-largeboy in dress.jpg|English watercolour, 1836. Boy in short dress with visible pantalettes

Pantalettes

Pantalettes are undergarments covering the legs worn by women, girls, and very young boys in the early- to mid-nineteenth century....

as underwear.
Image:Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot 037.jpg|Corot

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century...

, 1843–4. When there was doubt, painters tended to use aggressively masculine props to confirm gender, like this whip.
Image:A173 1 049breeching portrait.jpg|English breeching portrait, with knickerbocker

Knickerbockers (clothing)

Knickerbockers are men's or boys' breeches or baggy-kneed trousers particularly popular in the early twentieth century USA. Golfers' plus twos and plus fours were breeches of this type...

suit, c. 1867.
Image:A173 1 047Michael Cahne Seymour.jpg|English boy, 1871. Without his name on the back the sex would be hard to determine.
Image:A173 1 051sailordress.jpg|Sailor-style dress on boy, late 19th century. Evidently sufficiently common that the photography studio has a mast prop ready.
Image:Elsie May and Gilbert H. Grosvenor.jpg|American boy, 1902

External links

Boy's Dress from the Museum of Childhood
Museum of Childhood
There are several museums called the Museum of Childhood:*Museum of Childhood , Scotland*Museum of Childhood , New Hampshire, United States*V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London, England, run by the Victoria and Albert Museum...

, London. (accessed Sept 17, 2007)
MOIFA, Santa Fe. (accessed Sept 17, 2007)
Skirts and Breeching, Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...

, accessed Sept 17, 2007.

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