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Dresses for boys?!

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Did you know that little boys used to wear dresses? In an interesting Wikipedia article, I discovered...

Breeching was the occasion when a small boy was first dressed in breeches or trousers. From the mid-16th century until the late 19th or early 20th century, young boys in the Western world were unbreeched and wore gowns or dresses until an age that varied between two and eight.

Various forms of relatively subtle differences usually enabled others to tell little boys from little girls, in codes that modern art historians are able to understand.

Breeching was an important rite of passage in the life of a boy, looked forward to with much excitement, and often celebrated with a small party. It often marked the point at which the father became more involved with the raising of a boy"

The main reason a little European boy would be dressed as a girl in a gown or fancy lace dress was pure economics and time saving; babies and toddlers grow fast and making a dress enabled using hems so that the garment could easily be extended as the child got longer, instead of throwing it away every 6 months!

Also, in those days, pants had these complex breeches and it was a difficult task to open the breeches up fast enough when the child needed the toilet!

ForumAdmin ForumAdmin Topic starter 09/03/2018 2:44 pm

You can tell it's a boy by the hat and sword he wears.

ForumAdmin ForumAdmin Topic starter 14/05/2019 5:51 pm

Was easier this way to change them and get them cleaned up when they pooped or peed themselves. After all, no diapers back then - only cotton cloth to wrap them up in, not even a plasticized wrap, so all oozed out real fast and if they wore pants and stockings then it would show and make a terrible mess to clean up!

In winter it could be brutal changing a child outdoors so dresses were so much easier for little boys till they could hold it. Also in pants, all those cotton wraps would catch a ton of space and bloat that boy like a balloon. A dress was so much cuter and a neatsolution.

I can imagine also that the boy would be highly incentivized to learn to hold it and be 'big boy' fast so he can finally dress as a boy and not a girl!

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