Children's Clothing - Red, White, and Blue

The Springfield Art and Historical Society has a wonderful collection of children's clothing. Those who attended our vintage fashion show back in October 2011 will certainly agree. The collection consists of infants caps, christening  gowns, and everyday clothing from the mid 19th century up to the 1960s.

Children's clothing on display during "250 Years of Fashion - A Vintage Fashion Show" October, 2011

Each piece of clothing was beautifully constructed in its time with great care, even those made in the 20th century by machine. When viewed, each piece seems absolutely unique. However, there will occasionally be found in other collections very similar pieces. Take for example a little blue and white check gown in the SAHS collection.

Our gown dates approximately to the late 1870s or 1880s. One of kind? Not exactly. Take a look at this selection of children's clothing recently sold by Augusta Auctions. See anything familiar? 

These lovely little dresses date between 1850 and 1875. A close up of the blue and white check can be seen here. The white embroidery on the middle child's dress is very similar to the embroidery on the SAHS blue dress seen in the above picture. Blue and red appear to have been popular colors for children's clothing.

When looking at an original dress, it is often hard to tell if it was worn by a little boy or a little girl. The child in the photo seen below is most likely a little girl as she is shown will a doll. However the shape and style of her clothing is very similar to those pictured above. Up until the early 20th century, boys wore dresses until they were potty trained.