A guide to Regency England for readers of classic literature or historical fiction set in the early 19th century.
England, as it was in the early 1800's, can sometimes be as confusing to a modern reader as travelling to a foreign country. Their clot...
"The cause of five of these fits no one could discover: but the last, and most lamentable, was occasioned by a disappointment about a worked muslin frock; and accordingly, at dressing time, her maid brought it to her, exclaiming, "See here, miss, what your mamma has sent you on your birthday. Here's a frock fit for a queen--if it had but lace round the cuffs." [The Birthday Present, The Parent's Assistant by Maria Edgeworth]
One source suggested that boys should not transition from the frock to trousers or breeches before four years old. Ultimately, though, each family would decide for themselves how long boys would continue to wear a frock.
In some families, there was an intermediate stage for boys between frocks and breeches. This involved either a shorter frock, a tunic or a very short jacket with trousers. The trousers could be wide-legged, like a sailor, or closer-fitting, like pantaloons. Very occasionally, children's outfits were featured in magazines of the time, like this example from Ackermann's Repository:
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"Child's Dress. A Highland jacket and trowsers, with cambric plaited tucker; slippers of purple or black kid." [Morning Dress, Ackermann's Repository of Arts and Science, pub. August 1810]
In some cases, a jacket and trousers would be buttoned together at the waist or above, creating an all-in-one outfit. Victorian sources call this a Skeleton Suit, the earliest mention coming from Charles Dickens in 1836:
"The first was a patched and much-soiled skeleton suit; one of those straight blue cloth cases in which small boys used to be confined ... an ingenious contrivance for displaying the full symmetry of a boy's figure, by fastening him into a very tight jacket, with an ornamental row of buttons over each shoulder, and then buttoning his trousers over it, so as to give his legs the appearance of being hooked on, just under the armpits." [Chapter VI, Meditations in Monmouth Street, Sketches by Boz, pub. 1836 by Charles Dickens]
Although you can see images of these suits in paintings from the 1790s onwards, I have not yet found the phrase "skeleton suit" in any book or document printed before 1836. However, I have found a "skeleton dress" in 1822, described as "a jacket and trowsers" for young boys. This comes from a book called "The Tailor's Friendly Instructor" by James Wyatt, which described how to measure the child before making the outfit. It also includes the following illustration:
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