How to be a Victorian

by Ruth Goodman

In the 1880s and 1890s, a mother could go along to one of the ready-made-boyswear shops, or peruse their catalogues, and choose something for her son from the following: a sailor suit (white canvas with blue tapes sewn on to mimic naval uniforms), a Highland kilt suit, a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit (inspired by a popular book character, it was a velvet knickerbocker suit with an elaborate, large, lace collar), a Tyrolean suit (mimicking lederhosen and complete with a small hat with a feather in it), a Norfolk suit (a tweed jacket and knickerbockers, such as country gentlemen wore when grouse-shooting), a hussar suit (with lines of braid across the chest to suggest the military uniforms of the Prussian Empire), an American suit (a cowboy outfit) and many variations upon each of these themes.