What did children in the past wear?

What did children in the past wear? What clothing nightmares did they have to endure?! Well look no further and take a trip back into the clothing faux pas of the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries. You won't find anything like these garments in Pumpkin Patch!

Outfits were sometimes stiff and starchy mini versions of adult clothing:

Ref: B0150, Grainger family portrait, c. 1890s, North Auckland Research Centre

At other points in time, it was all bows, lace and puff sleeves.....:

Ref: 31-WP18, portrait of the Archdale-Taylor family, c.1914, Sir George Grey Special Collections

Ref: 31-55861, Misses Halls, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections

unless you were a boy:

Ref: 4-8943, Jack in the garden, no date, Sir George Grey Special Collections

Ref: Footprints 04383, portrait of  the Wyman children , Mangere, ca 1895, photograph reproduced by kind courtesy of Mangere Historical Society. c. 1895, South Auckland Research Centre

However, boys weren't totally let off the hook ... young male babies and toddlers had to endure the ridicule of wearing dresses before graduating to shorts & shirts:

Ref: 31-55899, Master Jone, 1909, Sir George Grey Special Collections

Children were also given lots of accessories to wear including gloves, muffs and hats (and sheep!):
 

Ref: 31-74090, child wearing gloves & hat, 1913, Sir George Grey Special Collections

Ref: 4-8944, small child wearing a hat and muff, no date, Sir George Grey Special Collections

Ref: Footprints 01980, the Kelsey children, Howick, c. 1902, photograph reproduced by courtesy of Howick Library, South Auckland Research Centre

  Swim & beachwear was also a bit different but playing in the sea was still fun:

Ref: T0806, children from the Health School Sun Club at Takapuna beach, 1920, North Auckland Research Centre

Ref: JTD-04K-04134, children at Piha Beach, 1935, West Auckland Research Centre

Ref: T7452, Dawson family on Takapuna Beach, c. 1910s, North Auckland Research Centre