Child's dress

Through the first decade of the 20th century, young boys wore dresses until the age of 5 or 6. Some families continued this practice until about 1940. Over the course of the century, boys made the transition to pants at a progressively earlier age, eventually not wearing dresses at all. Boys were dressed as "little men," in knee-length or shorter trousers. This trend toward distinguishing gender right from birth, using clothing styles and colours, picked up momentum over the last hundred years.