Paulus Moreelse (Dutch, 1571-1638), 1634. They may not all look like boys, but they are. Until the end of the nineteenth century, little boys were kept "in skirts" well past weaning. The moment of transition, when boys left off skirts, was called "breeching" and depending on the time period, came as late as six or seven. (In the 1780s, when Marie Antoinette's sons were born, she popularized a simpler attire for little boys between the ages of three to about seven: plain trousers that…
