The A to Z of children's fashion - L is for layering

Until the turn of the 20th century, uncomfortable layers were a staple of children’s clothes: not just to keep warm, but also to protect modesty and add shape to the outer clothes children wore. Sometimes, a few extra layers were just what was needed in a crisis – the memorable episode in Edith Nesbit’s The Railway Children when Bobbie and Phyllis famously strip off their red flannel petticoats to warn an approaching train of a deadly avalanche is a case in point