Eton suit
Eton
suit
In Brief
Hearing Simon Dedalus talk about his son, Bloom thinks, "If
little Rudy had lived. See him grow up. Hear his voice in the
house. Walking beside Molly in an Eton suit. My son." This
daydream returns as a hallucination at the end of Circe,
when "a figure appears slowly, a fairy boy of eleven, a
changeling, kidnapped, dressed in an Eton suit with glass
shoes and a little bronze helmet." The attire that Bloom
envisions was developed at England's prestigious Eton College
in the late 19th century and soon became popular in other
social settings.
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The Eton suit had a short black jacket and was accompanied by a waistcoat and a large, stiff white collar. By the turn of the century these outfits had spread to many other schools. They were commonly worn to formal gatherings outside of school, and even in casual settings. Families who could not afford the suit often purchased just the collar. Whether or not Bloom imagines his son attending the very expensive and very English boys' school, picturing Rudy dressed in this way says something about his social aspirations.
Source: histclo.com.