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I'm afraid we don't have much yet on children's atire at seaside resorts. It is another topic that we hope to eventually research. Actual bathing costumes often had sailor motifs. Poor boys couldn't aford bathing costumes and might go swiming in their underwear. In secluded locations the might go skinny dipping when they were with their mates. However at beach resorts by the Victorian era, bathing costumes were required, even for small children. Not much information yet on bathing costumes, but I am beginning to collect some. Actually beachwear at the turn of the century did not mean just bathing suits. Boys wore the same suits to the beach that they wore for every day. Linnen or other light-weight sailor suits were of course popular outfits for boys on excursions to the beach in the late 19th century. White suits or other light colors (especially pale blue), were especially popular. Of course they were worn with broad-brimmed sailor hats. Broad brimmed hats were especially important for children as they were for women. I am not precisely sure why children often were dressed in wide-brimmed hats. I am not sure that white complexions were quite so important for children, but still they were commonly dressed in broad-brimmed hats. Other suits such as Norfolk suits with stiff Eton collars were also common, often worn with knee pants or knickers and long wollen stockings. This might not sound like sensible beach wear to the modern reader, but don't forget that Victorian England was far removed from the war weather in sunny Florida. Thus English children might be on beach outings on cloddy days with rather cold water--even in July and August. (Take a good look at how far north England is on the map.) So the heavy suits might have felt quite nice. The stiff Eton collars, however, do seem a bit unreasonable--testifying to the more formal approach to dressing which lasted until World War II in America and even longer in England. The children would take off there long stockings to go wadeing and digging on the beach and shallow water.
Children have worn a variety of clothing at beach resorts. Thee various types were most common before World War I when formal clothing was very common at beach resorts. Swimwear or bathing costumes existed, but children often did not wear swimwear, but more formal clothing for playing on the beach.
Actual bathing costumes often had sailor motifs. Poor boys couldn't aford bathing costumes and might go swiming in their underwear. In secluded locations the might go skinny dipping when they were with their mates. However at beach resorts by the Victorian era, bathing costumes were required, even for small children. This varied though somewhat by country. Not much information yet on bathing costumes, but I am beginning to collect some. We do note some sea resort portraits done with the children wearing their bathing costumes. Most portraits, however, show the children more fomally dressed.
Swimwear/bathing costumes were not as common before World War I as they are today. Children commonly wore formal clothing at beach resorts. Some times they rolled up their pants and took off their shoes and stockings, but basically wore nice clothing even for plying on the beach. One option was protective clothing worn over their clothing. We have noticed both rubberized and non-rubberized protective garments. One such garment was bib-front short pants, but with big legs in which pants and skirts could be rolled up. We are not sure when these protective garments forst appeared. We do not yet have any 19th century examples. We do have sime early-20th century examples. We do not see many examples of protective clothing, but enough to know that it was a fairly common practice. We continue to see examples into the inter-War era.
We also see children dressed informally for the beach or at least for seaside beach resort photgraphs. A factor here is that for younger children plsying in the sand is often more important than actually swimming which is a bit beyonf them and requires much more careful adult supervision. Even for playing in the sand we often see the children dressed rather formslly in the early 20th century. This changed after World war I when we see children wearing what might reasnably be called play clothes although it will ofte look rather formal to the modern eye.
Actually beachwear at the turn of the century did not mean just bathing suits. Children might dress quite formally even for the beach. Boys wore the same suits to the beach that they wore for every day. Linnen or other light-weight sailor suits were of course popular outfits for boys on excursions to the beach in the late 19th century. White suits or other light colors (especially pale blue), were especially popular. Of course they were worn with broad-brimmed sailor hats. Broad brimmed hats were especially important for children as they were for women. I am not precisely sure why children often were dressed in wide-brimmed hats. I am not sure that white complexions were quite so important for children, but still they were commonly dressed in broad-brimmed hats. Other suits such as Norfolk suits with stiff Eton collars were also common, often worn with knee pants or knickers and long wollen stockings. This might not sound like sensible beach wear to the modern reader, but don't forget that Victorian England was far removed from the war weather in sunny Florida. Thus English children might be on beach outings on cloddy days with rather cold water--even in July and August. (Take a good look at how far north England is on the map.) So the heavy suits might have felt quite nice. The stiff Eton collars, however, do seem a bit unreasonable--testifying to the more formal approach to dressing which lasted until World War II in America and even longer in England. The children would take off there long stockings to go wadeing and digging on the beach and shallow water. Older children might build sand castles. Younger children might persue less ambitious projects.
One might think smocks would be serviceable beachwear, but we have not noted them commonly being worn.
Beahwear seems remnarkly standard among countries. We do not see specific country styles like we see for regular clothing. There were some differences among counties, but they seem rather limited, especially before World War II. A factor was climate. The more northerly the country, the lest dominant swimsuits were was for beachwear. After the WAr we see some differences, especilly between America and Europe. The brief suits some European boys wore were never popular in America. We have jusr begun to building some country pghes, including America, England, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and other countries.
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