Figure 1.--Pisti who was 7 years old and Viki who was 3 years old can be seen in this 1898 portrit. Note that the boys wear different suits, but the same wide-brimmed sailor hats, Eton collars, and floppy bows. Notice thereare no creases in the pants.

The boys wore quite a few different types of sailor suits which appear to have been especially popular with the boys' mother. We also notice the boys wearing a variety of other garments with various elements of sailor styling, such as sailor hats. We notice the boys wearing both white and blue sailor suits. I'm not sure to what age the boys wore sailor suits. One portrait shows one of the boys wearing a sailor hat and suit at age 10. I'm not sure how much longer they wore sailor suits. One suit was all white without any stripes or detailing. The white middy blouse was worn with black pants, but they may have had white pants as well. Another suit was blue with traditional stripe styling. While some of the outfits had traditional middy blouse styling. Another style was a short jacket held togther with a little strap closure. The boys wore their sailor suits with kneepants and bloomer knickers. They may have also worn long pants, but we are not sure about this. The boys wore scarves with their sailor suits. The carves were not tied informally as was common in America, but rather tied in a very tight formal knot. This was a common fashion in Germany.

Popularity

Sailor suits appear to have been especially popular with the boys' mother. We are less certain how the boys may have thought about the suits. We assume that the mother's penchant for sailor suits reflected a general Austrian preference for this style. We are not sure to what extent the sailor suit continued to be popular after World War I (1914-18) when Austria emerged as a small land-locked country. Austria no longer had a navy. We know that after the Anchluss in 1937 that the sailor suit was not popular with the NAZIs.

Age

I'm not sure to what age the boys wore sailor suits. One portrait shows one of the boys wearing a sailor hat and suit at age 10. I'm not sure how much longer they wore sailor suits.

Figure 2.--This is Viki at age 10 in 1905. He wears a white middy blouse with black pants.

Hats

Wide-brimmed sailor hats were popular with as younger boys, probably with dresses and without sailor suits. I am not sure what other headwear the boys wore, but we note that as younger boys, they commonly wire wide-brimmed sailir hats. We also note flat top sailor caps.

Scarves

The boys wore scarves with their sailor suits. The scarves were not tied informally as was common in America, but rather tied in a very tight formal knot. This was a common fashion in Germany.

Types

The boys wore quite a few different types of sailor suits. Some look familiar to styles that were worn throughout Europe and others seem to have destinctive Hungarian styling. We also notice the boys wearing a variety of other garments with various elements of sailor styling, such as sailor hats. We notice the boys wearing both white and blue sailor suits. One suit was all white without any stripes or detailing. The white middy blouse was worn with black pants, but they may have had white pants as well. Another suit was blue with traditional stripe styling. While some of the outfits had traditional middy blouse styling. Another style was a short jacket held togther with a little strap closure. This and variations of it were a common outfit for the boys. While the boys wore several different styles of sailor suits, we do not see suits using the three-stripe traditioinal styling so common in other European and American sailor suits. We are not sure if this was the general trend in Hungarian sailor suits or just the preferences of the boys' mother.

Pants

The boys wore their sailor suits with kneepants and bloomer knickers. They may have also worn long pants, but we are not sure about this. There do not seem to be any age appropriate connotions associated with the choice of kneepants and bloomer knickers. They both appear to be fashionable styles in turn of the 20th century Hungary. All of the knickers wer bloomer knicketrs with elasticized leg closings rather than buckle closures. The kneepants are rather destinctive on that the hem buttons run rather high up the legs of the kneepants. Most of the times the boys wore long stockings, but a few show the boys wearing socks.

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Created: April 18, 2002
Last updated: April 20, 2002