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Sailor suits were especially popular for boys in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There were several different styles. These two boys, presumably brothers, are dressed identically, but notice the different way of wearing their caps. A reader writes, "I am uncertain whether I could say the boys are dressed identically. I
notice that they both wear white sailor suits but there the similarity seems
to end for me. The boy on the right wears straight pants while the one on
the left wears bell bottoms. The boy on the right has a sailor collar that
goes much further down on his blouse (maybe a size big?) while the boy on
the left has a much smaller collar and shorter sleeves (maybe his blouse is
small for him?). The way their ties are tied are also different as well as
you noted how they wear their caps." HBC would still say the boys are dressed identically, meaning the same garments, not how the hats are worn or the bows tied. Our reader does, however, raise some interesting questions about the sailor suits here which merit discussion.
Unfortunately we know nothing about the boys other than they are American. We assume that they are brothers, although they do not look mych alike. They are probably about 8-10 years old. We have no idea where they are from in america. Interestingly the back ground looks rather rural. We had thought that sailor suits, especially white sailor suits, were more of an urban style. And the suits here are the complete kit.
The snapshot is also not dated. We would guess the portrait was taken about 1905-10. We can't be sure about that, but am fairly sure it was tajken before World War I (1914).
The two boys here wear identical white sailor suits. These white suits were popular summerwear for boys. As our reader mentions, however, there are differences in how they wear their suits and fits better than the other. The differences do raise some interesting questions.
The hats are identical, although they look differenty because of the way the boys are wearing them. I'm a little surprised that mom would take such care to dress the boys identically and not have them wear thedir caps the same way, especially for a photograph. Perhaps dad took the photograph, which is more likely, as was not so concerned about such matters.
I think the blouses are identical. Our reader is correct though that the ccollars look to be different sizes. I think this is just the ways the boys are wearing them. The slleves though look really short on the one boy. This is a bit of a mistery becaise I doubt if his arms have grown that mich since the suits were purchased. The legs, for example, don't look long. It is possible mon made the blouses and didn't get the neasurements right. Here I just don't know.
Both boys have identical white dickies without any designs or emblems.
It is a little hard to tell, but I think the scarves are tord with the same knot. I am guessing that mom tied the knots, but it is possible the boys did it. The scarves appear to be different lengths. Here I am not sure why. I am guessung that the actual size of the scarves are identical, although I have no way of knowing. It is possible that because one boy is larger, that the length came out different.
Most boys this age in the early 20th century wore knee pants or knickers. One of the outfits sometines done in long pants were sailor suits. I presume this was done to make them more like actual uniforms. Here it certainly looks like one boy has bell bottons and the other straight-leg pants. I think a lot of tghese long pants sailor suits were done with bell bottons. It could be that the other boy also has bell bottoms, but it is not apparent because of the way he is standing. It seemns unlikely that if mom made the outfits that she would do one with bell bottoms and the other with straight legs. If the outfits were purchased in the store, perhaps they could be different. Straight-leg pants like that, however, seem a little unusual for the time period.
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