Figure 1.-- A variety of tunic suits were popular for younger boys in 1907. There were tunics in a varirty of styles, including sailor, Russian, and Buster Brown styles. Buster Brown suits became rather the symbol for the era--perhaps because of the cartoon strip. Actully sailor tunics were probably more common. One of the problems in researching tunic suits is that there was nodefinitive term for them. We note a 1907 newspaper ad, for example that refers to a bloomer suit. |
A variety of tunic suits were popular for younger boys in 1907. There were tunics in a varirty of styles, including sailor, Russian, and Buster Brown styles. Buster Brown suits became rather the symbol for the era--perhaps because of the cartoon strip. Actully sailor tunics were probably more common. One of the problems in researching tunic suits is that there was nodefinitive term for them. We note a 1907 newspaper ad, for example that refers to a bloomer suit. The same ad also calls the suit a Russian suit, meaning a Russian blouse suit. There were other terms used as well. We used the term tunic suits because there were different styles all based on a tunic. The term bloomer suit refers to the pants which were often bloomer knickers.
A variety of tunic suits were popular for younger boys in 1907. There were tunics in a varirty of styles, including sailor, Russian, and Buster Brown styles. Buster Brown suits became rather the symbol for the era--perhaps because of the cartoon strip. Actully sailor tunics were probably more common. One of the problems in researching tunic suits is that there was no definitive term for them.
This advertosement appeared in the Newark Evening News. We have relatively few newspaper ads archived in HBC. Most of our enties comes from catalogs, especially Wards and Sears. This is misleading as newspapers were a major advertising medium. Unfortunately they were also efeneral. While there are many surviving copies of the old catalogs, there are few available copies of these old newspapers. Thus these ads are much more difficult to acquire.
The tunic suit here was offered by Hahne & Co, a Newark department store. The store referred to itself as "Newarks store beautiful". It was lovated on Broad, New, and Halsey street. We know nothing more about the store. Perhaps some of our New Jersey readers will know more.
The tunic suit was a sailor-style suit. A reader writes, "I recently came across an ad from the Newark Evening News (May 30, 1907) when I was doing my dissertation research in Newark, New Jersey. The ad was captioned, "Boys' Bloomer Suits". It read, "Here is a pretty Russian Suit for boys of 2 to 5 years--one selected for illustrating purposes from our immense collection. Made of pique: deep sailor color extending down front; trimmed with open embroideries and insertions; hand embroidered crests or shields. Price......$7." This was just one of the yiunic suits offered. There were both cheaper and more expensive ones. The ad further states, "Russian Bloomer Suits made of Wash Poplin, Madras, Gingham and Calatea in white and color; with or without sailor collars; trimmed with
embroidery, insertions, crests and emblems. Prices range from $1.50 to $10."
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