German Royalty: Wilhelm II Children's Clothes--Sailor Suits


Figure 1.--Here we see all Wilhelm II's children wearing sailor suits except Victoria. All the boys are wearing saior suits. The older boys wear long pants suits. The younger boys wear kneepants and bloomer knickers. The photograph was taken in 1896.

The sailor suit with kneepants appears to have been a popular outfit. We are unsure, however, to what extent the boys wore sailor suits. The Kaiser himself commonly wore sailor suits as a boy, but he had an English mother. We are unsure just how commonly he and his wife dressed the boys in sailor suits, in part because of the relatively few family images we have acquired. (Images of Kaiser Wilhelm;s grandchildren are much more common than his children.) Sailor suits only seem to have been worn by the boys when younger and before they began cadet school. While some images show the boys wearing sailor suits, we see them wearing many other outfits as well. We note that in an 1896 portrait where Prince Joachom wrears a Fauntleroy suit, that the next youngest princes (Oskar and Augustus) are wearing very plain kneepants sailor suits. We have found only the one image where with all the children wearing sailor suits (figure 1).

Popularity

The sailor suit with knee pants appears to have been a popular outfit. As far as we know Prince William in the 1860s was the first German boy to wear a sailor suit. It was not common at the time in Germany. But of course Wilhelm's mother was English, thus the stle was introduced to Germany. His mother's visits back to England and events showcasing the Royal Navy had a huge impact on Wilhelm and his brother. (Prince Henry in fact went into the navy.) The German navy was virtually non existent in the 1860s. But by the time that portraits of Kaiser Wilhem's family was taken, the German Empire under Wilhelm's guidance was moving toward the construction of a modern highseas fleet. And the style was caching on wih the German public. The fashion impact of the royal family and the the nationalist feeling associated with building a major highseas fleet were both factors popularizing the sailor suit in Germany. We suspect that this was a factor in the developing popularity of the sailor suit in Germany. We are not sure, however, just how important it was.

Gender

The sailor suit began as a boy's outfit. Notice that Princess Victorias here is the only one not wearing a sailor suit. Apparently the Kaiser or Kaiserina did not beliee the sailor suit was suitable for a girl. The sailor suit was, however, to become as popular for girls as it was for boys. Here I am not sure of the time line yet.

Royal Family Wear

We are unsure, however, to what extent the boys wore sailor suits. The Kaiser himself commonly wore sailor suits as a boy, but he had an English mother. We are unsure just how commonly he and his wife dressed the boys in sailor suits, in part because of the relatively few family images we have acquired. (Images of Kaiser Wilhelm;s grandchildren are much more common than his children.) Sailor suits only seem to have been worn by the boys when younger and before they began cadet school. While some images show the boys wearing sailor suits, we see them wearing many other outfits as well. We note that in an 1896 portrait where Prince Joachom wrears a Fauntleroy suit, that the next youngest princes (Oskar and Augustus) are wearing very plain kneepants sailor suits. We have found only the one image where with all the children wearing sailor suits (figure 1).

Styles

The styles we see the princes wearing are all very traditional styles.

Colors

We notice the princes wearing both the navy blue and white suits. We only see the younger boyswearing the white suits. We are not sure if the white suits were seen as unsuitable for the older boys. Our archive of images is still fairly limited.

Significance

It is a little known fact that the boys' sailor suit had a role in preparing the ground work for the calamity of World War I. Fashion is generally viewed by HBC as a reflection of larger historical an societal trends. We remained convinced that this is essentially the case. It is interestng however, to reflect on the impact of the boys' sailor suit in the years leading up to World War I. It certainly reflected the temper of the times, but there is reason to believe that the sailor suit was a factor, of course among many others, in leading the great European powers to war.






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Created: 6:53 AM 12/24/2005
Last updated: 10:43 PM 7/14/2006