Figure 1.--Albrecht here in 1915, after the death of his brother is now Erbprinz. Notice his hair is being grown out again.

We do have several portraits of Prince Albrecht and we thus know a lot about how he was dressed. His mother chose a variety of very fancy outfits. He must have worn dresses as a younger child, although we do not have portraits conforming this. He wore satin suits with kneepants. He also wore a knickers suit with lace collar. Quite a number outfits show him wearing large lace collars. There were also sailor suits. These appear to be some of the few long pants outfits that he wore. Often the outfits were coordinated with those of his brother Luitpold. There were also Bavarian folk cotumes. Luitpold died in 1914.

Dresses

Albrecht wore dreses as a younger child and we have a few images confirming this. We note him weaing dresses at about age 2,but are unsure as to precisely when he was breeched. The dresses we have noted are white and quite frilly.

Satin Kneepants Suits

Albrecht wore a variety of satin suits with kneepants. Most appear to have been white or a cream color, but there may have been pastel colors as well. This is difficult to assess with the available black and white images. These suits appear to have been very similar to the ones worn by his older brother Luitplod. Often there were small differences, presumanly reflecting the age difference between them. These suits appear to have been made in the button-on style, although Albrecht often wears fancy sashes making this difficult to tell. We classify these outfits as suits because the top and bottoms match. The tops were, however, not precisely jackets as they were not worn over blouses. We are not sure to what age Albrecht wore these suits. After about 1914 when his brother died, we have few images of him. Presumably World War I itself called for more sober attire.

Satin Knickers Suit

He also wore a knickers suit with lace collar. This portrait was probably taken about 1913, shortly before his untimely death. He certainly looks healthy. He looks to be about 12 years old. He wears a dark satin knicker suit with a large pointed lace collar. I'm not sure what color the suit was. The rather long jacket is plain. It has large buttons which button at the collar. While thge jacket is plain, it is worn with a large pointed lace collar and matching wrist cuffs. THe pants look to be knickers. They are over the knee, but do not blouse out much. They were worn with dark long stockings.

Collars

Albrecht like his brother Luitpold wore quite a number of outfits with large collars. Some, but not all were lace collars. Some appear to have been pleated. We have noted Albrecht wearing several different collar styles. Not ony were their sailor collared middy blouses, but there were several different styles of large collars. One was a large white collar with pleated material. There were many different style of lace collars. Quite a number of outfits show him wearing large lace collars. The two basic kinds were a generally rounded, but scalloped style and another one with a sharply pointed lace collar. We have noted Luitpold weaing this large pointed lace clar ith a dark satin suit, but hav not seen images of Albrecht wearing a imilar style. As might be expected, they appear to be made of high-quality fine lace, not a ruffled collar with a little lace trim at he edge.

Sailor Suits

There were also sailor suits. Like most German princes, Albrech and his brother wore sailor suits. Bavaria was land locked and had no navy. Bavaria was, however, [art of the German Empire and the Kaiser was building a large highseas fleet. We have noted both white and dark suits. These appear to be some of the few long pants outfits that he wore. The sailor suits the boys wore appear to have been quite standard ones.

Folk Costumes

There were also Bavarian folk cotumes. The fact that the boys were dressed in Bavarian folk costume is interesting. Folk costumes are often a recreation of the clothing of the common people often at at about the 16th-17th century. What is often unclear is at just what stage privlidged classes began to wear these clothes as folk costumes. The privlidged classses in the 17th and 18th century would not wear such clothes, seeing them as the outfits of uncouth poor peasants. We are unsure as to just when such attitudes changed. We note that Rupprecht's children wore Bavarian folk costumes at the turn of the 20th cebtury. We are unsure if Rupprecht and his bothers in the late 19th century wore Bavarian folk costume in the late 19th century. What was going on in Bavaria was not disimilar to devlopments in other European countries. A good example ws the Scottish kilt which evolved from a 18th century symbol of barbaric resistance to Enhgand to a respected symbol of the British Empire.

Hosiery

Prince Albrecht as a younger boy wore short white socks with dresses or short kneepants outfits. As an older boy he commonly wore long stockings with his satin kneepants outfits. The long stockings look white, but they could have been pastel colors as well. We do not notice him wearing dark longstockings with dark suits like his older brother, but we do not have any images after avout 1915. We note both dark anf lighter-colored kneesocks with the Bavarian folk lederhosen outfits. As he wore long pants with his sailor suits we do not know what kind of hosiery was involved.

Footwear

A few photographs show Albrecht as a very yoing boy wearing strap shoes. We note that with his kneepants satin suits that he commonly wore what look to be court pumps, both with and wthout buckles. These were often white matching his satin suits. I'm not sure what they wore with sailor suits. The boys look to be wearing boot-like shoes with theur lederhosen folk outfits.

Created: 3:02 AM 2/19/2008
Last updated: 3:02 AM 2/19/2008