Figure 1.--This portrait of Prince Rupprecht's son Luitpold was probably taken about 1909-10. He certainly looks to be about 8-9 years old. He wears a satin suit with a lace collar. Also note the fancy sash.

We do have several portraits of Prince Rupprecht's son Luitpold 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 Albrecht. There were also Bavarian folk cotumes. We have no information on what he thought about his various outfits. There are no images as Luitpold as a teenager as he died in 1914.

Outfits and Garments

We have collected information on a variety of outfits worn by Luitpold and some of the garments associated with those outfits. We have not been able to find much written information about Prince Luitpold. We have, however, been able to archive many portraits of the royal family. This has provided a wealth of information on how he was dressed as a boy. We are uncertain what kind of headwear Luitpold wore. Virtually none of the images we have show him with any kind of headwear, in part because they are mostly indoor images. We do have a photograph of him wearing a sailor cap as younger boy with his sailor suit We do not know what he wore with his other outfits. Luitpold like many boys at the time wore dresses as a younger child. While this fashion was declining after he turn of the centry, it was sill quite common--especially for boys from wealhy families. We have only limited portraits providing details about the drsseses he wore. We believe, however, that he almost certainly wore the same style of dresses that younger brother Albrecht wore and we have severl images of Albrecht. Some photographs show Luitpold wearing what looks to be a tunic suit with matching kneepants. The available image are not very clear, but he looks to be wearing Tunics with kneepants. American boys at the time generally wore tunics with bloomer knickers, but the images we have of Luitpold shows him wearing matching knepants. Luitpold wears large white collars including lace collars with his tunics. We are not sure what colors the tunics were. Luitpold had light-colored suits with kneepants. Many but not all of these suits were made in satin. These suits look to be white or cream colored, although they could have included pstel colors as well. We have noted several different collars, usually with matching wrist trim. As a young boy Luitplod had a wide, pleated white collar. More commonly he wore a lace collar with these satin suits. They were above the knee, kneepants suits. They were worn with both short socks and long stockings. There were also sailor suits. These appear to be some of the few long pants outfits that he wore. He may have also had kneepants sailor suits, but we o not yet have any images to substantiate this. We note images of Luitpold wearing both white and blue sailor suits at quite a wide range of ages. Prince Luitpold as a younger boy wore short white socks with dresses or short kneepants outfits. As an older boy he commonly wore long stockings, both dark and light-colored, with fancy satin suits. The long stockings may have been worn more commonly for formal occassions, but we seem to note the short socks more as a younger boy. We are unsure as to what extent seasonal factors may have been involved. We note dark kneesocks with the Bavarian folk lederhosen outfits. We also notice lighter colored kneesocks, porobably grey, with strips at the top. We note as an older boy Luitpold wore buckle shoes with fany dark satin shoes. He also wore fancy light colored shoes when wearing light long stockings with light-colored satin suits. We have noted only a few images of Luitpold weang strap shoes and only as a very young boy of about 3 years of age.

Conventions

All of the photographs we have of Luitpold and his brothers are formal photographs, really portaits. Thus what we have are photographs of the boys in their formal clothes. What we do not know is what Luitpold and his brothers wore when they were not having formal photographs taken.

Coordinated Outfits

Luitplod wore outfits that were often coordinated with those of his brother Albrecht. On first glance the outfits look identical, but in many cases there are differences between similar looking garments. We presume that many of these differences are not just random. Luitpold in several instances, for example, wear below the knee knickers suits while Albrecht wears above the knee kneepants. There were many other differences that seem puposefully selected to reflect the fact that Luitpold was 4 years older. Other differences may be random. We do not know Luitpold raised issues concerning his outfits or rather they were simply something his mother decided on without consulting him. We note that Luitpold only began wearing more mature outfits like an Eton suit after his mother's death. Some of the few outfits that were identical were sailor suits and lederhosen folk costumes.

Luitpold's Opinions

We have no information on what he thought about his various outfits. There are no images as Luitpold as a teenager as he died in 1914.

Created: May 6, 2002
Last updated: 12:01 AM 8/26/2009