Figure 1.--Here we see Prince Olav dressed in what looks like a reefer jacket and turtle neck sweater. This photograph was taken in 1912 when Prince Olav was 9 years old.

We do not know a great deal about how Prince Olav was dressed as a boy. We have a few images of the Prince in our archive. We do note him often wearing sailor suits like his English cousins. They were very traditional styled sailor suits. The ones we note are white suits, but we assume he also wore blue suits. We also see him as a younger boy wearing kneepants with leggings and a heavy coat with a sailor cap. We also note him weaing what I first thought was a dark suit, but was probably a reefer jacket (figure 1). He also wears a turtle neck sweater. Unfortunately many of the images that we have are not dated.

Sailor Suits

We do note Prince Olav often wearing sailor suits like his English cousins. They were very traditional styled sailor suits. The suits look like British Royal Navy sailor suits. Norway had a very small navy, more of a coast guard force. We do not know to what extent their unifirms differed from the British Royal Navy and if any such difference was reflected in Olav's sailor suits. The ones we note are white suits with long pants. These would presumably be Summer suits. Portraits taken inside, however, do not indicate seasonality. We assume he also wore blue suits during the Winter months. We are unsure what sort of headwear he wore with these suits.

Coats

Perhaps because of the weather we often see Prince Olav bundled up in winter coats. Some of the images are portaits. Others show him playing outdoors in the snow. One image as a younger boy show him wearing a light colored coat. I'm not sure what the color was. The coat was done in the double breasred style with large buttons. Olav wears a matching tam-like sailor cap. We have noted him wearing this coat and cap on one of his English visits.

Pants

We see Prince Olav as a younger boy wearing both knee pants and long pants. We have not noted him wearing knickers, but he may have. Olav usually seems to have worn mostly knee pants, although with sailor suits he some times wore long pants. And he wore sailor syuits quite a bit. That was common with sailor suits. Boys at the time who often wore knee pants, sometumes had long pants sailor suits. Presumably this was seen as more accurate for naval uniforms. With Olav for some reason we see him wearing white long opants and dark knee pnts with his sailor suits. He always seenmed to have worn long stockings with knee pants. Here the climate in Norway no doubt was a factor. We also notice him wearing knee pants with leggings and a heavy coat.

Reefer Jacket

We also note him weaing what I first thought was a dark suit, but was probably a reefer jacket (figure 1). He also wears a turtle neck sweater. This photograph was taken in 1912 when Prince Olav was 9 years old.

Created: 7:20 AM 2/10/2005
Last updated: 9:46 PM 6/27/2011