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We notice many German boys wearing sailor suits to school in the 1920s, especially in the early 1920s. It was less common than before World War I, but still quite common. There were substantial variations. Some classess have only a few boys wearing sailor suits. It was rare that for a class not to have at least one or two boys dressed in sailor suits. Some classess might have nearly half the boys in sailor suits. We think this in parts reflects social class trends. Schools with a lot of middle-class children were more likely to have a number of boys wearing sailr suits. The proportion generally declines as ther boys get older. The syles were more standardized than before the War. The boys wears relatively similar styles, although the colors vary. Several different garments were popular. Headwear does not seem very common, but the boys often have wear them for formal portrait. Most boys wear pull-over middy blouses and short pnts or knee pants.
There were both summer and winter suits. The boys are wearing white, light-blue, and dark-blue sailor suits. The age of the boys wearing sailor suits also declined during the 1920s, but we still see the younger boys in secondary schools wearing them.
We notice many German boys wearing sailor suits to school in the 1920s, especially in the early 1920s. It was less common than before World War I, but still quite common. There were substantial variations. Some classess have only a few boys wearing sailor suits. It was rare that for a class not to have at least one or two boys dressed in sailor suits. Some classess might have nearly half the boys in sailor suits.
We think this in parts reflects social class trends. Schools with a lot of middle-class children were more likely to have a number of boys wearing sailr suits.
The proportion generally declines as ther boys get older. The age of the boys wearing sailor suits also declined during the 1920s, but we still see the younger boys in secondary schools wearing them.
The sailor suit syles were more standardized than before the War. The boys wears relatively similar styles, although the colors vary. The most commo style was a sailor blouse and short pants. the blouses tebded to have a very common cut, the colors vried. varied. we note both white, dark, and stroped blouses. The dark ark blouses were navy blue. This varied seaonably. The striped blouses were mostly navy on white, bit there may have been other colors. They were worn with and without dickies. While this was the most common sailor style.outfir which you can see in the class here (figure 1), it was not the only style. We also see more of an elaborte suit outfit with a kind of jacket rather than a simple blouse. Detailing like brass buttons were common. This was much less common and we do not see many of these suits worn to school, but we do see several in fitst day portraits. Thesuits might have been worn for the portraits, but not commonly worn to school. Presumablly the boys also had sailor blouse outfits for ordinary school days. We think large numbers of boys had the blouse outfits, but much smallr numbers had the suit outfits. The suit outfits were also commonly worn with short pants.
Several different garments were involved in sailor suits. Several different garments were popular. Headwear does not seem very common, but the boys often have wear them for formal portrait. By the 1920s this meant sailor caps. We no longer see sailor hats toany extent. Most boys wear basic pull-over middy blouses, usually with tightly tied scarves. We no longer see the button-up blouses that were common before the War. The boys mostly wore short pants or knee pants. There was no expressely sailor hosiery, bur we see both socks and long stockings. The main factor being seasonality, but there were variations from family to family. Boys wore both shoes and sandals with sailor suits, but shoes seem more common for school wear.
There were both summer and winter sailor suits. This was rerflected in the color of thes uits that the boys wore. The boys are wearing nostly white, light-blue, and dark-blue sailor suits. There may have been some other colors, but blue and weight were thre most commom. Unfortunalely the black-and-white photography does not tell us much about color. While what is noticeable in the photographs is color, less noticeable is the material. The light-colored suits were normslly made with light-weight material. The darkl suits are normally a heavy-weight fabric.
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