Boys' Tunic/Blouse Suits: 20th Century Style Types


Figure 1.--We see boys wearing various styles of tunics in the early 20th cebntury. These American children were probably photographed anout 1910. We are not sure how to classify this one.

We note younger boys wearing many different styles of tunics. This was an especially popular stule in the early 20th century. There appear to have been three different basic styles of blouse tunic suits: sailor, Russian, and Buster Brown blouse suits. The sailor style was especially popular for these tunic types. The style of the tunic was set almost entirely by the tunic itself and not by the pants worn woth it which were mostly covered. This is a little more complicated. Some tunics, for example, were done in the double breasted style, but these might fall into different categories, like the Buster Brown style. These suits at the time were referred to in different ways, futher complicating the task of organizing the different tunic suits into basic types. Of course tunic styling varied over time. The styles listed here are primarily turn-of the-20th century styles. We say this as a shorthand. We also note these tunics being worn in the very late 19th century, primarily the 1890s.

Sailor Tunics

One of the most popular style of tunics were those made in the sailor style. They differed from classic sailor suits in that the tunic was much longer than a middy blouse and almost always had a distinctve belt. They were usually worn with blouse like knickers. Some of the sailor-type tunics could be plain while others had elaborate lace and ruffle trim.

Buster Brown Suits

Buster Brown suits were popular for younger children in the early 20th Century. I'm not sure who introduced the style or precisely when. I'm not sure if it was a style picked up by the Buster Brown comic strip or an entirely new style created by the cartoonist. It does appear, h owever, to have been most popular after the turn of the century. Toddlers at that time often wore dresses or smocks. One of a boy's first suits was often a Buster Brown suit.

Russian Blouse Tunics

The Russian blouse was a loose roomy blouse or jacket based on the style worn by Russian peasants. The jacket would often come below the waist, giving the impression of a smock-like garmet. Russian blouse tunics were worn by boys in the 19th and early 20th Century. There were two styles. A comfortable-looking open collar cut squarely was worn in the early 19th Century, primarily by wealthy European boys. A closed-collar style for boys around became popular around the turn of the century. They were usually worn with above the knee bloomer style pants and long stockings. It was worn with a collar that buttoned around the neck. Unlike many styles for boys at the time, there were no stiff large collars and no floppy bows to be worn with it.

Double-breasted Style

Most of the tunics worn by boys did not have fronr button. Many like the sailor tunics were pullovers. The Russian blouses had buttons set to the side, somrtimes not all of the way down. The double breasted tunic had a more boyish look as it was front buttoning. Some ogf the outfits looked rather like Buster Brown tunics. They often had large white collars--often Eton collars, with usually worn with smaller bows than worn with Buster Brown tunics.

Informal Style

A new style of tunics appeared in the 1910s and was worn through the early 1920s. The tunic was styled to look less like a tunic or skirted garment and more like a long shirts. The tunic was shorter than classic tunics, about midway between the waist and knees. They were worn with knee pants. Often the tunic had a variety of open-necked collars with them. Long stockings--especially white stockings were commonn.

Other Skirted Tunics

Some tunic suits are hard to classify in one of the major categories. In some cases it is because the images are not clear enough. Other images are clear but just not styled like one of the major categories. Some of these are fancy tunics clearly styled for boys' best part suit. Many of these suits are styled rther like Buster Brown suits, but the tunic was not nearly as plain.

Shorts

HBC has even noted one tuuic which appears to have been made with shorts rather than a skirted hem--rather like an early romper suit. The portrait is undated, but HBC estimates that it was taken about 1905. The gender of the child wearing it is unknown and as uit is a younger child it is difficult to tell. HBC believes, however, that it was probably a boy. Surely a garment made with shorts instead of a skirted hem in 1905 would have been for boys. This does not appear to have been a common styles as HBC has noted few such examples.







HBC







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Created: 2:50 AM 3/23/2007
Last updated: 2:50 AM 3/23/2007