Figure 1.--This is a CDV photo of a boy wearing a fancy, knee pants sailor suit with white trim. He is identified as, 'Brewster O Beebe', although the last name is unclear. Click on the image to see the inscription. He was age 3 years, 10 months. The portrait was taken on August 6, 1874 by Mosher in Chicago, Illinois. Notice the multi-colord bow worn in the "V" cut out. This was common in the 1870s when many sailor suits did not have shields or dickies. Also notice the stripes and buttons on the knee pants. We also see this in the 1880s, but by the late 80s we also see sailor suits with dickies.

The sailor suit for boys was not an instant success in America. We do not know of American boys wearing sailor suits before the 1840s and Queen Victoria began dressing the Prince of Wales in sailor suits. (HBC has done considerable research on Victoria and Albert and their family. We still do not know just who came up with the idea of te sailor suit, but we have collected a great deal of information on the clothes worn by the princes and princesses and their family life. Even after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert introuced the style it was for several decades little known in America. I am not sure just when sailor suit crossed the Atlantic and began catching on as a boy's fashion. Few images are available from the 1840s and even the 50s because of the relative rarity of photographic images. We habe noted few boys wearing sailor suits in available Daguerreotype portraits. Portraits were still quite expensive and catalogs just beginning to appear. HBC have not noted American sailor suits and hats in the 1840s and 1850s. In fact, boys clothes showing an influence of army uniforms, such as double-breasted jackets with rows of buttons seemed popular. Outfits with army stylistic touches were worn during the Civil War era (1861-65). We notice only a few sailor suits from the 1860s. We do, however, note quite a few boys wearing variously styled sailor suits in 1870s portraits. Suits styled just like naval uniforms from this period are relatively rare until we get to the 1870s.

The 1840s

The sailor suit for boys was not an instant success in America. I do not know of American boys wearing sailor suits before the 1840s and Queen Victoria began dressing the Prince of Wales in sailor suits. (HBC has done considerable research on Victoria and Albert and their family. We still do not know just who came up with the idea of te sailor suit, but we have collected a great deal of information on the clothes worn by the princes and princesses and their family life. See the Royalty section.) Even after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert introuced the style it was for several decades little known in America. I am not sure just when sailor suit crossed the Atlantic and began catching on as a boy's fashion. Few images are available from the 1840s.

The 1850s

More information is available fromthe 1850s. A photography becomes more estanlished. Still we have not yet found American boys wearing sailor suits in the 1850s. That is not to saythat nonedid, but we have not yet found photographic evidence of it. We have a substantial archive of Daguereotypes and Ambrotype images from the 1850s, so even if the sailor suit did reach the United States in the 18t0s, it clearly was not very common. Portraits were still quite expensive and catalogs just beginning to appear. In fact, boys clothes show a very strong influence of army uniforms, such as double-breasted jackets with rows of buttons seemed popular.

The 1860s

We know much more about the 1860s. The appearance of the albumen print and the CDV sunstantially reduced the cost of a studio portrait and there was a literal explosion in the number of portraits taken. Outfits with army stylistic touches were worn during the Civil War era (1861-65). These military-looking jackets were still popular in the early 1860s. We do begin to see some sailor suits in the 1860s, but they were not yet very common. It was the cut-away jacket that was more common for younger boys, a style that seems related to Zouave uniforms. We notice only a few sailor suits from the 1860s. We believe that indicated that the style was not yet very common in the United States. We do not yet have a large enough number of sailor suit images from the 1860s to know much about the styling. Initially it seems that it was the V-front styling and not the stripe detailing that was most important. These seem to be suits for younger boys up to about 8 years of age. Many were made with knee pants. This is, however, just our initial assessment.

The 1870s

We do note some American boys wearing variously styled sailor suits in 1870s portraits. The most notable aspect of 1870s sailor suits was the variety of the styling. Boys sailor suits styled just like naval uniforms from this period are not all that common, but we see some. And the standard "V"-front collars were not yet standard. We see some sailor suits done with regular collars or very small V-fronts. We do see a lot of stripes, even with non-V-collar fronts. Some suits even had the stripes on the pants as well. This of course was never seen on actual naval uniforms. The sailor detailing was normally done mostly on the blouse. But in the 70s we seem quite a few examples of sailor detailing on the pants. The boy here is a good example (figure 1). We see both knee pants and long pants. Bloomer knickers were less common. At the time knee pants were becoming standard for younger boys. Older boys wearing sailor suits usually wore long pants. A goog example of sailor suits in the 1870s is the Webb children about 1875. The boys were living in Shanghai, China (presumably the international concession) at the time so their suits may reflect European (primarily British) rather than American styles. The boys wear elaborate sailor suits, but without the V-front. The stripe detailing was often quite bold and not done to replicate actual uniforms. We note both pull-over middy bluses and button-up jackets. We have not yet noted girls sailor outfits in America during the 1870s, but we believe they began to appear. The sailor suit seems to have been a style for relatively young boys rather than a generalized boy's style during the 70s. but we have found a few images of older boys wearing sailor suits. More than age, the sailor suit seems to have been a style for fashionable, well-to-do families. This may partially explain the wide variety of styling. Fashionable mothers wanted to put their fashion sence to work on their son's outfits.

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Created: 2:21 AM 3/3/2007
Last updated: 10:26 AM 1/8/2018