Figure 1.--This English CDV portrait was taken at the J. Grey studio in Stonehouse, Devon. he portrait is undated. It looks tonus as if it was taken in the lste-21860s, in prt because of the white stoickings sand the plsin background. It could have, however, been taken in the early 70s. The boy is Identified on the back, but the writing is difficulr to read. It is something like John Kearney. Put your cursor on the image to see if you can read the writing.

We see English boys besides the royal princes wearing sailor suits for the first time in any number during the 1860s. Photograpy was invented in 1839, but we unlike America we see reklastively few of the early phitographic types (Dags and Ambros). The CDV appeared during the 1860s providing us large numbers of English images for the first time. We are not sure if the fashion only began in the 1860s or it is the large number of images made possible by the CDV that give us a valid view of popular fashion trends for the first time And we see quite a few boys wearing sailor suits. English boys not only wore the traditional sailor blouse style of sailor suit, but by the 1860s a variety of other garments with sailor styling. Sailor suit styles varied widely. There was not yet an established traditionasl style. Some were replicas of Royal Navy uniforms like Prince Bertie wore while many were more imaginative. We see mostly period boys styles with sailor features and detailing. A good example is a boy in a Frome family in the 1860s. He looks to be about 4-5 years old. His older brothers wear cut-away jackets. The detailing on these early sailor suits also varied widely. Boys for example wore suits that had jackets with sailor styling, including the iconic "V" collar. Not all early sailor suits, however had the "V" collars. We do see stripes being used in various ways on both the blouse and trousers. A good example is the fashionable suit that Frank Laurence, a London boy is wearing, we think in the late-1860s. Stripes were a critical element of sailor styling. We see suits being done both as knee pants abd long trousers. Many of the long trousers were done as bellbotoms like the suit Prince Edward wore and the trousers worn by actual Royal Navy sailors.

Other Related Pages:
[Sailor suits] [Kilts] [Smocks] [Pinafores] [Sailor Hats] [Blouses]
[Ring Bearers] [Long hair] [Ringlet curls] [Hair bows] [Bangs] [Collars] [Bows]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries] [Girls]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossary] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: 5:28 AM 9/26/2009
Last updated: 11:04 AM 7/31/2017