*** English sailor suits : chronology








English Sailor Suits: Chronology

English sailor suits
Figure 1.--This English boy wears a light-colored knee pants suit. The button-up jacket has sailor styling with a "V" front and back flap. The photograph is difficult to date, but the small bow the boy wears suggests the 1860s or ealy 70s. The quality of the image suggests the 1870s. Note the stripped stockings. HBC believes this is an English boy because the image was provided by an English contributor, however, can not be completely sure that it is English.

The sailor suit is essentially a Victorian style. Sailor suits as outfits for boys appeared first in the mid-19th century. Some reports suggest that boys may have worn sailor suits in the early 19th century. We can not yet confirm this. We do know who popularized the sailor suit. It was the British royal family. The Royal Family chose a copy of a Royal Navy uniform--astutely an enlisted uniform. Many other parents purchasing a sailor suit or their children chose much more imaginative designs. Gradually as the sailor suit grew in popularity the styling became more standadized on actual uniforms. This varied somewhat by country as did the age of the children wearing sailor suits. The sailor suit was a first only for boys. Girls gradually began wearing dresses with sailor styling and eventually sailor suits as well. The sailor suit persisted as a popular style for boys in Britain until after World War I.

The 19th Century

Unlike many fashions, we know just who came up with the idea of the sailor suit ans when. We know little about the early use of the sailor suit in England after it was worn by the Prince of Wales. While some boys wore sailor suits it does not appear to have been an important style for boys or girls. We are not sure why the style was not immediately adopted, especially given the respect felt for the Royal Navy and the interest of boys in it. English boys not only wore the traditional middy blouse style of sailor suit, but by the 1860s a variety ofother garments with sailor styling appeared. Sailor suit styles varied widely. Some were replicas of Royal Navy uniforms while others were more imaginative. The detailing on these suits also varied widely. Boys for example wore suits that had jackets with sailor styling. These suits by the 1870s were mostly knee pants suits, but many were done sith bloomer knickers. While the middy suits by the 1870s were also worn with knee pants, they were also widely available in long pants. By the 1870s the middy suit was virtually the only long pants suit that pre-teen boys might commonly wear. The ages of the boys wearing sailor suits also varied widely. By the 1870s the middy suit was virtually the only long pants suit that pre-teen boys might commonly wear. The ages of the boys wearing sailor suits also varied widely. Beginning in the 1880s that the sailor suit began to emerge as one of the most popular outfits for boys. While some mothers preferred fancier outfits like Little Lord Fauntleroy suits, the sailor suit had the advantage that boys, especilly during this era actually liked them. It is not entirely clear to me why it was during the 1880s that sailor suits emerged as such a popular style after being so little use for several decades. English boys wore sailor suits with both knee pants and long pants. I am not sure which was more common, but I think knee pants became increasingly common in the 1880s. While royal children and perhaps children from titled families might wear the suits with long bell-bottomed trousers like the Prince of Whales in the famous Winterhalter 1846 painting, we think ordinary boys were increasingly wearing knee pants suits. While the sailor suit was worn by relatively old boys in some countries, particularly Germany, this does not appear to have been the case in England.

The 20th Century

We continue to see boys wearing sailor suits in the aelhy-20th century. The sailor suit appears to have been the most popular outfit for boys by the 1890s and this popularity contunued in the 1900s and early 1910s. Sailor suits do not, however, appear as popular in England as in many other countries. Which is interesting given the importance and prestige of the Royal Navy. The sailor suit was a mainstay for the royal family. Sailor suits seem to have been particularly popular for boy ubnil age 8 when boys from affluent fanilies would be sent to boarding schools. These boys thus began wearing their school uniforms and more mature suits. We see boys at a few prep schools without uniforms wearibg them. On their summer vacations, however, they mightwear sailor suits on outings to beach resorts. The suits were worn with a variety of pants but by the 1910s, short pants were becoming increasingly common. I believe the long pants were considered more formal. We are less sure about how common they were for working-class boys. We do see younger boys wearing them in state schools. Sailor suits continued to worn to some extent after World War I, but a major change ocurred in the inte-War era. The sailor suit was no longer a major style for boys. We arebnot sure why this change ocurred. We do not see a simikar shift in France and Germany, but we notice a similar shidt in America, although not to the same extent. The sailor suit for what ever reassons were, however, not nearly as common as before the War. In addition, they were increasingly worn by younger boys. It was rare to see an English boy older than 8 or 9 years of age wearing a sailor suit. This was in part because boys from affluent families generally began their preparatory schools at age 8. Most boys once they began wearing their school uniforms, no longer wanted to wear sailor suits which they looked on as only suitable for little boys. Most of the images we have found from the inter-War era come from the 1920s, especially the early-20s. We see very few examples from the 30s. We no longer see the sailor suit being worn by Engish boys, except for spcialm occassions. Younger boys Boys might wear sailor suits for special occassions, such as wedings. Here we are primarily talking about society weddings where people dressed to then nines.








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Created: March 4, 2004
Last updated: 9:55 AM 6/12/2014