Figure 1.--This CDV shows three siblings. One of the girls has writtem on the back, "Wolfred, me, Daisey". Thy look to be about 2-7 years old. The older girl wears a bloue with an Eton-like collar and a skirt. The younger girls a white dress. Both girls wear white stockings. The boy wears a classic white sailor suit with bell-bottom trousers. Notice the bow worn with the cllr. All the children wear strap shoes. The boy seems to wear the sandal style with the center post. We are not sure how to date the CDV. CDVs were common in Britain much longer than in America. Sailor suits like this were common in the late-19th and early-20th century. We would thus dte the portrait to the 1900s, but are not at all sure. The Studio was J.A. Bailey in Charlton Kings, Cheltenham.

There are a range of sailor style elements used on a range of sailor garments. These are not garments, but elements used with sailor garments and styling. Sailor headwear had tallies like the shop tallies worn by Royal Navy sailors. Another element was the streamers on sailor caps and hats. These were not exclusive to sailor headwear, but were strongly associated with it. This gets a little confusing because wide brimmed-sailor hats became worn by boys and girls even when not wearing sailor outfits. We also notice the streamers on Scottish bonnets, but are unsure at this time as to any connection. Surely the most important element was the destinctive V-front sailor collars used on blouses and other garments. They were done in a wide range of styling and detailing. Another element was bows or scarves used with sailor collars. Notice the bow the boy here has (figure 1). This is one way of differentiating English and German sailor suits. There was also the back flap added to the V-front collar. There were also coordinated sleeve cuffs like the boy on the main English sailor sit page. The boy here does not have the collar detailing repeated on his sleeve cuffs (figure 1). Both the V-collar and cuffs could vary quite a bit. Another important element is the bellbottom feature on some long pants sailor suits.

Other Related HBC Pages:
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Created: 5:12 PM 12/7/2016
Last updated: 5:12 PM 12/7/2016