Figure 1.--Here we see a cabinent portrait of an unidentified boy with his sister. She wears a light-colored dress with a kind of open vest. The boy wears a plain light-colored sailor suit with knickers. The portrait is undated, bit the reverse noted a range of awards the studio has won. At least two are dated 1884. This leads us to beliece that the portrait was taken about 1885 or some time between 1884-90. The studio was van Bosh in Frankfurt. (The use of 'van' rather than 'von' suggests that the photiographer was Dutch.)

German boys, as best we can tell, primarily wore knickers as part of sailor suits during the 19th century and the very early-20th century. This does not have anything to do with sailor suits, but seems to be more a fubnction of the types of pants seem suitable for the age group wearing knickers. We think that knickers were worn with sailor suits when they first appeared in the 1860s. Sailor suits did not become a major style umtil some later. We know they were popular by the 1880s. Here we see a boy wearing a knickers sailor suit about 1885 (figure 1). The portait was not dated, but can be dated to the mid80s. Knickers were a major style by the 1890s. Throughtout this period we see boys wearing knickers as part of their sailor suits. Knickers with sailor suits during the 20th century were mostly worn before World War I. On the previous page we see a boy with sailor suit knickers about 1910 (figure 1). After World War I we rarely see a boy wearing sailor suits with knickers. We do see teenagers wearing knickers in the inter-War period, but except for younger teenagers, the older boys did not wear sailor suits.

Other Related Pages:
[Sailor suits] [Kilts] [Smocks] [Pinafores] [Sailor Hats] [Blouses]
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Created: 12:19 AM 2/6/2007
Last updated: 10:42 PM 3/12/2010