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A wide age range of German boys wore sailor suits. The age of boys wearing sailor suits varied over time. We are uncertain about 19th century trends as we have few images. We note Prince Wilhelm in the 1860s wearing sailor suits as a younger boy. We know much more about the late 19th and 20th centuries. We also note primary boys wearing sailor suits to school in the 1890s. By the early 20th century and probably earlier sailor suits appeared to have been worn by older boys as well. We note younger teenagers commonly wearing them through the 1920s as well as a few mid-range teen agers, perhaps 15-16 years old, although this is often difficult to tell with any precssion. . This became less common in the 1930s, especially by the mid-1930s as the NAZIs discouraged this, except for the Marine Hitlet Youth uniform of course. After the mid-1930s we see younger and younger German boys wearing sailor suits. After World War II the sailor suit declined sharply in popularity. We note only quite young boys commonly wore sailor suits in Germany.
We note two year old boys wearing sailor tunics in the late-19th century. A good example is Olin in 1895.
We note Prince Wilhelm in the 1860s wearing sailor suits as a younger boy in the 1860s. After World War II the sailor suit declined sharply in popularity. We note only quite young boys commonly wore sailor suits in Germany. We no longer see school-age boys wearing them.
sailors suits from the 1890s to the 1930s were commonly worn by school-age boys. We see many boys in their first day of school portraits wearing sailor suits.
German boys age 12 very commonly wore sailor suits.
We see many younger teenagers wearing sailor suits, especially 13 year olds. For the most part teenagers stopped wearing sailor suits, but this dynamic did not yet begin at age 13 years. This was especially common in the early 20th century and continued through the mid-1930s. The unidentified boy here is a good example. We note younger teenagers commonly wearing them through the 1920s and early 30s. It was fairly common to see 13-year olds wearing sailor suits. This began to change after the mid-30s. Sailor suits became less common in the 1930s, especially by the mid-1930s as the NAZIs discouraged this, except for the Marine Hitlet Youth uniform of course. Except for very young boys, the sailor suit had a much to middle-class image for the NAZIs. After the mid-1930s we see younger and younger German boys wearing sailor suits.
We still see 14-year old German boys, but at about 14 years and especially by 15 we see far fewer boys wearing sailor suits.
While we see many yunger teen agers wearing sailor suits, after age 14 they become much less common. We do not a few images of boys 15 and even 16 wearing them. We do not think many boys wore them after age 16. This is often difficicult to estimate wth any precession because most available photographs do not have the age of the children noted. And estimating ages can be done roughly, but not precisely. While we are sure that some boys wore them at age 15. We are less sure aout ahe 16. We think it is likely tht some did, but we can not yet substantiate this. Some photograhs certainly look like the boys may be age 16. The 1920s seems to be the decae that the oldest boys wore sailor suits, but we are not entirely sure about this. As far as we can tell, sailor suits were popular with boys as well as the parents. This proably began to change about age 13 or 14, depending on the chronological period. We suspect that most boys by age 16 would have preferred to wear more mature styles.
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