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Sailor suit fashions and conventions for wearing them varied greatly from year to year. Many of the differences are based on the uniform differeces of the various national navies. Even so there are a great many similarities with the sailor suits worn by boys in dufferent countries. The reason for this of course is that both boys' sailor suits and sailor uniforms were often based on Royal Navy uniforms. The Royal Navy was a dominaznt force in the 18th century, bit after Trafalgur (1805), the Royal Navy was not even challenged by another navy for over 100 years. Thus it was the Royal Navy uniforms that became such an influential standard.
Sailor suits were extremely popular in Austria just as in Germany, despite the Austro-Hungarian Empire having only a small navy. The sailor suit is today almost associated with Austria, in part because it is the costume of the world-famous Vienna Choir Boys. HBC knows, however, little of the history of the sailor suit in Austria.
Unlike some countries where sailor suits were popular, Belgium had no national navy of any consequence. HBC believes that Belgium fashions are basically a function of French fashions and sailor suits were enormously popular in France. Likewise they were extremely popular in Belgium. I'm not sure about the exact chronology, but at the turn of the century most Belgian boys had a sailor suit and commonly wore it. They were an extremely versitile garment They were often worn to school and for a variety of formal occasions.
Canadian boys as in America and Europe also wore sailor suits. We have little information about this fashion specifically related to Canada. A Canadian reader has provided us a
photograph of an English Canadian boy wearing a traditionally styled sailor suit in 1928. The suit is quite a bit different than those worn by American boys. Perhaps it is
based on an English style. The cap is a type we have not noted being commonly worn in the 1920s, either in America or England. We are insure to what extent it was a popular
boy's style in Canada.
Sailor suits were extremely popular in Denmark as they were throughout Scandinavia. The sailor suit may have been more popuklar in Denmark than any other Scandinavian country, perhaps because Denmark borders Germany where the sailor suit was also very popular. Boys wore blue and white sailor suits seasonally. I do not know of any distinguishing features of Danish sailor suits. They appear to ave worn the very traditional styles favored by the Germans and not the fancier styles that some French boys wore. HBC has noted several styles. Blue suits were commonly worn with kneepants and long stockings during the winter. Summer suits were often white or stripped in lighter material.
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Few garments are more associated with boyswear than the sailor suit. While no longer commonly worn, the sailor suit was worn by boys in Europe and America for a century. The origins of the boys' sailor suit or vague. Apparently it was in England during the first quarter of the 19th century when someone had the inspiration that boys should wear sailors' trousers. (Some sources suggest an even earlier appearance of the sailor suit as boys' atire, but as yet I cannot confirm that.) It is not known who first conceived of the idea. It is known with certainty, however, who popularized it--Queen Victoria. It was a clevely designed effort to associate the monarchy which had declined in popularity with the most popular institution in Britain--The Royal Navy. The result was a stunning success for the monarchy and a fashion that dominted boyswear like no other style for a century. The English styles have influenced naval uniforms around the world. Most of the sailor suits worn by boys have been influenced diretly or indirectly by British uniforms. Despite the popularity of the sailor suit with the Royal Navy, as a boys outfit, it was more popular in America, France, Germany, and other countries than in England.
Estonia has for years been part of the Russian empire, both Tsarist and Soviet. Estonia like the other Baltic republics were briefly independent (1919-40) until invaded by the Soviet Union in 1940. With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1992, Estonia once again vecame an indepedent country. Sailor suits were commonly worn by Estonian boys in the late 19th and early 20h centuries. As Estonia was part of Tsarist Russia until the Revolution (1917), the sailor suits worn by Estonian boys were similar to those worn by Russian boys.
We do not have a great deal of information on Finland yet. We do note a portrait of a Tampere boy who we think may be Finish. He wears a knee pants sailor suit, we think in the 1890s.
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Sailor suits were very popular for French boys by the late 19th century. A popular style was to wear middy blouses with knickers, both above and
below the knee styles, with short ankle socks. By the 1920s they were being worn by younger boys, mostly with short pants. French boys wore many kinds of straw hats with their sailor suits, including the wide-brimmed style with streaming ribbons. They also wore them with the soft white caps with red pompoms like the caps worn by French sailors. Sailor suits continued to be popular in the 1930s when they were made in sizes to 12 years in both
short pants and long pants styles. This meant French boys through about 13 wore sailor suits. Several different styles were worn, for details see the French sailor suit page.
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Sailor suits were as popular in Germany as in virtually any European country--much more so than in England. Quite old boys would wear sailor suits in Germany, perhaps older boys than elsewhere in Europe. The sailor suit reflected Germany's infatuation with building a navy, a decission which led Germany and Europe down the path to World War I.
The sailor suit was a popular garment in Greece as in much of the rest of Europe. Our information is still limited, but we have begun to collect some basic information. HBC notes a portrait of a boy in a traditionally styled kneepants sailor suit in the 1870s. We are not sure how common these suits were at this time. We suspect that they were mostlt worn by boys from relatively affluent families in the larger cities. Another portrait probablt from the 1910s shows a boy wearing a white sailor suit with bloomer knickers. We suspect by this time that the sailor suit fashion was much more widespread in Greece. We note that it seems less common to wear sailor suits with long stckings than it was in the more northerly European countries. Boys in other European countries commonly wore sailor suits to school. This was also probably the case in Greece, at least in the cities.
Sailor suits were very popular for Italian boys. The style became popular at about the time of Italian unification. The new country began to build a navy and mothers proceeded to outfit their sons in the
fashion.
Sailor suits while popular n the West, never seem to caught on for boys in Japan--despite the emense prestige of the Imperial Navy. We have limited information about sailor suits in Japan, but the imaes we have found of boys wearing sailor suits are commonly very young boys, often pre-school boys. A good example here is a 1912 postcard. School boys after elementary school have worn uniforms with an army look. School girls, however, have worn sailor suits. European clothing styles for children were popular in Japan. HBC had assumed that the fact school girls wore sailor suits probably made the style unpopular with the boys least they be thought of as dressing like the girls. A HBC reader, however, tells us, "Sailor suits are rather popular in Japan in the 2000s, mostly as school uniforms but also as a basic style. A lot of little boys wear them, but more girls do, up through highschool and even adult women wear them." HBC at this time has not details on the extent to which boys wear sailor suits in Japan or other details such as ages, styles, conventions, and the chronology.
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The sailor suit was one of the most important Dutch boy's style for perhaps three generations. The authors believe that the sailor suit was an especially popular style in the Netherlands, perhaps in part due to the country's maritime tradition. We still have limited information on Dutch sailor suits, but they appear to have been widely worn by the 1880s. Sailor suits were normally worn with kneepants or knickers. After World War I (1914-18) short pants sailor suits become more important, but were worn by younger boys. HBC has not noted destinctively styled Dutch sailor suits, but rather boys wore common styles developed in other countries. Probably English and German styles were the most important influences.
HBC has little information on Poland at this time, but believes that sailor suits were widely worn. This was true even though Poland was not a country until after World War I and even then did not have a cubstantial navy. One glimpse at late 19th century Polish fashions can be found in the movie, Death in Venice, the main character was a Polish boy who wore sailor suits. We notice Polish boys wearing matching sailor tunics in 1921.
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The royal family's penchant for sailor suits is well known. The Tasarevitch Alexis was probably the most famous boy ever to war sailor suits. He was more famous than Edward VII, who Queen Victoria dressed in an enlisted sailor suit starting the sailor suit's phenomenal fashion success. Alexis before World War I (1914-18) almost always wore sailor suits. I assume that made them very popular in Russia, at least among wealthy and middleclass boys in the larger cities. Suits carefully followed the style of the Russuian Navy which wore dickeys with horizontal stripes.
Sailor suits were popular in Sweden as in the rest of Scandinavia. Perhaps they were not as popular as in Denmark, but the popularity and time line seems relarively similar througout Scandinavia. We have little informnation on the styles of sailor suits. Boys at the turn of the 20th century were wearing kneepants sailor suits with long stockings. Here we see a boy and his sister in 1937. The boy wears a smartly tailored long pants sailor suit.
Sailor suits were a popular style for Swiss boys as was the case in most European countries. Unlike many of these countries, however, land-locked Switzerland had no national navy on which to base the style of boys' sailor suits. Even so, sailor suits were commonly worn by boys in German, French, and Italian speaking areas of Switzerland. The styles worn probably reflected the styles popular in these three countries, but HBC at this time has few details about such stylistic differences.
HBC know little about Turkish boys wearing sailor suits. We have seen some images of Turkish boys wearing sailor suits, but do think it was very common. We do know that they were stronly influenced by the Germans politically, so perhaps some fashions were also affected. Kemal Attaturk seized power in the 1920s and began a westernization campaign which again may have affected boys fashions. The Ottoman Turks have operated powerful naval fleets, but by the early 20th century had only a small force when they entered World War I. It does not seem to have inspired public interest, and thus the popularity of the sailor suit, as was the case in many European countries.
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Boys in Ulster (northern Ireland) wore English-style sailor suits. HBC knows of no real difference between the sailors suits worn in Ulster and England. One wonders if rather patriotic-looking sailor suits, however, might have been more popular with the Protestant than the Catholic boys.
Sailor suits were worn relatively little through the 1870s. This changed dramatically in the 1880s. By the 1890s they were the single most popular outfit for
boys and, unlike the Fauntleroy suits also wornh in the late 19th Century, boys actually liked them. The sailor suit became popular in America as the country emerged as a major naval power. The styles seemed to follow British styles modified to reflect U.S. naval
uniforms. Even boys still wearing dresses were outfitted in
sailor suits with skirts. Sailor suits in the 1860s and 70s were made in a variety od styles and oinly gradually did the traditionlly styled suits emerge as a standard. As the sailor suit became popular in the 1870s, pants styles for boys shifted to knee pants worn with long stockings. Sailor suits with knee pants continued to be a popular style for boys through the 1910s. As boys pants styles shifted
to knickrs in the 1920s, sailor suits began to go out of style. Some small boys wore them, but with short pants rather than knickers.
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