Figure 1.--These two unidentified English brothers wear marching double-breasted suits. The boys look to be about 5-7 years old. The studio portrait is undated, but the patterned-top knee socks and low-cut shoes help to date it to the 1930s-40s. The studio was Starlight in Foreshore, Scarborough a seaside resort town.

Our English archive is not as large as our American archive, but we are slowly expanding it. And we have a substantial 20th century archive. Just as we see double-breasted suits in the late-19th century, we continue to see them in the early-20th century. We believe that there were social class connotations here, but that is a subject on which we are still working. After World War I, the single-breasted jacket became the major style, but we continue to see quite a few double-breasted suits in the inter-War era. Many boys ore suit jackets or blazers to school. This was the case of not only private schools, but also mny state schools, These jackets and blazers were almost always single breasted. The double-breasted jackets were suits purchased for dressing up and not for schoolwear. This meant that there was a social-class aspect to the boys wearing them. After World War II, however, we see fewer boys wearing these jackets. And in the post-War era by the 1960s double-breasted jackets largely out of style. This occurred at the same time it was becoming geneally less common for boys to wear suits.

Created: 8:02 AM 4/4/2018
Last updated: 8:02 AM 4/4/2018