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The Norfolk suit was created in England. It was widely worn in may nounties, but no where was it so widely worn as is England. The Norfolk jacket is modeled after the hunting suit worn on the estate of the English Duke of Norfolk in the early-19th century. (One source said 18th century, but I don't believe I have ever seen Norfolk jackets in 18th century paintings. Sportsmen on the Duke's estate reportedly first wore what we now call the Norfolk jacket. Guests included the Prince of Wales who became King George IV. Tradition has it that the Prince himself ordered a garment from his tailors that would allow him to swing a gun with grater ease that the tightly fitting, tailored suit jackets he wore. The Norfolk design varied with many variants. The basic design was a jacket with a loose, comfortable fit accross the soulders and chest. The jacket also had box pleats, two in the front and one in the rear which opened and clothes as the individual swivels about. It was a rare garment that was specifically designed rather than adapted for use in sports. It was also a waist-length jacket, We are not sure if it originally had matching trousers. Knickerbocker pants becme associated with it. It was initially an adult style for country wear, but became a popular styles for boys. We have less access to English clothing catalogs than in America, but we note many avialable British photographs showing boys commonly wearing Norfolk jackets. HBC has noted it being commonly worn in Britain during the late-19th century. Early images show vertical pleatrs. We also see many boys wearing Norfolk suits on the early-20th century. We do not begin to see the horizontal belts until the 20th century.
The Norfolk jacket is modeled after the hunting suit worn on the estate of the English Duke of Norfolk in the early-19th century. (One source said 18th century, but I don't believe I have ever seen Norfolk jackets in 18th century paintings. Sportsmen on the Duke's estate reportedly first wore what we now call the Norfolk jacket. Guests included the Prince of Wales who became King George IV. Tradition has it that the Prince himself ordered a garment from his tailors that would allow him to swing a gun with grater ease that the tightly fitting, tailored suit jackets he wore.
The Norfolk suit was created in England. It was widely worn in many counrties, but no where was it so widely worn as is England.
The Norfolk suit was initially an adult style for country wear, but became a popular styles for boys. We have less access to English clothing catalogs than in America, but we note many avialable British photographs showing boys commonly wearing Norfolk jackets. HBC has noted it being commonly worn in Britain during the late-19th century. The CDV here is undates, but looks like it was tajen in the 1870s or early-80s (figure 1). Early images show vertical pleats. We also see many boys wearing Norfolk suits during the early-20th century. We do not begin to see the horizontal belts until the 20th century. We note the Schiele boys in the early-20th century weaing collar buttoning and lapel jacket Norfolk suits. They all have Eton collars and neckwear. The boys were Argenines, but living in England. Another good example is Crespal Gordon Stoddart who was vacationing in Southport about 1900. And we note the Rainard boy with his mother and siblings wearing a Norfolk suit and matching cap with in 1912. He has an Eton collar wormn without any neckwear. We have found quite a few images from the 1910s. It is difficult to say if this was because that Norfolk suits wre so popular in the 1910s or reflects our klarger archive of 20th century images.
We see English boys wearing two major types of Norfolk suits. Styling varied on both types, but these were the primary types. Both were widely worn, but the collar buttoing jackets seem the most common. There were both collar buttoning and lapel jackts. In the 19th century we see a lot of collar buttoning jackets like the boy is wearing here, probably in the 1870s (figure 1). Not all 19th century Norfolk suits had collar buttoning jackets, but they seem the most common type. We do not have a lot of mid-19th century images, but quite a few from the late 19th century. We are nor entirely sure if these collar buttoning jackers came with collars becuause so many were worn with Eton collars, both with and without bows which covered the collar area. But images we have archived look like they some of thg jackets were not done with collars. This essentially meant that it was assumed that gthey would be worn with Erion collars. These Norfolk jackets are especiall associated with Eton collars because the popularity of both over-lapped so closely. After the turn of the 20th century, we begin to see more Norfolk suits with lapel jackets, primarily single-breasted jackets. Double-breasted Norfolk suits were not common. We have not yet found an example in the photographic record to archive.
The Norfolk design varied with many variants. The basic design was a jacket with a loose, comfortable fit accross the soulders and chest. The jacket had two basic features: a horizonal belt and vertical pleats. Many had both, but we also see many with just one. The boy's jacket here only has the verticalm pleats. There were box pleats, two in the front and one in the rear which opened and closes as the individual swivels about. It was a rare garment that was specifically designed rather than adapted for use in sports. It was also a waist-length jacket, We are not sure if it originally had matching trousers. Knickerbocker pants became associated with it.
Most of the images we have found show Ebglish boys wearing Norfolk jackets with knickers. Our archive is limited so we can not make any definitive statements at this time.
We note many English boys wearing Norfolk suits wore them with Eton collars. They were worn both with and without neckwear. We see this in both the 19th and 20th centuries. Almost always they are worn over rather than dolded under the jacket, p;resumably for best display. The boy here is agood example.
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