Figure 1.--This French post card was postally used in 1912. The front has sailor sttling, but it looks rather like some Fauntleroy-type suit HBC noted discussed in a 1908 fashion article. While boys did wear suits like this, HBC believes that the pink color is a figment of the card painter's imagination. |
Some sailor suit outfits might have added lace and ruffled trims. This included both Fauntlerou outfits with sailor collars are essentially a sailor suit with added trim. While the Fauntleroy style was extremely popular for a generation, it was infact worn by a relatively small percentage of well dressed boys. Some have extimated 10 percent in America, I'm less sire about France. The sailor suit, hpwever was worn by boys for mpre than a decade. From about 1880-1930 probably most French boys as some time in their life had a sailor suit. Most had traditional styling, but there were also many suits with widely divergent styling based on the easily regonizable "V" front and back flap. Some middy blouses and sailor tunics had Fauntleroy stling to different degrees. This usually involved adding varying amounts of lace and ruffled trim to the front "V" and back flap. Some sailor outfits had even greater degrees of Fauntleroy styling.
This boy's sailor "V" collar has lace trim which is presumably repeated on the back flap. It is also repeated on the cuffs. It also appears that the boy is wearing some sort of lace trim to the bottom of his shorts, but this is probably not the case and simply a result of the post card coloring. The middy blouse and dickie are painted pink, but this is an unlikely color painted in and probably unrealted to the boy's actual outfit which swas priobably white. He is wearing white three-quarter length socks and rather modern looking shoes with lace bows tied to them. The bows may be a special addition for the post card. While French boys in the early 1910s did wear such sailor outfits, I', not sure about bows on their shoes. His hair cut is parted and has bangs to them and side length reminiscent of the American Stuart 1915 catalogue for children 2-6 years old. This boy looks to be about 8 years of age.
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