Figure 1.-- Here we see a brother and sister wearing identical, probanly blue, sailor syits, we think arround the tun of the 20th century. The sailor suits look like they could have come from the 1920s-30s, but the cabinet card mount looks more like the 1900s. Notice the necklace.

We see many family portraits and snapshots of all the children in a family wearing sailor suits, both the brothers and sisters wearing sailor suits--the entire family. The sailor suit was seen as appropriate for boys and girls so it could be used to dress the ebtire family. This was most common of course for small families when the children were about the same age. With larger families this was more complicated with greater age and gender diversity. But even so, we do see some large families with all the children wearing sailor suits as well. This was rather like the Trapp family in the "Sound of Music", although the film took great liberties with the actual family story. Dressing the whole family in sailor suits was not very common, but it was not rare either. We are not sure about tge families involved. Perhaps it was just that the style was popular. Perhaps they were naval families, but Germany had a very small navy and the sailor suits were very popular in the country.

Small Family

Dressing the children in sailor suits was most common for small families when the children were about the same age and the same gender. But we also see many images of boy and girl siblings dressed in matching sailor suits. This could be an entire small family or just two children in the family who were close in age. This was very common for small familes, especially when the children wre close in age. We see many examples in the photographic record. The other children could be dressed differently in other styles.

Large Family

We see many family portraits and snapshots of all the children in a family wearing sailor suits, both the brothers and sisters wearing sailor suits--the entire family. The sailor suit was seen as appropriate for boys and girls so it could be used to dress the entire family, although there were age constraints. With larger families dressing all the children in sailor suits, this was more complicated with greater age and gender diversity. But even so, we do see some large families with all the children wearing sailor suits as well. This was rather like the Trapp family in the "Sound of Music". It was not very common, but it was not rare either. We are not sure about the families involved. Perhaps it was just that the style was popular. Perhaps they were naval families, but Germany had a very small navy and the sailor suits were very popular in the country. We in particular wonder about families where all the childrebn wear sailor suits, including the older children. Mother of course was usually who decided about the chuldren's clothes, but we suspect in some of these indstance, fther took a stance. In these instances we believe that often something else was involved than just popular fashion. It is likely that the family was conservative and the parents rather strict.

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Created: 3:39 AM 6/22/2009
Last updated: 1:09 PM 4/5/2018