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German boys have worn many of the same styles of suit jackets as worn by other European boys. We have only little information on the style of the suit jackets worn by German boys, but we are beginning to collect some basic information. We have noted double breasted suits at the turn of the century. Single breasted suits, however, were more common in the 20th century. We have noted, however, some stylishly dressed boys wearing double breasted jackets. We also notice some jackets made to look like double breasted garments, but the second column of buttons were purely ornnamental. English styled jackets such as Etons do not seem to have been very popular in Germany, but Norfolk jackets were. We also notice some varably styled jackets that look have been made by mother at home. One popular fashion in Germany was to wear a Bavarian jacket, often with lederhosen, instead of a suit. At first reserved to Bavaria, after World War II the style beconmes more common in other parts of Germany. More specific details on jacket styles are not yet available.
One popular fashion in Germany was to wear a Bavarian jacket, often with lederhosen, instead of a suit. At first reserved to Bavaria, after World War II the style beconmes more common in other parts of Germany. More specific details on jacket styles are not yet available. One very destinctive German style was the Bavarian jackdet. They were often worn with lederhosen, but not always. A HBC reader asks us, "My question has to do with this subject. Is HBC familiar with a German jacket style called "tergense", and I am not sure I have spelled this correctly. I believe this is a jacket style named after a particular geographic area in Germany, though I am not sure. I did a couple different searches on the internet, varying the spelling of the word "tergense", such as "turgense", "tuergense", "turgency", etc. and I even though it might be spelled with a "d", so I tried "durgense", or a few variations of that word. I had worn this style of jacket with my brothers when I was very young, even though we are fully "Americans", but my mother had a flair and style in clothing us when we were young. Now I am trying to find out how this word is spelled. Can you offer any help?"
We are not sure how to describe this jacket. It has some feeatures of a Norfolk jacket. As in other instances, until we have a better name, we will describe it. It is a jacket with a button breast button pocket that was worn slightly open and connected with a Norfolk-like cental belt. We do not notice, hoever, the vertical venting. It does not have lapels, bit we are not sure if it buttons at the collar. This is because the example we have found has a boy wearing it with an Eton collar and floppy bow. Sone cut away jackets were done like this to show off fancy blouses. These jackets were not worn with especially fancy bows. We see this jacket in the 1920s. We have so few examples that we cannot yet develop a chronology.
Blazers were an English style associasted with sdchools there. They were adopted in many countries, including Germany. German boys also wore blazers. We note boys wearing stripped blazers asbout 1930 in an unidentified school. Here quite a number of boys are wearing blazers. This was, however, not very common. We generally don't see many German boys wearing blazers in the early-20th century before World War II. They were generally not an important garment of schoolwear. We do notice than more after World War II, especially by the 1960s.
This is another suit for a younger boy. Blouses of course were a kind of shirt (without tails) for a girl or younger boy. It was worn with or without a suit jacket. We notice some boys wearing a blouses garment that was worn as more of a jacket with a shirt underneath. Like many early garments, we are not sure what this suit was called nor do we know the German term. It seems a type of button-collar jacket, but most were not done with the bloucing affect as these. There was a drawstring in the blouse/jacket hem. We are calling this a blouse jacket, but if we learn of an actial period term we will rearchive it under that term. We prefer to use period terms when availavle and were fully accepted terms at the time. These jackets were normally worn with either kneepants or knickers.
We note many younger German boys in the late-19th and early-20th century wearing plain jackets without lapels which buttoned at the collar. We do not know what this style of jacket was called in German. We are not sure if there is a specific name for these jackets either in German or English. We will use the term collar-buttoning jacket until we find a better term. They were, however, very commonly worn. These jackets were worn by younger boys. They were done in a variety of styles. This included the double breasted style, at least a double row of buttons. Modern-styled suit jackets with lapels first appeared with adults. Many children jackets in different styles often buttoned at the collar in the mid-19th century. A good example is an unidentifed boy in the 1870s. And this style was still popular in the early 20th-century. We continue to see them into the early 1930s. As far as we can tell, Germany was one of the countries in which these suits were especially popular.
We see younger German boys wearing suits with cut-away jackets in the mid-19th century. I'm not sure what the German term was for this style of suit. We believe these suits were very common, at least with boys from afluent families. This seems to have been a fairly standard and popular style throughout Europe and America. The suits were often elaborately decorated--commonly with emroidered designs. Most were done with shortened-length pants, with knee pants or knickers. Our understanding of the chronological range is incomplere at this time. I'm unsure what kind of headwear would have been worn with these suits.
We have noted double breasted suits at the turn of the century. Single breasted suits, however, were more common in the 20th century. We have noted, however, some stylishly dressed boys wearing double breasted jackets. We also notice some jackets made to look like double breasted garments, but the second column of buttons were purely ornnamental.
Some English styled jackets such as Etons do not seem to have been very popular in Germany, but Norfolk jackets were exceeding popular. Nor do de know what the Eton jacket was called in German. We do see some German boys after World War II wearing the lapelless jackets worn by younger boys that were called Eton suits in America.
We notice a variety of jacket coats boys wore as part of suits. We are not entirely sure what to call these suits, either in English or German. This appears to have been a suit that was characteristically German. We do not note them being extensively worn in other countries except for Austria. The most recognizable was the Alpine or Bavarian jacket. There were, however, many other styles. The most notable characteristic was that the jacket coasts were shorter than a normal suit coat. They commonly only fell to waist level or just long enough top cover the waist bd belt. Styles varied. We note both single- and double-breasted jackets. The Alpine.Bavarian jackets had embroidered designs. The other jacket coats were plainer. We not both dark and light suits, but are unsure about the colors. We note a range of styles. There were somne made for younger boys as well as others for school-age boys. We note quite a range of styles for younger boys. Many of the syits for younger pre-school boys may have been made at home. These suits were not extensively worn by teenagers, although a few younger teens might have worn them. They were commonly made with short pants, but we also notice knickers and long pants as well.
The Norfok jacket seems to have been popular during the early 20th century. We are not precisely sure how popular the Norfolk jacket was in Germany. We note quite a few German boys in the early 20th century wearing Norfolk suits and jackets, at least belted jackets looking rather like Norfolk jackets. Many school portraits before and right after World War I show quite a few boys wearing Norfolk-style jackets. A good example here is the HBC 1910s German chronology page. A HBC reader reports, however, that he has noted relatively few photographic portraits of German boys wearing Norfolk jackets. One reader reports hearing a German tailor talking about a crease or pleat in the back of a "Norfolk Jacken" in combination with a belt or strap, a so-called "Golffalte" (golf pleat) that could run from the center of the back or alongside the sleeves. Other German terms associated with the Norfolk jacket included: Norfolk suits (Norfolkanzug, Nofolkpaletot) or suits in style of it (Norfolkform). At some schools Norfolk jackets were even more popular than sailor suits, but this varied from school to school and over time.
We notice single-breasted jacket in the mid-19h century. At the time it was one of several different types of suit jackets, many od which were more common for younger boys. We notice many German boys in the photographic record wearing standard single-breasted jacket. This became the most common style for suits after World War I. We also notice double-breasted jackets, but by the 1940s the single-breasted jacket was emerging as the most common type of suit jackets for both men and boys. This contiues to be the case today, although suits are must less commonly worn by boys. There were several dufferent stylistic elements with varied ovr time. The single most important was the lapels, but other features inclused the buttons, cut, pockets, and other features. They were worn with and without vests. The trousers varied over time. There were fashion variations as well as age conventions. Aftter the 1950s you begin to see most boys wearing long pants with suits.
Suit jackets by the 20th century had become highly standardized. There were a relatively small number of styles. This was not the case in the 19th century, especially the mid-19th century. We notice younger boys wearing jackets with highly varied styling--often with piping and elaborate embroidery. I'm not sure what the accepted term is for these hifgly varied jackets. The pants were normally done in the bloomer knicker style. We see the same styles in other European countries. We do not know at this time if there were any specific German styles.
Tunics were popular boys' garments in the early 19th century. We see in the mid-19th century garments that look somewhat like tunics, but cut shorter. We are not entirely sure just how to classify these garments. They seem to be a kind of transitional garment between tunics and the more modern jackers worn in the late 19th century. We also note a range of stylish jackets worn at the time. We are not sure just how period German catalogs and fashion garments desctibed these garments.
We also notice some varably styled jackets that look have been made by mother at home.
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