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Tunic suits were popular boyswear during the 1900s and 10s. And they were very popular during 1908. They were prominently featured in mail order catalogs during those two decades in a wide range of styles, but various terms were used. Tunic suits were worn in the 19th century, but the suits worn in the early-20th century were destinctive. Tunic suits were in some ways an anonomaly. Younger boys wore a variety of skirted garment, including dresses, skirts, kilts, and tunics , but by the turn of he 20th century this had for the most part going out of fashion. Tunic suits were the only skirte garment hat persisted in the early-20th century. A variety of tunic suits were popular for younger boys in 1908. There were tunics in a variety of styles, including sailor Russian, and Buster Brown styles. Buster Brown suits became rather the symbol for the era--perhaps because of the cartoon strip. Actully sailor tunics were probably the most common. The photographic records shows that tuic suits were widely worn. For the most part they were worn by pre-school and early-primary age boys. We do not seen mby boys wearing them older than about age 6 years, but we see some suits in the catalogs being done in sizes up to 9 years old. They seem most popular or summer wear, but some were done in heavier fabric for winterwear.
Strouss Eisendrath (SE), a major clothing wholesekler, offered a large assortment of tunic suits in their fall 1908/winter 1909 catalog. They called them 'Browie suits'. We are gussing that it is a reference to Buster Brown -- a popular boy cartoon chracter who wore tunic suits. The SE tunic suits seem styled more like suits for younger boys than many of the tunic suits at the time. Many of the SE Brownie tunic buttoned up the fronts like jackets. In addition to the Brownie suits SE offered a wide range sailor-styled tunic suits. You might think that there were only be a few sailor styled tunics. But just lke the Brownie suits, there were all kinds of different suits offered. You have to wonder what the busines calculation for offering so many different skews, but this was common in 19th and early-20th century catalogs. Usually this was done without all the illustrations to with them. These suits were done for boys 2 1/2-3 to-9 years old. There were some age varition for the different styles. These suits were only worn by boys. We have not seen other catalgs ffeing so many tunc suits for 9 year olds.
This pattern was published by The McCall Pattern Company. McCalls described it as a "Boy's Suit, having knickerbocker trousers." Minimal directions. The pattern dates circa 1908-1909. Suggested fabrics were chambray, cheviot, galatea cloth, khaki cloth, cotton crash, linene, linen, serge, and percale. The colors were cadet blue, white, navy blue, natural, tan, and pink. MThe materials required were 2-7/8 Yds. 36" fabric. The pattern was for a boy 4 years old. We at first thought that this as a Buster Brown suit, but we note many sailor styling features.
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