Figure 1.--One other outfit had sailor service, but this was the only sailor suit offered by Sears with its summer shorts sets. The sailor suit was available in two different materials with different orices. Notice the lanyard and whistles. |
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Sears offered a whole page of boys wearing outfits with casual shorts. There were many styles of these casual outfits than the few suits offered for younger boys.
Here is the page of more casual clothing for boys in a variety of styles. Most of the boys under the age of 8 wear short pants with knee socks (or
three-quarter socks as many are not shown pulled up to the knee) and washable waists, although there are a couple of knicker suits. Also there a few other choices such as one-piece sun suits and sailor suits. Here is a sailor suit offered with the shorts sets.
The sailor suit was no longer a major boys' style, but it had not yet disappered. The sailor suit offered here by Sears was a traditionally styled sailor suit. It is a little out of place in the illustration. The ad copy read, "Yarn dyed fast color blue Palmer linen finish suiting or plain color blue
Peggy cloth. Popular sailor fashion which all youngsters desire. Real
values. White broad stripe on collar, cuffs, and big mercerized sleeve
emblem. Cord and whistle. Pockets at sides. Sizes 4 to 8 years. State age
size. 40 V 3676--Blue Palmer suiting. Postpaid. $1.98. 40 V 3662--Blue Peggy
Cloth. Postpaid. $1.98." Interestingly many of the other suits were made for 2 and 3 year olds. The sailor suit began at 4, but ran to the same age eight which was the cut-off point for the other outfits seen here. Sears suggests that "a;; youngsters desire" sailor suits. Given the fact that this is the only real sailor suit offered we, this seems to be a substantial overstatement. We suspect that sailor suits were very popular with younger boys, but we are less sure about school age boys.
There were some interesting features on both the shirts and shorts.
The top was a traditionally styled middy blouse.
Like the other short pants with the short sets offered by Sears, the shorts with the middy blouse were also cuffed.
The material here is referred to as "Palmer suiting". We are not sure just what kind of fabric this is. A less expensive version was available in peggy cloth. I am not sure what material that is either.
The suit is a standard blue, even though it was a summer suit. Often white suits were nore common in the summer.
There ws no cap shown with the sailor suit. Earlier many sailor suits came with caps. The tradition caps in america were rarely seen by the 1930s. We do see boys wearing swabie suits.
Siince the description for all the suits notes that most of the short pants on the shorts sets come with buttons, we are unsure if the shorts here are done in the button on style. If so they would have required either a waist
suit, waist or garter waist to hold trousers up. As the middy blouse overlaps the shorts, the shorts could not have button on to it.
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