Figure 1.--Here we see Prince Joachim with his sister Princess He is wearing an Eton suit with a with the standard stiff whitecollar, although not as large as some I have seen. The photograph is undated, but I would guess was taken about 1903 or 04.

Prince Joachim held the title Prince of Prussia. As a little boy he wire dresses. We note one family portait of him wearing a white dress with a plaid sash. Here we see him wearing a Highland kilt with his older brother Oskar about 1895. German boys did not commonly wear kilts. Wilhelm was a grandchild of Queen Victoria and as a result there was a family connection with the British royal family. Thus thedy sometimes wore British clothes, especially on trips to Britaoin. A portrait taken the follwing year in 1896 shows Joaquim wearing a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit with a lace collar and his hair has been cut short. The royal children were never dressed entirely alike as a comolete group. We do notice the oplder boys all dressed alike. We do note that the children closest in age were commonlly dressed in identical outfits. As a youth, we note him wearing an Eton suit (figure 1). A reader writes, "Do you think the prince (who is no older than 14 in this photo) is wearing long pants or knee pants? It's hard to tell. Did boys that young wear long trousers in Germany in 1903-04? Just curious. Were Eton suits worn with both short and long trousers?" We think Prince Joachim here is wearing long pants. The Eton School uniform was a long pants uniform and this was also the case with other schools (like Harrow) that used the Eton style. We have seen some images of boys wearing knee pants or short pants with Eton suits, but these were younger boys. We have never seen teenagers wearing Eton suits with short pants or knee pants. There are two trends that are worth noteing here. First older European boys in the early 20th century mostly wore long pants. At the time, kneepants for older boys were more common in America than Europe. Second, boys from wealthy families once they reached their teens, commonly wore long trousers.

Created: 12:44 AM 4/1/2006
Last updated: 7:26 PM 4/1/2006