Sailor Caps: Streamers--Colors

Figure 1.--Rhe boy here is a passenger on the 'SS Orotava' during a 1932 cruise. He is Heinz Pfeiffer, Aunt Frieda's son. He wears a traditional sailor suit. Note the long streamers carefully displayed. They have white edge stripes. Click on the image for further details.

The streamers on boys' sailor headwear aswell on naval uniforns were almost always done in black silk or satin ribbon. Black was the common convention, almost but not quite universal. Black seems to be the color in almost all the photographs that we have found. This appears to be the case in different countries and over time. Even with white sailor headwear and suits, we still see black streaners. White sailor caps were very common, but we have never seen white streamers. It is not clear if there was navy blue streamers. It is not possible to diferentiate between black and navy blue in black and white photography. We have, however, noted some other colors. They do not seem to be very common. They also seem mostly solid black streamers. We note their were black streamers with white stripe edges. They do not seem very common, but they did exist.