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The children in familis would frequently be dressed in sailor suits, some times the exact same oufits. Frequently when the children were dressed identically, mothers chose traditional styles. No garment was so extensively used to dress the children alike than the sailor suit and this included not only a wide age range, but also both genders as well. Age and genders might be factors, but in some cases all ot the children were dressed in identical orvery similar outfits. Some mothers might style the younger boy's hair in a more juvenile fashion to highlight that he was the younger brother. Often boys of similar age would be dressed in the exact same sailor suits. Some times there was considerable difference in the ages. Perhaps no other garment was so consistently used to dress brothers and sisters in identical outfits. Certainly no garment was more commonly used to dressed mixed groups and brothers and sisters than the sailor suit. In these instances skirts were substituted with pants for the girls and this would be the only differenc. We note countless portraits of brothers wearing identical sailor suits. This was the case throughout Europe and North America. While this convention was common in many countries, perhaps no where was it more common than in Germany.
The conventional age range affected the trend of dressing all the children in sailor suits. Here the girls were realtively easy as we see girls from todlers to older teens wearing sailor suits and dresses. The age conventions for boys were tighter. Here we see boys wearing sailor suits as soon as they were breeched meaning about 3-4 years in the 19th century. And even youngr boys in the 20th century. We see boys in primary school wearing sailor suits, but then turning to more adult-looking styles. This varied from country to country. British boys begin to wear sailor suits less commonly after about 8-years of age. The fact that boys from afflurnt families were sent to boarding schools at this age was a factor. American boys commonly wore sailor suits through about age 10-11 years, but then popularity fell off. This varied chronologically. We see younger teens wearing sailor suits in France and Germabny. This all affected the age range in which all the family could be dressed in sailor suits. Of course many large families chose the option of just dressing the younge children in sailor suits. Or there might be different sailorsuit styles for the younger children. Another factor was hair. While all the boys might wear sailor suits, the younger boys might have their hair done differently.
No garment was so extensively used to dress all the children in a family alike than the sailor suit. This was especially true when mixed gender groups, both brothers ans sisters were dressed alike. No other outfit in history has so widely been worn by both boys and girls. nd thiswas true in the 19th and early-20th century when boys and girls tended to dress very differently. Here age trends were involved. Girls of a wide age range wore sailor suits, but the age range for boys was much more limited in countries like America and England. This thus limited prents who wanted to dress the entire family in sailor suits. We have found quite a few American examples with just two siblings close in age. Larger family groups were less common. The same was true for England. We see quite few examples in Germany involving large families. in part because there was a wider age range of boys wearing sailor suits. In these instances skirts were substituted for pants with the girls. Until about World War II, girls rarely wore pants. Except for the skirts, the outfits for brothers and sisters could be identical. This would be the only difference. We note countless portraits of brothers or sisters wearing identical sailor suits. The mixed gender groups are more rare.
We hve begun to assess the chtonological trends of damily sailor suits. The sailor suit for boys first appeared in Britain, introduced by the Royal Fmily (1840s). From the earliest point we see instances of all the boys wearing sailor suits, most primenntly by the Royal Family. This was soon picked up by other royal families, particularly German royals abd tge Russian royal fmily. This in turn influence the general public, especilly the middle-class. We see girls wearing sailor dresses (1870s). Here we are not sure about the role of royalfamilies. We begin tosee whole families somewhat later (1890s), although here we are syill working on the chronology. Most of the family images we have found with brothers and sisters in sailor suits date to the early 20th century (1900s-30s). Here we see two German brothers wearing identical sailor suits in 1916 (figure 1). We rarely see this after World War II (1950s).
The most common sailor suits were sailor blouyses with oabts or skirts. We would tend to classify children as wearing identical sailor suits even with the girls wearing skirts and the boys pants. This was fairly common and the children wearing weatng the same blouses. In the 19th century the younger boys might also wear skirts, but this was not very common. More commonly we see younger booys bein dressed in pants for dailor suit at an age where they still might not be breeched. We do, however, see some examples. Sailor suits, of course were not the the only sailor outfits. There were different types of sailor suits such as jacket suits, but they were not commonly wrn by girls. Girls also wote sailor dresses, but it was the blouse and pants/skirts suit that were most commonly used when dressing the family in sailor suits. This was because it was the style of sailor outfit that did not have gender connotations--sailor suits were very popular commnly worn by both boys and girls. We see some families with children wearing different sailkor outfiuts, but more common was the sailor blouse and pants/skirt outfits.
Country trends varies because the popularity of he sailor suit varied from country to country as well as age conventions. As far as we can tell, this idea of outfitting all the chilren in sailor suits, as most fanously seen in 'Sound of Music' was most common in Germany. We are not sure about Austria. The sailor suit was also very popular in France as well. We have not seen a lot of French families with the children all done up in sailor suits. This may, however, reflect our smaller French archive. It also seem less common in Americ and England, primrily because we see fewer teenage boy wearing sailor suits, unlike Germny where younger teens commonly wore sailor suits.
When the sailor suit was used to dress the children alike, parents commonly chose identical orvery similar styles, meaning that the outfits were probably purchased at the same time. If we are just talking about two brothers or two sisters, there might be differnces, but if it is all the children, we often see identical outfits. Commonly we see traditional styling.
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