Figure 1.--This unidentified Belgian boy wears a knee pants sailor suit, we think duing the 1900s. He looks to be about 13-years old. Notice that his suit does not have the classic V-front collar and back flap. He has a beret-style sailor cap with short streamer. As was common at the time he wears dark long stockings. High-top shoes were still standard. The studio was V. Guillard in Andenne. This was a municipality in the Walloon province of Namur on the strategic river Meuse. The town is best known to history as part of the German World War I 'Rape of Belgium' during th German invasion launching World War I (1914). Some 211 townspeople were shot by German soldiers.

We see many Belgian boy wearing sailor suits at the turn-of-the 20th century. We see a wide variety of styles. Some boys wore the standard styles based on naval unifoms, but we see many boys weraring styles that varied in different bears from the standard or traditional styles. Not all suits, for example, had the iconic V-front collar. The V-front ollar, howvr, with some tweeks was very common. And stripes were commomly employed. Most of the suits were donr as knee pants with which th boys wore both socks and long stockings. On summer suit had shorr slves, but this was not very common. W note both summer and winter suits. For many boys their sailor suit was their best dressy outfit. They were worn by schoolage boys, including pre-teens and the youngest teens.

Unidentified Boy (about 1908)

This unidentified Belgian boy wears a knee pants sailor suit, we think during the 1900s. He looks to be about 13-years old. Notice that his suit does not have the classic V-front collar and back flap. He has a beret-style sailor cap with ashort streamer. As was common at the time he wears dark long stockings. High-top shoes were still standard. The studio was V. Guillard in Andenne. This was a municipality in the Walloon province of Namur on the strategic river Meuse.

Unidentified Boy (1908)

This Belgian boy in 1908 wears a dark, probably blue sailor suit. It had traditional collar styling. but no matching cuff trim. He wears more of a front buttoning jacket than a middy blouse. With the dark suit it is difficult to detect any of the detailing of the suit. His dickey is quite high and matches rather than contrasts with the jacket. He wears rather long cut knee pants with short datk socks and high-top shoes. He looks to be about 7 or 8 years old. He has long hair done in a kind of top curl.

Unidentified Boy (1908)

Here we see two brothers wearing matching knee pants sailor suits in 1908. One of the boys seems tobe named Guy, we can't make out much of the remaining text. The middy blouses have short sleeves. That was not very common in the 1900s. Presumably they are summer suits. They look to be blue suits with white collars and dickies along with coordinated white sleeve cuffs. They also wear three-quarter white socks and ankle strap shoes. The bots look to be about 4-8 years old. The boys also wear similar bangs hair cuts.

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Created: July 4, 2002
Last updated: July 18, 2002