Figure 1.--These unidentified English boys here look to be about 4-8 years old. The younger boys wear sailor suits. The older boy wears a lapel vested suit and Eton collar. This suggests that the boys in this family wore sailor suits until about 6-7 years old. The portrait is undared, but looks to be about 1905.

There were of course no written rules about the ages boys wore what outfits. A major factor was the clothing companies and what sizes various garments were made to fit. But within those constraints, it was up to the family to decide. Thus there were differences on how the children were dressed. Family potraits with children of different ages thus provide useful information about popular conventions that individual portaits do not offer. The family portaits provide an indication as to when children moved from one style to another. In the 1900s decade it was still very common to age grade children's clothes, especially boys clothing. And these decisions show up very clearly in family portatits, although we usually have to estimate the children's ages. These images clearly show that sailor suits in England were clearly for younger boys than was the case for the Continent.

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Created: 5:56 PM 7/16/2020
Last updated: 5:56 PM 7/16/2020