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We first see a British boy wearing as sailor suit in the 1840s. Prince Albert had the artist Winterhaller paint their eldest son (the future Edward VII) in a Roiyal Naby uniform, establishing a royal tradition (1846). This famous portrait now hangs in the Royal Gallery at Buckingham Pallace. Note the Prince's curls and bell-bottom trousers. They shose a ratings (enlisted man's uniform. Edward was 5 years old. The painting was Albert's Christmas gift to Victoria. Notice the hands in his pockets. His grandsons were not allowed to do this. We know little about the early use of the sailor suit in England after it was worn by Edward. While some boys wore sailor suits it does not appear to have been an important style for boys or girls. We are not sure why the style was not immediately adopted, especially given the respect felt for the Royal Navy and the interest of boys in it. English boys not only wore the traditional middy blouse style of sailor suit, but by the 1860s a variety ofother garments with sailor styling appeared. Sailor suit styles varied widely. Some were replicas of Royal Navy uniforms while others were more imaginative. The detailing on these suits also varied widely. Boys for example wore suits that had jackets with sailor styling. These suits by the 1870s were mostly kneepants suits. While the middy suits by the 1870s were also worn with knee pants, they were also widely availanle in long pants. By the 1870s the middy suit was virtually the only long pants suit younger boys boys might commonly wear. The ages of the boys wearing sailor suits also varied widely. The boy here, for example, wearing a long pants sailot outfit looks like a younger teenager (figure 1). A younger boy from Hastings, Maurice Carmichael Tweedie wears a knee pants sailor suit in 1878.
We first see a British boy wearing as sailor suit in the 1840s. Prince Albert had the artist Winterhaller paint their eldest son (the future Edward VII) in a Roiyal Navy uniform, establishing a royal tradition (1846). This famous portrait now hangs in the Royal Gallery at Buckingham Pallace. Note the Prince's curls and bell-bottom trousers. The Royal familyy shose a rating's (enlisted man's) uniform. Edward was 5 years old. The painting was Albert's Christmas gift to Victoria. Notice the hands in his pockets. His grandsons were not allowed to do this. The sailor suit did not become am instant success. Without television/movies and the ability to publish photogrphs in newspapers and magazines, fashion trends spread more skowly than today. There wereengravings done of Prince Bertie in his uniform. And these could be reproduced in mgazines.
We know little about the early use of the sailor suit in England after it was worn by Prince Bertie. A problem here is that Daguerreotypes and oither early phptograpohic formats were not as common in Britain as in America.
We think that some English boys wore sailor suits during the 1850s, but we have so far found little evidence of it. Nor do we see evidence of sailor suits in Anerica and here there were Dags done in considerable numbers. The style does not appear to have been an important style for boys or girls. I am not sure why the style was not immediately adopted, especially given the respect felt for the Royal Navy and the interest of boys in it. Perhaps it was to a greater extent then we have so far determined. Without a large archives of Dags, this is difficult to assess.
The CDV appeared during the 1860s providing us large numbers of images for the first time. And we see boys wearing sailor suis. English boys not only wore the traditional middy blouse style of sailor suit, but by the 1860s a variety of other garments with sailor styling appeared. Sailor suit styles varied widely. Some were replicas of Royal Navy uniforms while others were more imaginative. The detailing on these suits also varied widely. Boys for example wore suits that had jackets with sailor styling, including the iconic "V" collar. Not all early sailor suits, however had the "V" collars. We so see stripes being used in various ways on both the blouse and trousers. We see suits being done both as knee poants abd long trousers. Many of the long trousers were done as bell botoms like the suit Prince Edward wore.
We see more boys wearing sailor suits in the 1870s. We are not yet sure about girls. Sailor suits continued to be done in a variety of ways. We do not yet see the traditional suits with three-striped styling in the early-1870s, but we do by end of the decade. This may be a reflection on Royal Navy uniforms which had not yet adopted what we call today traditional suits with the standard three-stripe detailing although we do see morend more stripes as the decade progressed. We continue to see the boys wearing both knee pants and long trousers. While the middy suits by the 1870s were also worn with kneepants, they were also widely availanle in long pants. By the 1870s the middy suit was a style younger boys might commonly wear with long pants as knee pants were becoming more popular. The ages of the boys wearing sailor suits also varied widely. The boy here, for example, wearing a long pants sailot outfit looks like a younger teenager (figure 1). A younger boy from Hastings, Maurice Carmichael Tweedie wears a knee pants sailor suit in 1878. The task of assessing these trends is complicated by the fact that many of the images we have archive are undated, but we can roughly date them.
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