Figure 1.--Here we see two English boys, presumably brothers, with the family pooch in the family's back garden. It suggests a comfortable middle-class family. The boys are wearing matching sailor suits with lanyards. The only difference is the collars. Thestriped sailor collars were the most common. But one of the boy wears a white collar giving his outfit a dressier look. The striped collar here looks to be part of the blouse. The white collar in contrst looks like it may have just been pinned on. If you look closely you can see that these were button-up blouses.

The V-frt collar is the most destinctive feature of sailor bouses. And it is immediately recognized as both a naval uniform and a popular child clothing style. The classic middy blouse is a pull-over garment with a "V"-front collar and back flap. The blouses were also made with button-up fronts. The boys here are a good example (figure 1). Both the front-"V" and the back flap were essential elements of these blouses. The detailing on the front-"V" was continued on the back flap. This is the garment most associated with sailor styling. The V-collars were done in a dizzing variety of ways. Traditionally middy blouses were detailed with stripes. This was normally three stripes, but we have seen other numbers as well as well as different ways of presenting them. Stripes were most commonly used for detailing. This was not always the case, but they were the most common detailing device. The stripes were based on the Royal Navy uniforms. Some diverged from the traditional uniform suit, but the great bulk of these blouses were based on Royal Navy styles or were stronly influenced by them. Some mothers diverged from the staid, traditional stripes and came up with fancier blouses. This seems to have been more common in America than England. We also notice collars without stripes. Here you can see both styles (figure 1). Some of the collars were just plain. Others had added decoration such as ruffles. This was especially common with tunic suits. All of the various collar decorations constituted, however, only a fraction of the collars done with stripes. In addition tp the collar device itself, there was also variation as to how the area within the the V-cut was treated.

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Created: 2:05 AM 10/19/2016
Last updated: 2:05 AM 10/19/2016