Figure 1.-- This cabinet card portrait shows three unidentified siblings. They look to be about 8/9-14 years old. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken about 1895. (This is based on our knowlesge of American cabinent mounts, it may not be precisely applicable to dating English cabinet cards.) The children all wear sailor outfits. We are not sure if the girls are wearing sailor dresses or sailor bluses and skirts. But they have the classic stripe detailing and dickey. Their little brother wears a sailor suit, but it was done in tweed without the stripe detailing. You have to look arfully to see the sailor cut. And he has a vest and Eton collar as if he was wearing aregulr suit. The studio was J.J. Hunt The Studio in Calne, Wiltshire.
The sailor suit when introduced by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria was for Bertie and the other royal princes (1840s). The princesses did not wear sailor outfits. We are not sure just when girls in England began wearing sailor outfits. The first such image we have noted dates to the 1870s, but we believe that girls began wearing sailor outfits earlier. Just how much earlier we are not sure. It is a topic we are working on and hope to address as HBC expands. We note many examples of both sailor dresses and sailor blouses and skirts furing the 1880s-1910s. We know that girls for gym wore bloomers, but weare not sure they wore sailor blouses with their bloomers as in America. We are not sure to what extent whole families were outfitted in sailor outfits. We see that with the royal family (both Edward VII and George V). As to ordinary families we do not see a lot of examples. We think this was more common in Germany, but we do see some exmples. Sailor suits for boys declined in popularity after World War I. We are not sure about the trend for girls yet. Many American girls wore sailor blouses and dresses for school. A factor here is the fact that private schools had uniforms so sailor outfits were out for them. Of course they could be worn to the state schools which until after World War II did not have uniforms. So we are looking into this as well.
The sailor suit when introduced by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria was for Bertie and the other royal princes (1840s). The princesses did not at first wear sailor outfits. We are not sure just when girls in England began wearing sailor outfits. The first such image we have noted dates to the 1870s, but we believe that girls may have begun wearing sailor dresses earlier (1860s). We do not have a good feel on the mis-19th century atbthis time. Our arcgive is srill too limited for these years. Thus Just how much earlier we are not sure. We have a fairly good idea by the 1890s. Here vwe see older girls wearing sailor suits, but not their brother in the 1890s (figure 1). We believe age was an imprtant factor here, especilly fot boys. Older girls nightb wear sailor outfirsm but nor older boys. We do see instances of the whole family wearing sailor suits by the 1890s. But this was most common with older girls and younrgr brothers. The 1890s seens to have been the peak of popularity. The Royal family still dredded the children in sailor suits at the tyrn of the cebtury and early 1900s, but there was only one girl. Sailor suits were still popularbin thevthev1900s, but began to fall off this affected gender trends. It is a topic we are working on and hope to address as HBC expands.
The first sailor outfits for girls were sailor dresses. We note many examples of both sailor dresses and sailor blouses and skirts during the 1880s-1910s. The dresses were only for girls, excpt for very young pre-school boys. The headwear and blouses were largely interchangeable. The skirts were primarily for girls and the knee pabts were exclively for boys. We know that girls for gym wore bloomers, but weare not sure they wore sailor blouses with their bloomers as in America. Sailor suits for boys declined in popularity after World War I. We are not sure about the trend for girls yet. Many American girls wore sailor blouses and dresses for school. A factor here is the fact that private schools had uniforms so sailor outfits were mot commonly worn once they began school. Of course they could be worn to the state schools which until after World War II did not have uniforms. So we are looking into this as well.
We are not sure to what extent whole families were outfitted in sailor outfits. We see that with the royal family (both Edward VII and George V). As to ordinary families we do not see a lot of examples. We think this was more common in Germany, but we do see some examples. Here a difference in England was that many prosperous English middle-class and upper-class boys were sent off to preparatory schools at about 8 years of age. After this, few od these boys wore sailor suits. And these were some of the social cohart most likely to wear sailor suits. Thus we do not have a lot of images with the whole family done ip in sailor suits at least with bos much older than 8/9 years. Notice it is the girls wearing traditional sailor suits here. There littlr brother wears has a jacket a sailor cut, but without any of the sailor detailing. The destinctive Eton collar also helps to desguise the sailor cut jacket. He looks to be about 8/9 years old.
Ages
The ages of the boys and girls wearing sailor suits varied. We see a few teenage boys wearing sailor suits in the 19th century after the sailor suit first became popular, but by the end of the century we mostly see younger boys wearing them. hey ere enormously popular fir younger boys, but after about 8/9 years old we see far fewer boys wearing them. Girls were different we see many older girls, like the girls here, wearing sailor outfits. We even see older teenagers wearing ailor suits.
