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It was Queen Victoria's sons who first wore sailor suits. The style was initially one for boys. Queen Victoria did not dress her daughters in sailor suits. We are not sure when the sailor suit first became a popular style for girls as well. We known that the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra dressed the three princesses in dresses with sailor styling during the 1870s. They may well have been some of the first girls to wear dresses with sailor styling. We begin to see girls more commonly wearing sailor dresses in the 1880s, including dresses with traditional sailor styling--not just elements of sailor styling in their dresses. By the 1890s we see whole families wearing sailor outfits, sometimes coordinated outfits. Many brothers and sisters wore identical middy blouses with the boys wearing pants and the girls skirts. Sometimes the headwear was also identical.
The Brirish royal family was especially known for wearing sailor suits. Here we see all the children of Edward VII and Alexandra dressed in sailor suits for a 1879 portrait. The boys wear sailor suits and the girls sailor dresses.
The sailor suit was a popular style that could be used to dress all the children in matching outfits. Here we see a cabinet card portrait of four boys, almost certainly brothers. They are all dressed in matching sailor suits, posing on what looks to be a mockup of the deck of a ship. They are standard solid color suits, presumably blue. They have white collars and dickies. They were apparently worn with boater hats. The suits have bell-bottom pants. Each boy has a lanyard and whistle. The boys look to be about 5-10 years old. The portrait was taken by G. Brown and Son studio in Deal and Ramsgate, England. There is writing on the back which I can't make out, but it is signed "G. Brown". Could this possibly be Brown's son? It is most unusual for a photographer to sign one of his cabinent cards.
It was quite common by the 1890s for parents to dress whole families, including brothers and sisters in sailor outfits. Here the boy wears a middy blouse with kneepants and the girl a sailor-styled dress (figure 1). The styling of the sailor collar is similar. The boy looks to have a red collar and the girl a blue collar. We are not sure where this portrait was made, but Dover seems likely because of the backfrop. Studios in resort towns commonly offered portraits like this to tourists taking a family seaside vacation. After the turn-ofthe century we begin to see photographs actually taken on the beach, but we still see studio portraits like this for some time.
This cabinet card portrait shows three children about 5-11 years old, two girls and a boy. They all wwar sailor outits complete with identical caps. he boy is holding his cap for some reason, the girls are wearing their caps. All three chilren have sailor outfits that are cut and detailed differently, but they all appear to be sailor blouses worn with unpleated skirts for the girls and knee pants for the boy. We at first thought the girls were wearing dresses, but on closer examination they look to be blouses and skirts. We are unsure about the varied blouses. Probably they were just purchased at different times. Note the boy has the classic, traditonal style more like a Royal Navy uniform. We suspect that mother thought this ,ost appropriate. The children all wear dark long stockings. The two younger children ear high-top lace up shoes. We are not sure about the footwear of the older child. The portrait is a cabinet card. This and the outfit suggests the 1890s to us. All we know for sure is the location. The studio was F. Taylor in Rowbarton, part of Tauton. Tauton is a town in Somerset (Southwest England).
This British half-penny postcardback portrait shows a brother and sister out for a park outing dressed in differently styled sailor outfits. They look to be about 8-11 years old. The headwear is especially interesting. The boy wears a classic broad-brimmed sailor hat. His big sister we are not entirely sure about, but would guess it was a large tam. The boys wears a jacket rather than a blouse sailor suit with knee pants. His sister wears a sailor smock frock with no defined waistine. Both children wear black long stockings and low cut shoes. These are all fashions American children could have worn--except the low-cut shoes. American children mostly wore high-tops. This is not a studio portrait, but the professionl posing suggests to us that it is not a family snapshot. The bench suggests a park scene, although the tre trunk wall seems strange for a park. Perhaps a street-type photographer set up shop in the park. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1900s.
This cabinet portrait shows five children from a family. The children look about 1-10 years of age. They look to be in the back garden which looks like that of successful, but not wealthy middle-class family. The three boys wear traditional knee pants summer sailor suits with black long stockings. Many parents like to dress boys close in age in identical sailor suits. The girl holding the baby wears a frilly dress, strangely with what look like knee pants, but were probably drawers. Mum was partial to short hair cuts, which was not that common with middle-class families. The portrait is not dated. It could be the late-1890s, but because it is an outdoor portrait, the 1900s is more likely. The most interesting aspect of this snapshot is all the neat toys. We see a drum, rifle, wood pull horse, and a teddy in addition to live pet bunnies.
This studio cabinet card portrait shows three unidentified brothers in identical traditional sailor suits with the three stripe detailing. The dickies are plain. The bows are more like ribbons and easy to destinguish from the German style. They boys look to be about 4-9 years of age. As there are three brothers, there needs to be about a 5-6-year range. Unfortunately the portrait is undated. We would guess it was taken in the 1900s, but we are not sure about dating English cabinet cards. The early 1910s is a possibility. The studio was R. Carling in Stockton on Tees.
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