Figure 1.--Here we see the same unidentifued boy posing in his winter and summer sailor suit. The portraits have been colorized. Notice how the colorist has caputured his flaming red (ginger) hair done in imressive ringlets. We are sure thsat was ikmportnt for motherr. The two portraits are very similar, but the boy looks a little youunger in the white suit. He may be wearing his white summer blouse with his winter suit. The collars look identical. The boy looks to be about 6-7 years old. The cabinet card portrait is undated, but was probably taken in the 1890s. The studio was W.&J. Stuart in Knightsbridge. This is the toney downtown London nighhboirhood where Harrod's is located. They were located very close to Harrod's oin Brompton Road. Put your cursor on the image to see the winter suit.
Color and seasonality were related. Boys generally wore while sailor suits for the warm summer weathrer and and navy blue suits for the colder winter months. It was, however not quite that simple. The material could also chanhe. White summer blouses were usually done in a light cotton or pethaps linnen shirting material, often with blue detailing. The scarfe worn with the saoilor sduit might lso be changed seasionlly, primsrily to give a different color contrast. Navy blue blouses and pants were commonly done in heavier suiting material. And while many boys had the white summer blouses. Often they wore the haevier blue pants in summer as well instead of changing to lighter-weight white pants. This all varied from family to family. For families with modest income, the choice of wearing the heavier blue pants during the ssummer was a viable option. The choice of long or shortened-length pants seems more of a family fashion convention than a seasonal matter. Although the choice of hosiery does seem to to have been a seasonal matter. Boys might wear long stockings during the winter and socks during the summer. This differed with America where long stockings were commomnly worn even suiting the summer during the late-19th and rarly-20th century. There was also a color change with the hosiery English boys wore with their sailor suits. The summer socks were often white and and the winter long stockings were mostly dark. The girls of course had the same optiins as to the same seasonal choice of color and material for their blouses, dresses, skirts, and hosiery. There of course were no hard and fast written rules. Mothers could do what they wished, but these were the general patterns.
