Figure 1.--This CDV portrait shows a Danish boy wearing a long pabnts sailor suit with an unusual rounded collar. The portrait is not dated, bbur the miunt suggests the 19th century. Based on writing on the back, the boy is Richardd Marcusen. The studio is Atelter Mundas in Arhus, Denmark. This is the second-largest city in Denmark, located along the eastern coast in the Kattegat northwest of Copenhagen.

The sailor suit as a boys' fashion was created when Queen Victoria first dressed her son in one (1840s) from this beginning a major children's fashion was created. Danish fashions were significantly influences by by German styles. We see increasing English influences after Princess Alexandria married Crown Prince Bertie (the future Edward VII). HBC is not sure when Danish boys began dressing wearing sailor suits, but this was an important trend in both Britain and Germany. We suspect that this occurred about the sane time as Britain and Germany, but we have very little information about 19th century Danish styles. the boys in them, probably about the same time as in Germany. There were many connections with German royal families. Unfortunately we do not have a substantial Danish archive. Thus we have been unable to build a chronology of the adoption of sailor suits for children's fashions. We suspect that boys began wearing sailor suits in the 1870s, but can not yet substantiate this. All we can say at this time is that Danish boys were clearly wearing them by the late-19th century. They appear to have been common by the 1890s. We believe the boy here was photyographed in the 1880s (fugure 1).

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Created: 3:41 AM 12/10/2022
Last updated: 3:41 AM 12/10/2022