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The sailor suit declined in popularity in Germany after World War I as it did in other countries, but even so sailor suits continued to be very popular in the 1920s. Even younger teenagers wore them during the 1920s. The military had been a revered institution before World I. This changed with the tragedy of the War. Even so, the sailor suit as a fashion for boys continued to be very popular. A HBC reader has provided us a remarkable series of photographs showing how Herbert and Kurt Hender were dressed at different ages in the 1920s. Their mother clearly liked sailor suits, although they were not always dressed in them. We note an unidentified German boy wearing a sailor suit in the 1920s. It is a good example of how entrenched the sailor suit had become with the German middleclass. One noteable change in the 1920s was that the great variety of styles noted before the War generally disappeared. Increasingly we see the traditional style (meaning suits styled like actual uniforms) being worn by boys, both white and dark suits. We see the sailor suit being worn by a wide age range. Even some teenagers wore them. They were worn with knee pants, short pants and long pants.
The popularity of the sailor suit declined somewhat in Germany after World War I. The same occurred in other countries as it did in other countries. Even so sailor suits continued to be very popular in the 1920s. This was also the case in many other countries as well, but the sailor suit during the 20s seems more popular in Germny than in any other country. We are not sure why this was. Even younger teenagers wore sailor suits during the 1920s. The military had been a revered institution in Germany before World I. This changed with the tragedy of the War. Even so, the sailor suit as a fashion for boys continued to be very popular. For some reason the horror of the War did not transfer to the sailor suit. We are not entirely sure why. In school portraits we normally see some of the boys and not uncommonly several wearing sailor suits. Some mothers dressed all the boys of appropriate ages in sailor suits and sometimes their sisters as well. We see this very commonly in the photographic record. We know that the sailor suit was popular with parents. We are less sure about what the boys thought of it. We rather suspect that the boys rather liked them, but can not yet conform this.
Sailor suits were especially popular with the middle class. Upper-class boys also wore them, including aristocracy. The relly large number of boys that wore them, however, was middle-class boys. We are not entirely sure why this was. I suspect that it was with the middle-class that nationalism was strongest. the German Navy became associated with the prestige and stability of Imperial Germany. And this did not change after the War and the demise of the Empire. Perhaps this is a reflection of the middle class's longing for social stability, an attiude not shared by the working class. Or perhaps it was the strong socialist sentiment among the working class.A HBC reader has provided us a remarkable series of photographs showing how Herbert and Kurt Hender were dressed at different ages in the 1920s. Their mother clearly liked sailor suits, although they were not always dressed in them. We note an unidentified German boy wearing a sailor suit in the 1920s. It is a good example of how entrenched the sailor suit had become with the German middle class.
One noteable change in the 1920s was that the great variety of styles noted before the War generally disappeared. Both the collar cut and styling became very sandardized. Increasingly we see the traditional style (meaning suits styled like actual uniforms) being worn by boys. We note both the raditional white and dark suits. The typical middy blouse was done wih the three stripe detailing common with traditinal suits.We no longer see sailor suits being done in a range of different styles and variations. Virtually all middy blouses were done with traditional styling. We note a few more formal suits that were styled differentl,y but they were not very common.
German boys wore black scarves with their sailor suits. The black scarves were standard regardless of the color of the suit. They had a destinctive ways of tieing a knot in their sailor scarves. They were tied into a tight knot and then held in place with a white string. This contrasts with American boys which left the scarves hang loose with a simple knot. We are assuming that German boys wore their scarves like this because this is how sailors in the German navy wore them. Images from the 1920s show that these tight knots and white string was still standard in the 1920s.
We see both boys and girls wearing middy blouses. We are not yet sure about the relative popularity. Girls of course wore their middy blouses with skirts,
The sailor suit garments also became standardized. Most of the boys sailor suits were done with basic middy blouses. We note some fancier sailor suits with jacket-like blouses, but these were not very common. They were worn with knee pants, short pants, and long pants.
We continue to see the sailor suit being worn by a wide age range in Germany during the 1920s. It was a major style for schoolage boys and schoolwear. They were worn by children of before school age up to younger teenagers. Boys began school at age 6 years. And the sailor suit was perhaps the most common outfit that we see vin the almost obligtory first day portrait that German parents insisted on taking. The choice of sailor suits varied from family to family, by a very large number of German boys wore them. And for many boys it was used as their dress up suit. The styles worn were basically the same for all boys across the age range. German school photography shows how commpn sailor suits were. Most class portaits continue to show large numbers of boys wearing sailor suits. We begin to see fewer boys wearing sailor suits after the first 4 years of primary school, but they were still very common even in subsequent years. Beginning about age 15 we begin to see fewer boys wearing sailor suits.
Some families dresses siblings in identical sailor suits. Sometimes it was just the boys, other times the whole family. Here age was a factor as after the eary teens, boys usually stopped wearing sailor suits. Some times the pants chosen might vary. Here age may have been a factor, but this was not always the case.
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