Sailor Suits: Germany--Colors and Patterns


Figure 1.--A boy in this group of German children about 1930 wears a stripped middy blouse whith what look like corderoy pants. Notice how the stripes of one boy's suit are repeated on the dickery.

German boys commonly wore blue or white sailor suits, usually on a seasonal basis. There were other colors, but the black-and-white photography of the day makes this very difficult to assess. And unlike the United States, we do not have much catalog information from Germany for color information. Various blue shades were by far the most important. After the turn-of-the-century mixing colors, usually a white middy blouse with blue pants. The blues ranged from light blue for summer to dark blue or black for winter. Variously colored suits may have been used for play, but proper sailor suits were almost always blue or white. The suits were usually solid colors, but some mostly summer suits were stripped. These stried suits appear to have been especially popular in Germay. The suits were most commonly white with blue stripes, but there were other combinations as well.

Colors

German boys commonly wore blue or white sailor suits, usually on a seasonal basis. There were other colors, but the black-and-white photography of the day makes this very difficult to assess. And unlike the United States, we do not have much catalog information from Germany for color information. Various blue shades were by far the most important. After the turn-of-the-century mixing colors, usually a white middy blouse with blue pants. The blues ranged from light blue for summer to dark blue or black for winter. Variously colored suits may have been used for play, but proper sailor suits were almost always blue or white. The suits were usually solid colors, but some mostly summer suits were stripped. These stried suits appear to have been especially popular in Germay. The suits were most commonly white with blue stripes, but there were other combinations as well.

Patterns

The suits were usually solid colors, but some mostly summer suits were stripped. These stried suits appear to have been especially popular in Germay. The suits were most commonly white with blue stripes, but there were other combinations as well. Striped suits seem especially popular in the early-20th century into the 1930s.

Solid Colored Suits

German boys commonly wore solid colored blue or white sailor suits, usually on a seasonal basis. Various shades of blue were worn. The dark or navy blue shade seems to have been the most common. White and black were worn seasonally. Often the blue suits, especially the navy vlue suits were made in a heavy serge materil. The white suits were made in a lighter masterial , mostly cotton or linnen. Whitw suits seems to have been most populasr in the early 20th century, especially 1900-30. While these were the most common colors, some other colors were worn as well. Unfortunately, the black and white phptograph of the day do not provide insights as to the actual colors. We notice American boys wearing both brown and grey play suits. I'm not sure how common this was in Germany.

Mixed Colors

After the turn of the century mixing colors, usually a white middy blouse with blue pants. The blues ranged from light blue for summer to dark blue or black for winter. Variously colored suits may have been used for play, but proper sailor suits were almost always blue or white. Unfortunately this mixing is difficult to assess because of the black and white photography.

Striped Suits

The suits were usually solid colors, but some mostly summer suits were stripped. These stried suits appear to have been especially popular in Germay. The suits were most commonly white with blue stripes, but there were other combinations as well. The width of the stripes vared from suit to suit. This is one style which was not copied from actual naval uniforms.







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Created: July 20, 2001
Last updated: 7:52 PM 1/19/2011