Figure 1.--This unidentitified colorized portrait of two brothers is undated. The boys look to be about about 5-8 years of age. We would say the portrait was probanly taken in the early-1920s, in part because of the low-cut oxfords which were not very common in the 1910s. And we don't see even younger boys wearing knee pants much after the early-20s. We suspect that the boys' suits were probably navy blue rather than black.

We see many American 8-year old boys wearing sailor suits from the time sailor suits became a major style into the the inter-War era. It was never the principal style worn by boys, but was a popular style, especially for boys from families in comfortable circuntances. we hace numerous examples archived on HBC. There is a famous portrait of the author Tom Wolfe wearing a dark sailor suit at age 7-8 in the early 1900s. We notice Harold Fitzroy-Carrington at about age 8 wearing a conventional sailor suit for play in 1906. Sailor suits were most common or younger boys, but we do see 8-year olds wering them. We note more boys wearing sailor suits a mud century, but after World War I we mostly see younger boys wearing them. During the inter-War era the oldest boys wearing sailor suits are about 8 years of age. We see some catalogs with offerings up tp 10-year olds, but the photographic records shoes that sailor suits were not very common for boys older thn about 8-year olds. We note a button-on short pants suit fora boy about 8-9 years old worn during the 1930s. After World War II we no longer se 8-year olds wearing sailor suits. This unidentitified colorized portrait of two brothers is undated. The boys look to be about about 5-8 years of age. We would say the portrait was probanly taken in the early-1920s, in part because of the low-cut oxfords which were not very common in the 1910s (figure 1). Notice that the younger boy has knee pants while his older brothers wear knickers.

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Created: 12:32 PM 3/23/2014
Last updated: 12:32 PM 3/23/2014