Figure 1.--The sailor suit on the left (s70) from a 1921 catalog was made of unbleached jean for boys from 3 to 8 years. The French-blouse suit on the right (s71) was made of poplin for boys from 4 to 10 years. It had both blue and white short pants. The kneepants styles were only worn in the early 1920s and by mid-decade had been replaced by short pants. Click on the image to see other styles offeered.

We notice a wide variety of sailor garments offered in the 1920s, especially during the early 1920s. The caps and hats worn with sailor suits had changed significantly by 1920s. The wide brimmed hat with trailing streemer and elastic chin strap, once a boys stapple is no longer seen. The caps are now smaller and the swabbie-type cap more common. Middy blouses came in a wide range of styles. The pahts were mostly knee pants in the early 1920s, but short and long pants were more common by the late 1920s. Detailing like pockets varied. Knickers were less common. We also notice caps, dickies, and scarves. The dickies in these sailor suits mostly appear to come with various arrangements of stripes. Three narrow stripes appear the most common, but several have bold stripes as well.

Caps and Hats

The caps and hats worn with sailor suits had changed significantly by 1920s. The wide brimmed hat with trailing streemer and elastic chin strap, once a boys stapple is no longer seen. The caps are now smaller and the swabbie-type cap more common.
Tam O'Shanter : The Tam O'Shanter cap is still available, but it is going out of style as the Navy has replaced it with the swabbie cap. Notice the small streemer.
Brimmed cap: The boy wearing suit 79 wears a full brimmed straw sailor hat, but it is not offered for sale, an indication that the style was going out of style. The versin shown, however, has a much smaller brim than the ons once worn by boys.
Swabbie caps : I'm not sure what the poroper name is for this cap. It is the style worn by American sailors and was rapidly replacing all the other types of sailor caps worn by American boys. Most were white, but colored caps were also available.

Blouses

Styles

Middy blouses in America were still for boys in 1920. They were were made in a wide variety of styles. Some of the terms used to describe these suits I do not yet fully understand.
Button-on: Sailor suits for younger boys were made in the button-on style. This mean buttons on the pants buttoned into button holes on the middy blouse. The buttons were usually large white ones, but there were black buttons as well.
French blouse: Some middy blouses are described as "French blouse style". I am not sure, however, what the distinctive features of this style are.
Tub suit: Some suits are described as tub suits. I am not sure what that meant, perhaps that it could be easily laundred.
Regulation style: Several of the suits are described as regulation, style presumably a reference to styling accurately reflecting U.S. Navy uniforms.
Sleeves: Middy blouses had mostly been made with long sleeves, even the white summer ones. In the 1920s, however, summer sailor suits with short sleeves became more common. The short sleeves were mostly elbow-length. Some eve had tight-fitting elbow cuffs.
Accessories: Sailor suits sod at better stories still commonly fearured the scarf, lanyard, and whistle. By mid-decade sailor suits were commonly sold without the scarves, especially the summer suits.

Features

Most of the middy blouses appear to have a horizontal cut left breast pocket. Some blouses had cut pocket.

Figure 2.--This scene from an affluent American home in the mid to late 1920s shows a girl playing a piano in a white dress and her brother in a summer short pants sailor suit. Like his sister he seems to be wearing white socks and strap shoes. Note the elbow cuff on the short sleeves.

Sailor Trousers

Sailor suits were worn with a variety of pants. This deoended in part on the general popularity of the dufferent kinds of pants rather than the associaion with sailor suits. Knickers were standard in the 1920s, but for some reason somewhat less so with sailor suits. Perhaps it was because shorts were becomniong associated with the younger boys for which saolor suit were most common. Short pants appeared in the early-20th century, but did not become commonly worn until the 1920s after World War I. We see some boys wearing knee pants which had basically gone out of style in the 1910s, but we see some younger boys still wearing them. Knee pants were going out of style, but several suits came with knee pants (notice the buttons at the hem) rather than shorts. An example is Ross Lockridge Jr. in 1922. I though that dressy suits might be more likely to have knee pants, but I can discern so consitent theme as to whether certain suits had short pants or knee pants. By the mid-1920s shorts had entirely replaced knee pants. Most sailor suits, especially white summer suits were worn with shorts. We note E McKenzie wearing a traitional sailor suit with short pants during 1923. We also see long pants for boys. The long pants suits seem to be primarily for dressing up. Play suits were less comminkly done with long pnts. We notice mostly knee pants in the 1921 Altman catalog. The one suit that does (S74) have long pant also has a pair of shorts. One wonders who decided which pair of trousers was worn for what occassions. The longs were bell bottoms with laced strings in the back. I can't tell if the trousers to these suits have pockets. The button-on style trousers do not appear to have the pockets, but other 1920s styles did. The middy blouses for the other suits cover part of the trouser, so it is difficult to tell. But again other 1920s styles did, so these sailor suit trousers probably did also.

Dickies

The dickies in these sailor suits mostly appear to come with various arrangements of stripes. Three narrow stripes appear the most common, but several have bold stripes as well.

Accessories

The most popular accessories with sailor suits, besides the required headgear, were ties, lanyards, and whistles. The ties were mostly black silk. Even on the dark-colored suits, black ties were used. The whistles were usually brass, held on by a lanyard. The boys liked the whistles. Some mothers didn't and had them disabled so they would make a noise.

Shoes

Boys in 1920 wore quite a variety of shoes. Younger boys wore strap shoes or pumps without the strap. Most of the younger boys wore high top lace up shoes. One boy wears low-cut Oxfords, but he is a distinct minority.

Socks and Stockings

American boys in 1920 wore sailor suits with both kneesocks and long stockings.
Kneesocks: Kneesocks appear to b most commonly worn with short pants sailor suits. Both white and dark kneesocks are worn with various colored suits with no clear pattern. Some of the kneesocks are solid colors, some have a colored or patterned band, usually near the top of the sock.
Long stockings: Several suits are worn with both white and black long stockings. The long stockings seem to be more common with the kneepants than the short pants.

Created: November 27, 1998
Last updated: 10:40 PM 11/5/2018