Figure 1.--This American boy wears a middy blouse with a traditional V-front collar. This was the standard for the popular sailor suit and bt far the most popular style. There were, however, some other styles. |
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There were several elements or parts to a middy blouse and other shirt-like sailor garments. The single most important was of course the collar. The destinctive "V"-front collar was a fashion staple for boys for many years and also for girls. This was a style adopted by the British Royal Navy and because of its importance adopted by nvies around the world, including the American Navy and European navies. We see countless portraits of boys wearing V'-front sailor blouses and jackets. Mail order catalogs have whole pages devoted to these V-front sailor outfits. Few styles have been more popular for children. The V-collar generally came to a point and here a scarfe was tied or some mothers added bows. Some V-front sailor blouses had V-fronts that did not meet at an apex, but rather joined lterally at the bottom, often with an arc. Less commonly than the V-front we see ordinary ponited collars. We also note these standard collars, even on Navy uniforms, but the V-collar was by far the standard for enlisted men (ratings) and thus following the standard set by the British Royal family is the style most commonly used for boys' outfits. Thus the best known was the "V"-front sailor collar.
There were two basic styles of collars -- attached and detacable collars. The Eton collar was, for example, a popular detachable collar. It was worn with shirt waists that were done wuthout collars. The sailor collar in contrast was usually attached as part of the blouse. We note very few examples of detachable sailor collars. They were not unknown, but the vast majority of sailor blouses has attached collars. The detavle sailor collars we have found seem to be primarily used on blouses mother sewed at home. The great bulk of ready-made sailor blouses had attached sailor collars. We are still working on this topic, but this is our preliminary assessment.
We notice two basic styles of sailor collars, the V-collar and the pointed collar. It is the V-front with its bck flap that became the iconic sailor style. The great bulk of sailor blouses were done with the V-front collars. More than 95 percent of American saiolor suits and blousese done with the V-front style. The pointed collar style was seen, especially around the turn-of-the 20th century., but was of only limited importance. It is not at all prevalebt in the photograohic record or in period catalogs.
There were several elements or parts to a middy blouse and other shirt-like sailor garments. The single most important was of course the collar. The destinctive "V"-front collar was a fashion staple for boys for many years and also for girls. This was a style adopted by the British Royal Navy and because of its importance adopted by nvies around the world, including the American Navy and European navies. We see countless portraits of boys wearing V'-front sailor blouses and jackets. Mail order catalogs have whole pages devoted to these V-front sailor outfits. Few styles have been more popular for children. The V-collar generally came to a point and here a scarfe was tied or some mothers added bows. Some V-front sailor blouses had V-fronts that did not meet at an apex, but rather joined lterally at the bottom, often with an arc. The V-collar was by far the standard for enlisted men (ratings) and thus following the standard set by the British Royal family is the style most commonly used for boys' outfits. Thus the best known was the "V"-front sailor collar.
Less commonly than the V-front we see ordinary ponited collars. Some of these collars in America had stars added. We also note these standard pointefd collars, even on Navy uniforms, but not very commonly. We notice this uniform style during the Spanish-American War (1898-99).
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[Return to the Main U.S. middy blouse element page]
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