|
There were of course no sailor-styled hosiery and footwear, but we notice trends concerning bothgbworn wity sailor suits. American boys over time have also worn a variety of stockings and socks with sailor suits as well as different kinds of shoes and sandals. Sailor suits were worn by boys for almost a century. Over thst times there were many changes in both hosiery and footwear. For many years hightop shoes were common. In the 20th century, we see more varied shoe tyoes as well as standards. Sailor suits have also been worn with many different types of hosiery. We see dark long stockings in the 19th century. Hosiery becomes more varied in the 20th century. We see many boys wearing socks in the 20th century and many younger boys began wearing white socjs and stockings. The types of footwear and hosiery in fact appears to have changed more than the styling of the sailor suits themselves. The colors of both footwear and hosiery had also changed. Notably children's footwear was quite similar in the early 20th century, but in the 1920s began to diverge significantly
Boys wearing sailor suits in the 19th century, mostly wore high-top shoes. Younger boys by the turn-of-the century began wearfing strapo shoes and sandals. And older boys gradually began wearing low-cut oxfords as high-tops graduallt went out of style in the 1920s.
Sailor suits have also been worn with many different types of hosiery. We have noted all lengths of hosiery from over-the-knee-long stockings to ankle socks. What we rarely see is boys going barefoot wearing sailor suits. Of course this may not have been picked up in the studio-based 19th century photographic record, but we also do not notice it in the 20th century either when family snapshots became available. This probably reflects social class abd demographic factors. The type of hosiery worn with sailor suits varied chronologically. Both the types and colors of hosiery have changed over time. We see almost all American boys wearing silor suits in the 19th century wearing long stiockings, at least the boys wearing knee pants sailor suits. Sailor suits were also done with long pants. We re not sure what type of hosiery the boys with long pants wore. While we know the boys with knee pants wore dark long stockings. We are not sure about the color. We know many boys wore black long stockings, but we think many more navy blue long stovkings as well. This we cannot, however confirm, given the black-and-white photography of the day. The type of hosiery worn becomes more complicated at the turn-of-the 20th century. We start to see boys wearing socks in the early 20th century rather than the long stockings worn during the 19th century. At first we notice three-qusrter socks. White was for the first time popular, but we also see dark socks. And we see white long stockings for the first time in any numbers. By the 1910s we see colored bands added to the white socks. And knee pants began to gove way to knickers and short oznts. Long pants were also worn. And in the 10s we begin to see knee socks. These chrionological trends are not absolute, but this was the general pttern.
Notably children's hosiery was quite similar for both boys and girls in the 19th century and early-20th century, but in the 1920s began to diverge significantly.
American boys over time have worn many different types of footwear with sailor suits, both shoes and sandals. For many years hightop shoes were worn and strap shoes were very common. Srap shoes appear to have been more common than sandals. The types of footwear and hosiery in fact appears to have changed more than the styling of the sailor suits themselves. Boys have worn mostly black shoes with sailor suits, but we have noted white, red, and blue as well. Notably children's footwear was quite similar in the early 20th century, but in the 1920s began to diverge significantly. As sailor suits were worn both for dressing up and casualwear, similarly differebnt types of footwear were worn with sailoar suits.
Often we do not know who the individuals are in the images seen in HBC. In this case we know that the boy is James Ernst who was 5½ years old when his portrait was taken at the
Engstrom studio in Litchfield, Minnesota. He is blonde-haired and no doubt blue-eyed, descended from one of the many Scandinavian families in Minnesota. He is wearing a summer sailor suit. It it a white suit with colored detailing. I'm not sure what color the detailing was done in, but it looks like it might be red. The suit has short seeves and short, but rather long and baggy, pants. The short sleeves and shorts suggest to us that the portrait was taken in the early 1920s. He also wears black ankle strap shoes, the style with the back ankle straps. He wears stripped three-quarter socks. A French reader writes, "A beautifull style. Probably this outfit was in white and sky blue with black 'souliers'.
In France today it could be easily worn by a boy, but with slightly different souliers." [HBC note: Souliers are patent leather shoes or dressy shoes worn for church on Sunday or other special occasions.]
Sailor Suit Country Related Pages:
[Return to theMain U.S. sailor suit individual garment page]
[Return to theMain U.S. sailor suit garment page]
[American]
[English]
[French]
[German]
[Italian]
Other Related HBC Pages:
[Sailor suits]
[Kilts]
[Smocks]
[Pinafores]
[Sailor Hats]
[Blouses]
[Ring Bearers]
[Long hair]
[Ringlet curls]
[Hair bows]
[Bangs]
[Collars]
[Bows]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
