Figure 1.--This family snapshot shows an unidentified grandmother with two of her grandchildren. They look to be about 10-15 years of age. The boy wears a double-breasted knickers suit and black long stockings. The girl wears a classic light-colored sailor dress with white long stockings. She aso has a huge white hair bow, although you have to look closely to see it. The snapshot is undated, but looks to have been taken in the 1910s. The boy's suit and the girl's hairbow help to date the image.

Sailor suits were intially for boys, mostly younger boys. Gradually we see somewhat older boys wearing them in America. They were for the most part boys in elementary (primry) school. we see a few younger teen boys wearing sailor suits, but not very many. We see few boys in high school or even juniot high school wearing them. Both American boys and girls wore sailor outfits. The traditional suits could be styled identically for both boys and girls. There were age differences. Unlike in Europe, sailor suits were mostly worn by pre-teen boys. After World War I in the 1920s we see increasingly younger boys wearing sailor suits. Girls were a different matter. While few Ameican teen boys wore sailor suits, we see many teen gorls wearing them. And as increasingly younger boys were wearing sailor outfits, we see sailor suits becoming very popular for teen girls. Sailor dresses were a staple for schoolwear just as sailor dressesss were popular for girls. We see teenage girls commonly wearing sailor-styled outfits to school, often with big hair bowsin the 1900s and 10s rather than sailor hats. Not only might older teenaged girls wear sailor dresses, but we see youngr women wearing them as well--mostly unmarried women in their 20s. This began to decline in the 1920s, but sailor dresses xontinued to be popular for younger girls into the 1950s.

Other Related Pages:
[Sailor suits] [Kilts] [Smocks] [Pinafores] [Sailor Hats] [Blouses]
[Ring Bearers] [Long hair] [Ringlet curls] [Hair bows] [Bangs] [Collars] [Bows]

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Created: 8:45 AM 5/5/2016
Last updated: 8:45 AM 5/5/2016