|
Most sailor suits were done in flat material, usually blue or white. Which of course mirrors actual sailor suits round the world. And the whole idea was an outfit based on naval uniforms. The photographic record shows that this was the case of the vast majority of sailor suits. The black and white photography of the day does not show color, although it generally does accurately depict white and to a lesser degree black. Of course navy blue which shows up like black was much more common. What we do not kniw abiyr these pattern suits is the colors involved. Color photography was not vavailabl at the time when we see these patterned suits. Patterns are a different matter. We can clearly see when fabric with patterns are used if we have a decent photograph. The paucity of these patterned sailor suits in the photographic record we think is a good indicator of relative pevalence. We have a very large archive and thus major fashion developments can be decetected. And these patrerned sailoe suits simply do not show up very commonly. Now while patterns are not common, we have found a few examples. Here we see a checked pattern (figure 1). We also see polkadots. We do not have enough images to establisg a chrnological timeline yet. Most of these imnags we have found so far come from the early-20th century. This is just one more example of mothers being mothers. Some mothers just cold not prevent themselves from just rolling with the standard sailor outfit and adding their own fashion touches. This may be home sewing. Home sewers could choose what ever fabric they wanted. We have not see patterned sailor suits being advertized in mail order catalogs meaning mass produced garments to any extent.
Most sailor suits were done in flat material, usually blue or white. Which of course mirrors actual sailor suits round the world. Flat naterial means no discernable pattern. And the whole idea was an outfit based on naval uniforms which of course had no discernable pattern. The photographic record shows that this was the case of the vast majority of sailor suits.
The black and white photography of the day does not show color, although it generally does accurately depict white and to a lesser degree black. Of course navy blue which shows up like black was much more common. What we do not kniw abiyr these pattern suits is the colors involved. Color photography was bot available at the time when we see these patterned suits.
Patterns are a different matter. We can clearly see when fabric with patterns are used if we have a decent photograph. The paucity of these patterned sailor suits in the photographic record we think is a good indicator of relative pevalence. We have a very large archive and thus major fashion developments can be detected. And these patrerned sailoe suits simply do not show up very commonly.
Now while flat material dominated for sailor suits and patterns were not very common, we have found a few examples of patterned suits, often with a doting mother present. Here we see a checked pattern (figure 1). We also see examoles of polkadot suits. There may have been more varied patterns, but these are the two types of patterns that we have found so far. As our archive expands we suspect that we will find others, especually in the 19th century. We have not yet found patterned sailor suits from the 19th century, but suspect that there were some, and of course we do not kmow yet what the patterns may have been.
We do not have enough images to establish any chrnological timeline yet. Most of these images we have found so far, however, for some reason come from the early-20th century. We have a fairly large 19th century archive, but have not yet found examples of patterned sailor suits. We see that as a very good indicator that patterned sailorsuits were not very common, but that does not mean that none existed. We have found a few patterned suits in the 1910s and early-1920s. The boy here looks to have been photographed in the 1920s (figure 1). While we have found afew examplswith patterns, the vast majority of suits were made with flat material. We suspect that most of the patterned sits were the result of home sewing. We believe thtreadt nade suits in npattens were rare. By the 30s we no no longer see examples, but by this time, the sailor suit was declining in popularity.
These patterned sailor suits are mostly worn by younger boys. We have only a few examples, si we van nit yet create a difinitive age range. It looks to us, however, like the images are all pre-school boys. Of couese this is an estimate. Most of these images do not specufy the ages of the boys. We think that 6 year olds (1st grade) are a definite possibilitym but not much older boys. We suspect this was because older boys wanted their sailor suits to look like actual naval uniforms. They would not have been too impressed with checks and especially polkadots. Looking like sailors was much more appealing. And by 1st grade, boys either knew or would soon learn that real sailors did not wear polkadots. We do subsequentky notice girls with sailor dresses that were done in all sorts of patterns, including olkadits and plaid. Here there was no objections.
This is just one more example of mothers being mothers. Some mothers just cold not prevent themselves from just rolling with the standard sailor outfit and adding their own fashion touches. This may be home sewing. Home sewers could choose what ever fabric they wanted. We have not see patterned sailor suits being advertized in mail order catalogs meaning mass produced garments to any extent.
HBC Sailor Suit Country Related Pages:
[Return to theMain country sailor suit 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]
[American mail order catalogs]
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]
