Figure 1.--This CDV portrait shows an American boy wearing a sailor suit with an added fancy ruff. The portrait is undated, but looks to us like ot was taken in the early-1870s. There was no studio information. |
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The sailor suit was popular with both American parents and boys. This was not the case for many 19th century outfits. In an age of often elaborate clothing, the sailor suit was a simple, comfortable outfits that boys liked, at least until the teen years. There were no fussy styling elements that boys might find bothersome. But mothers being mothers, many could not resist adding a rnge of added decorative touches to the basic sailor outfit. These included an extra collor such as ruffs, Eton, rulled, and lace collars) as well as bows including large floppy bows. We see this soon after the sailor suit appeared (1840s) throughout the 19th century. The most common was an emormous bow, even with outfits with sailor styling. Note the bow the boy on the previous page is wearing. We also note he many added colars, all completely unecessary with a sailor suit, but apparently appeling to some fashion concious mothers. They look out of place to the modern eye, but apparently not to many mothers at the time. We see this phenomenon in Europe as well, but there were differentes in the stylistic touches utilized.
Sailor Suit Country Related Pages:
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