*** sailor suits: American styles








U.S. Sailor Suits: Styling

American sailor suits >
Figure 1.--This Parsons, Kansas boy was probably photographed in the late 1890s. Note the sailor styling on his jacket and the white collar with a back flap. His mother has added a very large, perfevtly knotted plaid bpw and a cap that clarly have no relationship to the sailor styling of the rest of his outfit. Also notice the very short hair style. He holds a Sherlock Holmes deer-slayer cap.

Few garments were so widely worn by boys and in so many different styles and forms. We are all familiar with the fact that boys began wearing sailor suits in the mid-19th century. Less familiar is the may varied styles of suits that were worn. The styles were inspired by naval uniform styles and traditional suits were based on actual uniforms. There were, however, a wide variety of sailor suits styles, especially in the 1860s and 70s. Some seamstresses used the same imagininatio on boys sailor suits as they did with girl's dresses. Some were rather elaborate, varying substantially from actual naval uniforms. Only gradually did the traditional sailor suit with three stripes become an established standard. Less obvious is the ways to which sailor styling has been adopted in other garments. Many boys wore jackets or blouses with a hint of sailor styling. Many boys wore Fauntleroy and ither outfits with sailor hats. Other boys wore sailior suits or outfits with sailor styling without sailor caps or hats. The various permutations were especially striking in the 19th century. Especially difficult for mothers to resist during the 1980s and 90s was to add an emormous bow, even with outfits with sailor styling.

Sailor Suits

Few garments were so widely worn by boys and in so many different styles and forms. We are all familiar with the fact that boys began wearing sailor suits in the mid-19th century. Less familiar is the may varied styles of suits that were worn. The styles were inspired by naval uniform styles and traditional suits were based on actual uniforms. There were, however, a wide variety of sailor suits styles, especially in the 1860s and 70s. Some seamstresses used the same imagininatio on boys sailor suits as they did with girl's dresses. Some were rather elaborate, varying substantially from actual naval uniforms. Only gradually did the traditional sailor suit with three stripes become an established standard. We are not intirely sure why the traditional suits gradually emerged as the standard style and eventually ecipsed the moreimaginative styles. We suspect that boys themselves preferred the suits more closely based on naval uniforms. The mass production of ready-made clothes also meant that that less diversity emerged because each garment was no longer hand made by seamstresses.

Sailor Influenced Garments

Less obvious than the huge popularity of the sailor suit and related garment is the ways to which sailor styling was adopted in a wide range of garments. When the Fauntleroy style burst onto the fashion scene (1885), the sailor suit was already popular. They became choices mothers could make. But mothers with their infinite creativity began to merge the styles. Thus we see some boys wearing outfits with both Fauntleroy and sailor touches. Notice the Kansas boy here. He has a Fauntleriy lace collar and floppy bow and a jacket with sailor-inspired striping (figure 1). Many boys wore jackets or blouses with a hint of sailor styling. Many boys wore Fauntleroy and other outfits with sailor hats. We see countless Fauntleroy-styled blouses with a sailor-like back flap. Other boys wore sailior suits or outfits with sailor styling without sailor caps or hats. The various permutations were especially striking in the 19th century. Sailor dresses became popular with girls, but before that developed we begin to see sailr features on girls dresses.

Added Touches

The sailor suit was popular with both 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 here is wearing (figure 1). 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.

Skirted Sailor Outfits

The standard sailor suit was made with pants. We also notice a variety of skirted outfits dome with sailor styling, including dresses, kilt suits, and tunic suits. These were worn by younger boys. Girls of course wore dresses and skirts, but the kilt suits and tunics were just for boys. The sailor dresses were very popular for girls, but we do not notice very many boys wearing them, especially after the tin of the 20th century. We do note quite a few boys wearing kilt suits done with sailor styling. These were mostly blouse suits worn with pleated kilt skirts and fairly common in the 1880s and 90s. Even more common were tunic suits sone with sailor styling. These were very common outfits for boys. Some were done with traditional or a degee of traditional styling, but others were done as dressy garments with ruffles and lave. We notice large numbetrs in the 1900s and 10s.







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Created: March 26, 2002
Last updated: 7:48 AM 7/29/2014