Figure 1.--This boy, Lennie, wears a summer stripped salor suit. The stripped suits were most common in the 1890s and early 1900s. Note the plaid neckerchief he wears with his stripped suit. Note the wonderful broad-brimmed hat.
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Figure 1.--This boy, Lennie, wears a summer stripped salor suit. The stripped suits were most common in the 1890s and early 1900s. Note the plaid neckerchief he wears with his stripped suit. Note the wonderful broad-brimmed hat. |
The classic boy's sailor suit was made to faithfully resemble actual
naval uniforms. Many variations on the classic suits were made. One of the most common was stripped suits. I don't know a lot about this style yet. I have never seen or been able to collect much material on the subject so have just begun to analize this style. I have begun to collect information and would be very interested in any thoughts or insights you might have on the topic.
I believe the stripped suits were primarily summer suits. They probably
began to appear around Easter and then were put away after Labor Day, unless
the weather stayed unusually warm.
I am not sure what materials the stripped suits were made in, but am
looking into this.
The stripped suits were very popular in America. We have noted these stripped suits being worn in many other countries as well. I have also seen a lot of French and German images of boys in stripped suits. We believe that they were worn in many other countries as well.
The stripped suits were mostly worn with kneepants. Few stripped suits were made with long pants and by the time short pants became popular the stipped middy blouses had gone out of fashion. The stripped suits were worn with both long stockings or with ankle
short socks or mid-calf socks. Even though the stripped suits were
summer wear, it was still very common to wear long stockings with
them. The socks and stockings were often white. The middy blouses with stripped suits were almost always long sleeve styles. I do not recall seeing short sleeved middy blouses until the 1920s and by then the stripped style had passed out of style.
Figure 2.--This boy wears a stripped sailor suit with a wide-brimmed, straw sailor hat. His sailor collar is not the classic "V" collar. Note the unusual pocket on his middy blouse. |
I'm not sure when stripped suits first appeared, probably the 1880s. Stripped sailor suits were most popular in the 1890s and early 1900s. I am not sure just why the stripped suits were so popular during this period. Before and after boys wore mostly solid-colored suits. Quite a number of the suits worn during this period were these striped suits. The same chronological trends concerning the stripped suits appear to have affected America nd the various Europen countries where sailor suits were worn. We know of real national variations in this regard. I have not noted them being worn extensively after the They were not much worn after World War I in the 1920s.
I believe the colors were mostly white suits with stripes in
various shades of blues.
I believe mostly younger boys wore the stripped suits. The older boys
that wore sailor suits in Europe generally wore the classic suits that
were styled like actual uniforms.
I believe this was a style more for boys than girls.
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