|
Sailor suits were extremely popular in Austria just as in Germany, despite the Austro-Hungarian Empire having only a small navy. The sailor suit is today almost associated with Austria, in part because it is the costume of the world-famous Vienna Choir Boys. HBC knows, however, little of the history of the sailor suit in Austria. We have, however, begun to build some information about the chronology of Austrian sailor suits.
HBC knows little about the history of the sailor suit in Austria. No information on the chronology of Austrian sailor suits available yet as we have relatively few Austrian images. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had a small navy based in Italian ports. The Empire controlled Venice and areas of northern Italy. The popularity of the sailor suit may have come more from the German fashion influence than the emulation of the Austrian Navy. The earliest Austrian image we have comes from the 1880s. we believe that sailor suits were worn earlier, but we just have so few austrian images that we do not have any earlier example. A factor here must have been the popularity of the sailor suit among Austrian royalty. A good example is the family of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne until he was assasinated (1914). We note one unidentified Austrian boy wearing a standard white middy blouse in 1912. The unidentified portrait of the Austrian boy here is undated, but we would guess the 1910s or the very early 1920s (figure 1). We are unsure how the popularity of the sailor suit was affected by World War I and the fall of the monarchy. After the NAZI Anchlus (1938) the sailor suit rapidly disapeared.
An Austrian Navy sounds a bit strange today as Austria is now a small land-locked country in the middle of Europe that has since World War II (1939-45) cultivated a policy of neutralism. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was through much of modern European history a principal European power. Austria even had a modest naval tradition, defeating the Turks in the Battle of ???. In the late 19th century as the sailor suit was becoming widely acceted as a principal boys' style, the Austrians were building a modern navy which they operated from ports in what is now Italym such as Trieste.
The major components of a sailor suit are the blouse or jacket and the pants. The cap or hat can add to the style, but was an optional item. The style of the sailor suit was largely deterined by the blouse or jacket. HBC at this time has to few images of Austrian sailor suits to reach any conclusions over styles. Flat top sailor caps as worn by the Austrain and German navies appear to have been popular in Austria. The Vienna Choir Boys wore very traditional styling including the standard three stripes on the collar of the middy blouse. The boy here wears a fancier collar style which is repeated on the wrist cuffs. HBC is not sure what color the collar and cuffs were, probably light blue, but possibly red. We see Austrian boys wearing sailor suits with many different tyoes of pants, including long pants, bloomer knickers, knee pants, and short pants. This varied over time.
The sailor suit is also popular for German and Scandinavian choirs. The use of the sailor suit, however, was a relatively recent development for the Austrian choirs. The Vienna Choir Boys only adopted it in the 1920s. The sailor suit is today almost associated with Austria, in part because it is the costume of the world-famous Vienna Choir Boys. Other Austrian choirs also wear sailor suits.
The sailor suit and Austria were further associated in the popular mind by the musical The Sound of Music. Both boys and the girls wore matching grey sailor suits in the film. The boys wore shorts and the girls skirts. The Van Trap children did actually wear sailor suits, but the only image HBC has shows them in dark long pants sailor suits.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[Essays]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web sailor pages:
[Return to the National sailor suits]
[Return to the Main sailor suit page]
[Return to the Main Austria page]
[Middy blouse]
[Reefer jackets]
[Sailor dresses]
[Other sailor styles]
[Sailor hats]
[The Royals]
[Ring bearer/page costumes]
