Figure 1.--This looks to be a scene from the 1910s. Norice the white outfits. The boy wears a tunic with destinctive trim
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Figure 1.--This looks to be a scene from the 1910s. Norice the white outfits. The boy wears a tunic with destinctive trim |
We note German boys wearing a wide range of outfits to the beach. We see outfits like tunic suits and sailor suits. Both garments were common in other countries. Some of the German tunics were quite destinctive. Sailor suits for beach wear seem to be primarily traditional styles. Hats of course were very important. Beachwear could be realtively formal, especially before World war I. The swimsuits seem very similar to those worn in other European countries. As in other countries, boys did not always wear swimsuits for beachwear when playing in the sand or engaged in other beach-front activities. Often boys took off their shoes and stockings for playing and wading on the beach, but often they wore long stockings when not actually playing in the sand and sometimes when they were playing. A reader writes, "Maybe I am wrong but in looking at this picture, I feel that there is no relation between those clothings and bathing. The costumes seems Romanian, Croatian or Greek folkloric dresses. They could be Germans or
Austrians in vacation along the Black Sea , the Adriatic or the Aegean Sea. Remember Death in Venice. You know that Germans and Austrians were very influential and conversely, they could dressed like people they visited. I think that the family was simply walking along the beach." Well I would guess that this is definitely a German image. The Hungarian/Romanian trim was popular at the time. I think our reader is correct, however, that the people here are not planning on swimming. I think the seaside was less associated with swimming at the time than the case today. Children this age would have been more interesting in playing in the sand than swimming, so swimsuits were less important. This is probably the same today with younger children, but we think it was een more the case in the early 20th century.
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