German Boys' Clothes: Coordinated Outfits--Gender


Figure 1.-- This German brother and sister wear identical sailor suits of course with the older sisterwearing a skirt and the little brother short pants. The snapshot is undated, but was taken about 1930.

It was most common to dress brothers or sisters in identical outfits, but sometimes both brothers and sisters had coordinated outfits. The children might for example wear identical middy blouses, but with pants for the boys and skirts for the girls. An example here is a middle-class family in 1909. Identical outfits for boys and girls, except for sailor suits, were much less common. We do see quite a number of brothers and sisters dressed in matching or similar sailor suits, with the boys wearing pants and the girls skirts. It is just a preliminary assessment, but it seems that it was more common to dress brothers in identical outfits than sisters. We are not entirely sure about the chronology yet. We have little information about the 19th century. We see quite a number of brothers and sisters wearing identical middy blouses in the 20th century.

Popularity

Sailor suits were a particulaly popular garment in Germany, for both boys and girls. They thus were a nastural choice for coordinated outfirs, both brothers and sisters. It was most common to dress brothers or sisters in identical outfits, but sometimes both brothers and sisters had coordinated outfits. Identical outfits for boys and girls, except for sailor suits, were much less common.

Garments

German children wore a variety of garments when their outfits were coordinated. Younger children in particular wore a range of identical or coordinated outfits. There were more limited outfit choices for older children. The mosr frequently used outfit was the sailor suit. The children might for example wear identical middy blouses, but with pants for the boys and skirts for the girls. An example here is a middle-class family in 1909. At the time sailor suits were most popular, girls did not commonly wear dresses. We do see quite a number of brothers and sisters dressed in matching or similar sailor suits, with the boys wearing pants and the girls skirts.

Considerations

There were several considerations touching upon gender. One factor was that some of the childrebn were essentially dressed identically, only the boys wore pants, often short pants, and the girls wore skirts in the same color. It is just a preliminary assessment, but it seems that it was more common to dress brothers in identical outfits than sisters. We are not yet sure of this, but we seem to have have found mnore similarly dressed brothers than sisters. We suspect that this reflects the fact that girls were more interested in and fussy about the clothing they wore. But this is a subject we are still working wuth.

Chronology

We are not entirely sure about the chronology of matxching brother-sister oufits yet. We still have relatively little information about the 19th century. We believe that brothers and sisters also wotr matching sailor suits in the 19th century, but our archive is very limited. We know much more about the 20th century. We see quite a number of brothers and sisters wearing identical middy blouses in the 20th century. Here we note quite a number of examples in the photgraphic record. Sailor outdits seems to be the most commoon outfits for dressing boys anf girls alike in the 20th century, but they were not the only outfits. We also see the children wearing matching blouses.

Ages

Age was a factor in coordinating outfits. This was most common with younger children who often did niot give much thought o the clothing they wore. This changed, especially after the children reached the teen years. We still see younger teens wsearing identical or coordinsted clothing, but we see few mid-teen wearing the sane clothing as theur younger sublings.






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Created: 7:34 AM 6/28/2004
Last updated: 11:55 PM 5/10/2011