Figure 1.--This CDV portrait shows three brothers smartly dressed in fashionable suits during 1872. The boys are not identified, but look to be about 10-16 yeas of age. The two younger boys wear sack suits with lapel jackets. The older boy has africk suit jacket. Only one boy has trousers which matched his jacket. Notice tge stripes on the long trousers. The studio was F. Wunder Sohn in Hannover.

We see German boys wearing both cut-away jacket and lael jacket suits in the 1870s, commonly with long trousers. The younger boys wore cut=awau jackets. Somewhat older boys had jackets with high-set lapels. Some lapels had velvet trim. Older teenagers might wear jackets styled more like frock coats. We note that stripes on the panys were a popular decoration. This was a military style. We note syits both with matching and contrasting trousers. We begin to see more German boys wearing kneepants suits in the 1870s, but only some of the younger boys. Boys in the late-19th century and early 20th century commonly wore knee pants, but this was not yet common in the 1870s, especially the early-70s. Most of the portrits we have archived in the 1870s show school-age boys wearing long pants suits. We bgin to see some of the younger boys at school wearing knee paats or bloomer knickelies, although we are not yet sure how common this was. We also do not yet have a large enough archive to develop any assessments as to social-class and other conventions. The German Empire was founded (1871). This may have helped to reduce regional differences, but there was already a customs union in place.

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Created: 7:58 AM 11/12/2012
Last updated: 7:58 AM 11/12/2012