Figure 1.-- This cabinet card studio portrait shows a Brazilian boy wearing a fashionable knee pants sailor suit. His name may be someting like Jose Severes de Poreyas P?????. Put your curosor on the image and see if you an read the writing. Jose looks to be about 5-years old. He has long hair done with bangs. His hair is not curles, but long. This was a populr style in Portugal. The portrait wastke arounf 1885. We know this because the studio won agold medal at the Brazilian-German Phoyograohic Exposition of 1881. The studio was Augusto Amoretty in Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul. This was a state where many Germans settled. The Germans were very important in the Braziian photographic industry.

We see Brazilian boys in the 19th century wearing all the major European styles including many not meant for tropical climates. Europeans set the fashion trends in Brzil, at least among families affluent enough to follow European trends. And among these we of course find the boys' classic -- sailor suit. The sailor suit was perhaps the most popular boys' style in history. It was of course most popular in Europe and America, but we see many examples of boys from well-to-do families throughout Latin America wearing sailor suits as well, including Brazil. Here the photographic record is more limited, but we have noted a few examples. In all instances, the boys seem to be wearing sailor outfits following European fashion trends. we only have a examples of actual portraits as our Brazilian archive is limited. The portrait of this fashionbly dressed boy dates to the 1880s (figure 1). Parents sent the portrait to family or friends in Portugal. We also have some literary references. One from the 1920s reads, ".... Then came Gaetaninho. Up on the box, next to the coachman. In his sailor suit and white cap with the words S�o Paulo Dreadnought on it. The sailor suit was fine but instead of the cap he would wear the new straw hat his brother had brought him from the factory. And black garters on his stockings. What a deal boy!." [Alc�ntara Machado, p.72.] Note the well-stablished tradition of cap tallies with popular ships. Dreadnought was a term no longer used by modern navies.

Sources

Alc�ntara Machado, Ant�nio. "Gaetaninho," William L. Grossman, ed. Modern Brazilian Short Stories. The story was written in 1927.

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Created: 2:01 AM 11/27/2004
Last updated: 2:50 AM 7/24/2015