Figure 1.-- These two Swedish boys named Harold and Walter, about 10 and 7 years old respectively, show some useful fashion details. Walter wears a white short trousers sailor suit with white long stockings and sailor cap with ribbon. His jacket is worn with a dark belt that passes through wide loops that are part of white strips of cloth made of the same material as the jacket itself and sewn onto it. This gives this white sailor suit a look of a Norfolk-style suit. Harold also wears short trousers, but they are black and accompanied by black long stockings. He wears a patterned white shirt and tie with a black student cap. The somewhat unusual feature here is the necktie made of the same patterned material as the shirt itself. The material has a white background with small pin-sized dots arranged in rows almost like the material that used to be used for pillow slips on beds. It may be that Harold's mother has made her son's shirt at home and fashioned a straight four-in-hand straight tie of the same fabric as the shirt. Harold seems to be wearing a small tie pin with a chain to hold the tie in place on his chest. Harold is shown with his bicycle. Maybe he has been carrying Walter on the same bike. It seems likely that the two boys are brothers. Note the caption reads, "Harold & Walter in weden 1921." This suggests that the boys may be Americans visiting grandparents in Sweden. Harold's stuudent cap, however, would not have been worn by an American boy.

We notice boys wearing student caps similar to those in Germany. Younger boys wore sailor caps. Shirts and knee pants or long short pants seem popular. Collared shirts seem to all be long sleeves. They were commonly held up with suspenders. We also notice blouses. Sailor suits were popular. We notice both regular sailor suits and tunic-style suits at the beginning of the decade. Rural children often went barefoot in the summer, but long stockings were very common, especially dark long stockings. This was probably because short pants were so commomn in Sweden, even during the winter. Younger boys might wear white long stockings. High-top shoes were still common at the beginning of the decsde. We see more low-cut oxfords by the end of the decade. We note a Swedish boy photographed with his cousin in 1928. He looks to be dressed for school because he wears his peaked school cap.

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Long pants suits] [Knicker suits] [Short pants suits] [Socks] [Eton suits] [Jacket and trousers] [Blazer]
[School sandals] [School smocks] [Sailor suits] [Pinafores] [Long stockings]

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Created: 8:36 PM 12/30/2010
Last updated: 8:36 PM 12/30/2010