Figure 1.--Here we see an unidenbtified brother and sister wearing matching sailor-styled double breasted overcoats. They are similar to pea jacketsm but a little longer, There are minor differences, the sleeve buttons and the boy's epaulettes. They also wear differenbt caps. The snapshot is undated, but was probably taken about 1930.

American boys have worn a wide variety of outerwear. The basic tyopes were coats and jackets although these terms were often used interchngably. Some of these garments had destinctive styling, the popularity of which varied over time. In addition to the types of outerwear, there was also destinctive styles. Some of these garments were gender speciggic. Others could be worn by both boys and girls. One very popular style was sailor styling. Sailor coats were not only worn wjth sailor suits. In fact sailor-styled coats continued popular well after sailor suits had ceased being a major style. Sailor coats could be worn by both boys and girls. Many like sailor styled reefer jackets appear to have been quite similar to European styles. Others such as the plaid lumber jacket appear to have been more American and perhps even more so Canadian in origin. A popular style by the 1920s were leather aviator jackets. Many short jackets, some with fur (or imitation fur by the 1940s) collars based primarily on the basic styling of the popular aviator jackets. Duffle coats cut longer than jackets have also been popular after World War II, but we believe that thery were primarily an English style. In recent years a variety of heavily insulated, often brightly colored jackets and coats have appeared influed by ski styling. Younger children might wear plain, short cut overcoats, usually wih doble breasted styling.

Created: 3:16 PM 1/5/2015
Last updated: 3:16 PM 1/5/2015