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American mail order catalogs and advertisements with boys clothes -- 1911 : suits
American mail order catalogs and advertisements with boys clothes -- 1911 : suits
American Mail Order Catalogs and Advertisements for Boys Clothes: Suits (1911)
Figure 1.--We note a page in the Franklin Simon 1911 Spring-Smmer catalog. FS offered different styles for both Norfolk and double-breasted suits. They are sizes up to age 17 years, although there is a separatee offering for long pants. Parents in 1911 still had very different ideas aboutb what their sins wore to school. The only difference is that the Norfolk suits began at age 7 years and the doubke-breasted suits at 10 years, but both went uop to 17 years. A negligee blouse is offered for boys 8-16 years. We are not sure what negligee refers to, but probably means a light-weight material. There are also sparate corduroy knickers offered, probably also for 8-16 years. notice the air plane model. That ws not a hostoric model, but what opames were like about 1910.
We have some information on 1911 catalogs at this time. Boys still commonly wore suits. Norfolk styling was still very popular. And we see see noth single- and double-breasted suits. We note an ad from A. Shuman & Co. Suits of Boston with an illustration of a Norfolk suit. We also see suits offered by Franklin Simon, both Norfolk and double-breasted suits. Boys commonly wore kniclker suits in 1911, although some suits for younger boys were still done with knee pants. Knicker suits were done in sized up to 17 years, meaning for high school ages, but this
began to decline as the decade prigressed. The knicker suits were worn with long stockings abd we still see high-tops hoes in 1911, although low-cut shoes were beginning to appear.
Here we have an ad from A. Shuman & Co. Suits of Boston. They offered Knockabout suits which was the company's exclusive brand name. It appeared in The Youth's Companion (November 16, 1911, p. 633). Note that the style being offered is the Norfolk style suit with belt around the outside of the coat and cloth strips down the front. It is a knicker rather than kneepants suit worn with the customary long black stockings and hightop shoes. An interesting note is the very formal collar and tie (the collar is clearly a stiff collar attached to a neckband shirt by collar pins in front and in back). The collar and tie are very adult in style although the boy is probably no older than 12.
Franklin Simon Suits
Franklin Simon had three pages of suits in its Spring-Summer catalog. This reflected the fact tht boys still commonly wore suits. They were basically standard wear. What we find surprising is that they were almost all knickers suit and dominated by two basic styles: Norfolk and double-breasted styling. We see very few single-breasted suits. We can tell from the photographic record that sinngle-breasted suits were not rare. There are a variety of other styles show including an Eton suit and a sailor suit, instead the suits were almost all very small variations of Norfolk and double-breasted suits.
Washable suits and separate garments
We note a page in the Franklin Simon 1911 Spring-Summer catalog for washable suits and separate trousers, shirts, and blouses (figure 1). FS offered different styles for both Norfolk and double-breasted suits. They are sizes up to age 17 years, although there is a separatee offering for long pants. Parents in 1911 still had very different ideas aboutb what their sins wore to school. The only difference is that the Norfolk suits began at age 7 years and the doubke-breasted suits at 10 years, but both went up to 17 years. A negligee blouse is offered for boys 8-16 years. For older boys a negligee shirt is offered. We believe the difference is the shirt tails. We are not sure what negligee refers to, but probably means a light-weight material. There are also sparate corduroy knickers offered, probably also for 8-16 years. We are not sure why there was no offering for single-breastred suits because they were worn in the 1910s. We susposed that FS saw the double-breasted suit as more stylish. This means that there were knicker suits offered for almost all school-age boys, even high-school boys. Suits were still common for school wear, although declining by the end of the decde. This was the case for knee pants in the 1900s, but but this declined in the 1910s and by the end of the decade knickers were becoming a style mostly for grade/primary school boys. The knicker suits were all worn with long stockings. Notice how the illustration mostly features flat caps.
Frannklin Simon calls the suits here 'dress' suits. We are not entirekly sure why as most look like the suits on the other pages. We note two suits wuth vests--the suits on the other pages do not have vests. An English Eton suit is one of the offeringgs. We are a little surprised as we do not see American boys wearing Eton suits. We see Etion collars, but not exact replicas of English school uniforms like this. We also note a sailor suit. We are not sure why the sailor suit is here because sailor suits are offered on other pages. Perhaos it was the material--English serge. There was a long pants ooption, not thr case for almost all of the other suits. Notice that they are almost all done with knickers which is not mentioned in the ad copy. Curiously the sailor suit has a 'bloomer trousers' option. We are not entirely sure what that neans, but orobabky refers to the knickers with drawn strings done for younger boys. The knickers shown for older boys has clasp or button closures. The suits are for boys up to 17 years, except for the Eton suit (14 years) abd the sailor suit (12 years).
This Franklin Simon catalog page is for dress and school styles. It shows both Norfolk an double-breasted suits. We suspect that the Norfolk suits were the school suits and the double-breasted suiyts are the dress suits. Of course the FS ad copy could mean thatthe suits are suitavle for both school and dresswear, but we think the former explanation is more likely. And this is a rare mention of the knickerbockers in the adcopy. On other catalog pages the knickers are onlu inferred by the illustrations. The photogrphic record suggests that the Norfolk suits were more common for schoolwear. Although the double-breasted suits might have been common at private schools. And we are not sure just why this is the onky suit page offering extra pair of knickerbockers. The Norfolk suits look very similar withe difference being primarily the favric patterms. The same is the casr for the two diuble-breasted suits. The illustration suggests the long stickings were black and not a ciolor matching the suits. The suits were done in sizs 8 to 17 years.
