Figure 1.--The sailor suit on the left (s70) from a 1921 catalog was made of unbleached jean for boys from 3 to 8 years. The French-blouse suit on the right (s71) was made of poplin for boys from 4 to 10 years. It had both blue and white short pants. The kneepants styles were only worn in the early 1920s and by mid-decade had been replaced by short pants.

Here we see the variety of sailor suits offered for sale in store catalog in 1921. We believe these images come from the Atlman catalog, but are not positive as we have lost the reference material. We see boys' sailor suits here in a wide variety of styles. They seem especially popular for summerwear. The suits were also made in many materials. They were both play and dressy outfits. They were avilable in sizes up to about 10 years. Most of the sailor suits came with kneepants. We notice a few long pants suits, but no knicker or short pants suits.

Styles

Middy blouses

Middy blouses in America were still for boys in 1920. They were were made in a wide variety of styles. Some of the terms used to describe these suits I do not yet fully understand.
Button-on: Sailor suits for younger boys were made in the button-on style. This mean buttons on the pants buttoned into button holes on the middy blouse. The buttons were usually large white ones, but there were black buttons as well. Examples: S70.
French blouse: Some middy blouses are described as "French blouse style". I am not sure, however, what the distinctive features of this style are. Examples: S71.
Tub suit: Some suits are described as tub suits. I am not sure what that meant, perhaps that it could be easily laundred.
Regulation style: Several of the suits are described as regulatuion, style presumably a reference to styling accurately reflecting U.S. Navy uniforms.
Sleeves: Middy blouses had mostly been made with long sleeves, even the white summer ones. In the 1920s, however, summer sailor suits with short sleeves became more common. The short sleeves were mostly elbow-length. Some eve had tight-fitting elbow cuffs.
Accessories: Sailor suits sod at better stories still commonly fearured the scarf, lanyard, and whistle. By mid-decade sailor suits were commonly sold without the scarves, especially the summer suits.

Most of the middy blouses appear to have a horizontal cut left breast pocket. One suit has a vertical cut pocket (S91).

Sailor trousers

I can't tell if the trousers to these suits have pockets. The button-on style trousers do not appear to have the pockets, but other 1920s styles did. The middy blouses for the other suits cover part of the trouser, so it is difficult to tell. But again other 1920s styles did, so these sailor suit trousers probably did also.

Dickies

The dickies in these sailor suits mostly appear to come with various arrangements of stripes. Three narrow stripes appear the most common, but several have bold stripes as well.

Accessories

The most popular accessories with sailor suits, besides the required headgear, were ties, lanyards, and whistles. The ties were mostly black silk. Even on the dark-colored suits, black ties were used. The whistles were usually brass, held on by a lanyard. The boys liked the whistles. Some mothers didn't and had them disabled so they would make a noise.

Figure 2.--The sailor suit on the left (S72) from a 1921 catalog was made of khaki drill for boys from 3 to 10 years. He wears a "naval" cap (s73) to match. The suit on the right (S74) is in "regulation" middy style. It is white galatea with both long and short trousers for boys from 3 to 10 years. Note the Tam O'Shanter cap (S75)

Caps and Hats

The caps and hats worn with sailor suits had changed significantly by 1920s. The wide brimmed hat with trailing streemer and elastic chin strap, once a boys stapple is no longer seen. The caps are now smaller and the swabbie-type cap more common. Tam O'Shanter (S75): The Tam O'Shanter cap is still available, but it is going out of style as the Navy has replaced it with the swabbie cap. Notice the small streemer.
Brimmed cap: The boy wearing suit 79 wears a full brimmed straw sailor hat, but it is not offered for sale, an indication that the style was going out of style. The versin shown, however, has a much smaller brim than the ons once worn by boys.
Swabbie caps (S73 and 78): I'm not sure what the poroper name is for this cap. It is the style worn by American sailors and was rapidly replacing all the other types of sailor caps worn by American boys. Most were white, but colored caps were also available.

Hair styles

American boys no longer wore long hair and curls. Some of the younger boys had long hair, but usually not completely covering the ears. Most boys in sailor suits had short boyish hair cuts.

Materials

Quite a wide range of materials were used for boys' sailor suits. This was in part some were dressy outfits, but plau suits were becoming popular.
Chambray: One suit (S77)has the collar and cuffs made of blue chambray. Another suit for younger boys is made of brown chambray. Cotton: Most of the blue and white stripped suit were made of cotton.
Drill:
Drill came in several colors, white as well as a dark khaki.
Galatea: I'm not sure yet just what galatea is, but am looking into it.
Jean: I believe this means denim. Some suits indicate that they were made from unbleaced jean (S70).
Poplin:
Silk: The sailor ties were usually black silk.

Figure 3.--This middy suit from a 1921 catalog was made in blue and white striped cotton. Interestingly while this is more of a practical play suit, the boy is pictured in white kneesocks and patent-leather pumps with ribbons.

Colors

Sailor suits were made in both white and various shades of blue. They were mostly worn with middy blouse and shorts of the same color. A few were worn with white middy blouse and blue shorts, but never blue middy blouse and white shorts. One suit was made in dark khaki (S72). I think this was uniquely America. I don't know of any European sailor suits that were khaki.

Ages

Little boys by 1920 were now wearing sailor suits as young as age 3. Just a few years, before World War I (1914-18) earlier many of these younger boys would have still been wearing dresses. The custom of keeping little boys in dresses, however, declined sharply in the 1910s--especially after the war. Several of the suits are made only in sizes to 7 or 8 while others in sizes to 10 years. One of the major characteristic of the suits for younger boys are that they are in the "button-on" style (S70, 89, 91, and 92). The suits for younger boys are also the ones that differ the most from regulation styling. Sailor suits were generally made in sizes up to about 10 years. Older American boys did not wear sailor suits, although older European boys did.

Figure 4.--These two boys in a 1921 catalog wear suits modely closely to the U.S, naval uniform, except for the bottom boys cap. The white suit (S77) is made of white drill for boys up to 10. The Belgian blue suit (S79) is for boys up to 8 in linen-finished suiting..

Shoes

Boys in 1920 wore quite a variety of shoes. Younger boys wore strap shoes or pumps without the strap. Most of the younger boys wore high top lace up shoes. One boy wears low-cut Oxfords, but he is a distinct minority.

Socks and Stockings

American boys in 1920 wore sailor suits with both kneesocks and long stockings.
Kneesocks: Kneesocks appear to b most commonly worn with short pants sailor suits. Both white and dark kneesocks are worn with various colored suits with no clear pattern. Some of the kneesocks are solid colors, some have a colored or patterned band, usually near the top of the sock.
Long stockings: Several suits are worn with both white and black long stockings. The long stockings seem to be more common with the kneepants than the short pants.

Individual Suits

The fashionable New York store B. Altman in 1921 provided the following details of the summer sailor suits they offered for boys:
S70: Suit of unbleached jean, smartly trimmed with black silk tie, black lacing and buttons; a practical tub suit; sizes 3 to 8 years. $3.95
S71: Suit in the French blouse style, and supplied with one pair of trousers in blue mercerized poplin and one pair of trousers in white galatea; the blouse is of white galatea; white braid; embroidered emblem; tie of black silk; sizes 4 to 10 years. $8.50
S72: Suit in dark khaki drill in regulation middy style; trimmed with black taping; excellently tailored; sizes 3 to 10 years. $6.00
S74: Suit in regulation middy style, supplied with one pair of long trousers made exactly like a sailor's trousers with laced back and broad front fall (bell bottoms); also one pair of short trousers; material in white galatea; sizes 3 to 10 years. $8.50.

Figure 6.--The blue chambray suit (S90) on the left is for boys up to 10 years. The middle boy's brown suit (S91) of chambray is for a boy up to 7 years. The blue and white stripped suit on the right (S92) is for a boy up to 8 years old, with a cotton middy blouse and chambray kneepants. These styles come from a 1921 catalog.

Created: November 27, 1998
Last updated: 2:36 AM 11/6/2018