Figure 1.--Here we see the Princess of Wales with her three oldest children. As Princess Louise was born in 1867, this CDV portrait portrait would have been taken in 1868. The boys wear narrow-brimmed sailor hats and white knee pants silor suits. Note the wide stipe down the side.

The princes and princeses were each commonly dressed alike as children. It was not possible to dress all the children alike because the the older children were boys and the younger children girls. The reverse would have provided more flexibility. Sailor styles did allow Alix whi like to dress the boys and girls if not identically at least to coordinate their clothes. And of course the boys could be dressed alike and commonmly were. The same is true of the girls. Sailor styles were popular and were becoming increasingly adopted by the general public. Here of course the Royal family had ab influence, As quite a few of the available images show the boys wearing sailor suits, we think this was how they were commonly dressed. Pleasing the Queen may have also been a factor. We are not sure what thePrinces and Princess of Wles thought or to what extent the Prince took an interest. He certainly would have wanted to plese the Queen. This would hve neen a reltively easy way of doing so. The boys wore sailor suits into their early-teens. Both the princes and princesses wore them. We note various styles. Here they wore whay we bow call tradional styles, although at the time the Royal Navy was just beginning to standardize what is now the classic uniform. Other portraits show a little more stylistic divergences.

Created: 4:54 AM 4/9/2016
Last updated: 4:54 AM 4/9/2016