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School photographs are one of the best indicators of popular fashions, even more helpful than catalogs in understanding which children were actually wearing. Photographs like this not only tell us what boys were wearing to school, but wht the popular fashions of the day were. Sailor suits were especially popular schoolwear in Germany. We continue to see German boys wearing sailor suits into the 1930s. This school class portrait is undated, but looks like the early 1930s. It's not possible to be more specific, but we think the early 30s is more likely than the late-20s or mid-30s. The popularity of sailor suits is probably the most prominant aspect of this photogreaph, but there are several other interesting fashion details.
This is clearly a school portrait. The fact that that they are all about the sane age surely means that they are a school class. You can see the building in the backgrond. It looks like a fairly modern school. The teacher is sitting in with the boys. The number of boys wearing sailor suits suggests to us that it was a secondaty school, perhaos a gymnasium.
The boys looks to us like some of the youngest boys at the school, but not the youngest. The boys look to us to be about 11-12 years old. Ahe estimates are tricky, but I don't think they are 10 or 13 year olds. Of course they may be some variation in the class.
This school class portrait is undated, but looks like the early 1930s. It's not possible to be more specific, but we think the early 30s is more likely than the late-20s or mid-30s.
Sailor suits were especially popular schoolwear in Germany. We continue to see German boys wearing sailor suits into the 1930s. The popularity of sailor suits is probably the most prominant aspect of this photograph. There are some differences between the suits and they are being worn, both with and without dickies. They are all dark suits and as far as we can tell being worn with short pants. Only a few boys wear suits and ties. Suits would have been more common in the 1920s. Note the rather elegantly dressed boy to the right in the back row. Most of the boys not wearing sailor suits are wearing sweaters. Note one boy is wearing a belt over his sweater. Many wear them with open Schiller collars. Very few boys wear ties. As far as we can tell, the boys are all wearing short pants with what looks to be knee socks. A reader writes, " Can you comment on the hosiery in this photo? Some of the boys are wearing knee socks. But others seem to be wearing light tan long stockings. Are there any ankle socks? I wonder if all three styles are represented, but the photo is a bit too small to be sure. Perhaps a couple of detail shots would help clarify?" Unfortunately, blowing up images reduces the clarity. We think most of the boys are wearing knee socks. One boy may n=be wearing light-colored long stockings, but we do not see anu boys that look to be wearing ankle socks. They were not very common at the time.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[The 1880s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
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