Figure 1.--This German mother in 1939 has outfitted all her sons in identical outfits. They wear blouses with folk detailing and identical suspender shorts with lederhosen halter styling with long stockings. The long stockings appear to be the same color as the blouses. Notice that the hair styling is similar, but that one boy has a left part and the others a right part. It seems a bit strange to go to the lenhth of dressing the children identically and then not combing their hair alike--especially with such careful parts.

A wide variety of garments have been used to dress brothers in coordinated outfits. They have included dresses, smocks, sailor suits, tunics, blouses, suits, and a wide range of other garments. In somes cases the children were dressed absolutely identically. In many cases the basic garments were the same, but minor changes might be made to identify the older and younger boy. No other garment was so commonly used to dress brothers in than the sailor suit. Sometimes all the brothers, occassionally sisters too, wore sailor suits. Often the boys all wore the same style suit. More commonly the younger boys might have more juvenile style sailor suits like a sailor tunic suit. In some cases the youngest boy might wear a sailor dress. Some mothers also attempted to coordinate the hair styling others did not. This seems a bit curiius to go go the trounle of dressing the children alike or similarly and then not coordinating the hair styles.

Created: November 13, 2001
Last updated: November 13, 2001