Figure 1.--Sailor styling is apparent in the dress es worn by French boys and girls from the 1884 edition of the French fashion magazine "La Mode Illustrée". Neither are classic sailor outfits, but the sailor styling is unmistakeable.
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Figure 1.--Sailor styling is apparent in the dress es worn by French boys and girls from the 1884 edition of the French fashion magazine "La Mode Illustrée". Neither are classic sailor outfits, but the sailor styling is unmistakeable. |
HBC notes French fashion magazines in the early 1880s showed dresses with sailor suit features such as back flaps or front "V"s. By the mid 1880s, dresses clearly with sailor suit styling were common place. The tops of girls dresses were similar tommany ways with the middy blouses being worn by boys. The girls dresses were often fancier and embelished more than the realtively oplain middy blouses worn by boys. The girls dresses, for example, may have lace and ruffles added to the basic sailor styling. There were also some paliner dreses. We do not yet know if a similar chronology was apparent in other countries.
The French fashion magazine La Mode Illustrée provided illustrations from Mlles Hunsinger rue Montmartre of 7-10 year old girls wearing dresses with a hint of sailor styling. There may have been dresses at the time with over sailor styling, but these 1882 illustrations show defininte sailor influences.
The French fashion magazine La Mode Illustrée provided illustrations from Mlles de la Torchère, rue de la Rennes provided sailor dresses for both boys and girls (figure 1). The girls sailor dresse was for a 4-6 year old. The boys sailor dress was for a boy 6-7. Note the girl wears shot ankle sovks and the boy long stockings. Also the boy has a very elaborate waist sash and the girl not waist working of any kind. The boy is shown with short hair. His sailor kilt outfit includes a wide-brimmed flat hat with streamer and a pullover middy blouse with strip trim at the wrist cuffs and a solid colored dickey with a ruffled collar and a rather unsual striped sailor collar. Strangely the collar trim does not match the wrist trim. There is also a very large sash, heavily pleated kilt/skirt, a colored band just above the hem of the kilt/skirt, long stockings, and high-button shoes.
We note sone English girls by the mid-1880s wearing classic sailor suit outfits with middy blouses styles like those of the Royal Navy. The same middy blouses could have been worn by British boys. A good example here is Ida Cross.
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