Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows two unidentified Belgian children, about 5-10 years old. The girl wears a white dress. The boy wears a sailor suit with pointed collars rather than the much more common V collar. The studio is E.O. Thiel of Namur, Belgium. Notice the photographic albumen. We are not sure how to date this portrait, but would guess the 1890s based on the mount style, but are not at all sure. .

HBC believes that the styles for sailor suits in Belgium were similar for that in France. One exception may have been the suits, especially the caps with the red pom, styled on the uniforms for the French Navy. We do not see those in Belgium. We see quite a diverity of styles even into the waely-20th century. Many boys wore traditiinally styled suits, but they were by no means unversal. Thestandard style was the icomic V collar front and back flap, often detailed with stripes, like the boy here (figure 1). There were other styles, but none of them even approachd the populrity of the V collars. We see a few boys tht had blouses with pointed collars a various detailing. Thy were, howevr, only a small fraction of he sailor suits we habe found in the photigraphic record.

Other Related HBC Pages:
[Sailor suits] [Kilts] [Smocks] [Pinafores] [Sailor Hats] [Blouses]
[Ring Bearers] [Long hair] [Ringlet curls] [Hair bows] [Bangs] [Collars] [Bows]

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Created: 2:48 AM 3/4/2018
Last updated: 2:48 AM 3/4/2018