English Sailor Suits: Ages


Figure 1.-- The unidentified English boy here in this CDV portrait bwas photographed in a classic sailor suit. He looks to be about 10 years old, perhaps 11 years of age. The studio was Morgan in Bristol. The portrait is undated, but we would guess it was taken in the 1870s, perhaps the early-70s. We see the oldest boys wearing sailor suits in this period, in part because the new preparatory schools ere just beginning to become established and regularizing admission ages.

We note mostly younger English boys wearing sailor suits. Younger boys might wear sailor dresses or kilts. We do not see many boys wearing them older than about 10 years of age. There are occasional exceptions, but realtively few English boys wore sailor suits above the age of about 10-11 years of age. Unfortunately we do not have many catalog pages archived. Catalogs are a good source of age information. Age trends varied over time after the sailor suit first became a boys' style, introduced by the royal family (1840s). Most boys stopped wearing sailor suits after about that age. Some older boys may have worn sailor suits, but we do not note teenagers, even younger teenagers wearing them. We see older boys wearing sailor suits on the Continent, especially in the 20th century. Well-to-do boys began preparatory school at about 7-8 years of age. This varied somewhat from family to family. Some boys began a little later. This acted to set an age standard throughout Britain. Most boys after beginning prep school stopped wearing sailor suits. We are not positive that this was the reason age trends were different in England than the Continent, but it seems tthe most likely reason. Perhaps readers will have additional insights here. And the sailor suit was most popular with well-to-do families and middle-class families that were most likely to be able to aford private schools. We see some younger boys at prep schools wearing sailor suits in the later-half of the 19th century. This was, however, when prep schools were just beginning to become established. Many early prep schools did not have uniforms. Of course only a limited number of English boys went to private schools, but they had a major impact on boys' fashions during the 19th and early-20th century when sailor suits were most commonly worn. We have been finding more English images of late and have begun to addess age trends in more detail. A problem is that much of the avaiable school photography is private schools in the 19th and early-20th century where the children wore uniforms. Another problem is that most of the images we have archived do not reveal the age of the children. This has forced us to estimate ages which of courses introduces almost inevitable errors into our assessment. We think such errors are limited by two elements. First of all, we think our estimates are generally within a year of ctual ages. Second we wlcome reader input and will correct our estimates if reader assessments provide more reasonable age estimates.

2 Years Old

We note mostly younger English boys wearing sailor suits, but age 2 years was a bit too young at least during the 19th century when the sailor suit was especially popular. Most boys were not yet beached at age 2-years in the 19th century. Boys this age mostly still wore dresses in the 19th century. Younger boys might wear sailor dresses or kilts, but even these skirted variants were not common in the sailor style.

3 Years Old

We see some Englkish boys wearing sailor suits ar ahe 3 years, but it was more prevalent for older school age boys. English families a varied as to what age boys were breeched. Many boys still wore dresses at age 3 years. But quite afew families breeched boys this age and it became more common by the late-19th century. This of course was just the time tht the sailor suit was becoming a boy's fashion staple. Thus we begin to see even 3-year olds wearing sailor suits by the 1880s. Here we see two unidentified brothers wearing matching sailor suits about 1890. They look to be about 3-5 years old.

4 Years Old

From the earliest time, boys at age 4 years began wearing sailor suits. In some cases this was just after they were breeched. We see many images of English boys at age 4 years wearing sailor suits. We note an unidentified London boy who looks to be about 4 years old, we think in the 1870s. We specilare that there were not as many bos at 4 years ols wearing silor suits as many as sligtly older boys because many mothers did not breech 4-year olds or liked fancier, less manly outfits like Fantlelroy suits. The sailor suit seems a step to far for many mothers breeching their boys. After the turn of the 20th century, however, we see a lot of 4-year olds wearing sailor suits. Perhaps the most famous was Prince william at his Uncle Andrew's wedding (1986). We are not sure what William thought about his sailor suit. He famously was not very well behaved during the event. By this tine boys of any age no longer wore sailor suits except in special occassions like formal weddings.

5 Years Old

we see many English boys wearing sailor suits at 5 yeras of age. This was a an age at which large numbers of English boys wore sailor suits throughout the 100 years or so that the saoilor suit in England was worn. In fact, Prince Bertie who first wore a sailor suit was 5 years old when interhalter painted his classic portrait of the young prince (1846). The photographic record shows countless 5-year olds wearing sailor suits. Beginning in the 1860s there is an ampel photogrphic record to show how popular the sailor suit became. A good example is an unidentified Durham boy about 1880. What is not entirely clear to us is the social class trends. We know that the that upper- and middle-class boys wore sailor suits. a good example is the Shepperd boys. We are less sure about working-class boys. Much of our information on the 19th century is based on studio portaits and these seem to be mostly children from fairly affluent families. Wages were mot as high in Britain as in America and this there is a larger class factor in the British photographic record. Fewer working-class Britins were able to have studio potraits taken. And notably British wages werre the highest in Europe.

6 Years Old

We see large numbers of English boys wearing sailor suits at age 6 years. This was the age that most boys began school. We see 5 year olds in schools, but virtually all 6 yearr olds by the 1980s were going to school. And we see anpt of 5-6 year old boys wearing sailor suits in the late-19th century. A good example is the Knowle Board School in 1898 wearing sailor suits. A board school was by this time a free state school so clothing at these schools are a good example of what ordinry English children were wearing, bith the workingclass and lower middle class children. We are not ure about mid-century because we have so few English Dags and Ambros. But with the appearace of the CDV, we have a very good idea. We do not see many sailor suits in the 1860s, but by the 1870s t ws clealy become a major style. And bythe end of the century, most middle-class boys had sailor suits. A good example is Douglas Purdy in Maidendtone during 1895. We are assessing how common it was for younger primary boys to wear sailor suits to school.

7 Years Old

We note large numbers of English boys wearing silor suits at age 7 years. As far as we can tell, it was a very popular style for 7-year olds. Most middle-clas 7-years old had a sailor suit until after World War I. Photography which appeared at the sane time as the sailor suit provides us a very detailed record, especially with the popularity of the CDV in the 1860s. Most of the images we have found are traditionally styled suits. They might be worn for both every day and dresswear, but this is hard to estalish in the 19th century as most of the photigraphy was studio photography. This was one of the ages that the sailor suit was most popular as it was an age before it was popular for boys to begin bording schools where uhiforms were often required. This was the case during the late-19th and early-20th century. It was the case throughout the period in which the sailor suit was aopular boys garment. We begin to se fewer 7-year olds wearing sailor suits after world War I, but this was because the sailor suit was declining in popularity.

8 Years Old

Most boys stopped wearing sailor suits after about that age. Some older boys may have worn sailor suits, but we do not note teenagers, even younger teenagers wearing them even to school. We see older boys wearing sailor suits on the Continent, especially in the 20th century. Well-to-do boys began preparatory school at about 7-8 years of age. This varied somewhat from family to family. Some boys began a little later and thus might wear sailor suits a little longer. Of course only a small percentage of boys attended prep schools, but they were boys from affluent families. We are not positive that this was the reason age trends were different in England than the Continent, but it seems the most likely reason. Perhaps readers will have additional insights here. And the sailor suit was most popular with well-to-do families and middle-class families that were most likely to be able to aford private schools. We see some younger boys at prep schools wearing sailor suits in the later-half of the 19th century. This was, however, when prep schools were just beginning to become established. Many early prep schools did not have uniforms. Of course only a limited number of English boys went to private schools, but they had a major impact on boys' fashions during the 19th and early-20th centuries when sailor suits were most commonly worn.

9 Years Old

We still see quite a number of English boys wearing sailor suits at age 9 years. It does not seen to have been the major outfit worn by English boys, but we still see quite a number. This was especially the case in the 19th century. Preparatory schools had just begun to become well established by the late-19th century. And the entry lvel began to become standardized at bout 8 years of age. And unlike the public (private boarding schools), many did not yet have uniforms. So some boys might wear sailor suits at these schools. This began to change around the turn-of-the 20th century. As these schools adopted uniforms. At the same time we see quite a number of boys wearing sailot suits at the turn of the century, but 9 years old was close to the uppr range of the boys we see wearung sailot suits at the time. It also seems to have beebn popular outfits for seaside outings.

11 Years Old

We do not see many boys wearing them older than about 10 years of age. There are occasional exceptions, but realtively few English boys wore sailor suits much above above the age of about 10-11 years of age. Most of the older boys we see wearing sailor suits are from studio portraits taken in the mid-19th century like the unidentified Bristol boy here (figure 1). Unfortunately we do not have many catalog pages archived. Catalogs are a good source of age information.

13 Years Old

We see very few English teenagers wearing sailor suits. We see this on the Contnent. In fact it was fairly common for younger teenagers to wear sailor suits in France, Germany, Italy, and other countries. America was closer to the English conventions. We believe we see few English teens wearing sailor suits because this was the age that boys entered public (private secondary boarding) schools. The schools had uniforms and the boys looked on sailor suits s juvenile attire. Mist stopped wearing sailor suits when they entered their prep schools at about 8 years of age. This of course did nit orevent working-class boys from wearing sailor suoits, but in the 19th century it was the affluent classes that set fashion trends, both for children abd adults. We do see Prince George (the future George V) wearing aailor suit, but this was at a time that the age conventions were just forming and age ranges at private schools were just beginning to become standardized. We also have the complication that Prince George and his older brother were sent to join the cadet training ship HMS Britannia when George was 12 years old (1877).

14 Years Old

We see even fewer English 14-year olds wearing sailor suits. This was especially the case after the 1870s. A rare example is a Surbiton boy in 1890. The children are not identified and their ages stated in this family portrait. The older boy looks to us to be about 14 years old. The existence of garments in the photographic is a good indicator of prevalence. And we just do not see many English teenagers wearing sailor suits.







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Created: 12:12 AM 7/1/2010
Last updated: 4:23 AM 1/31/2019