Figure 1.--All that we know for sure about this CDV portrait is that it was taken in the Johann Hahn studio in N�rnberg. Te boy is unidentified , but looks to be about 9-10 years old. He seems to be wearing a striped blouse with a little ruffled collar. Mother appears to have added a colored V-collar and matching sleeve cuffs to turn it into a sailor blouse. Note that there is no dickey. We do not know what the colors were. Also note wht appears to be the long sleeves of an undershirt. We are unsure how to date it. The little ruffled collar looks rather like the 1870s to us or even earlier. A German reader thnks it could be the 1880s, orimarily because of the mount. She tells us, "I feel very confident that this suit is not 1870s. The mount is late 1880s to early 1890s." The outfit and the portrait style, especially the blank background looks earlier to us, so it may have been taken in the 1880s. We will need to acquire more information about mounts, portrait styles and sailor suit styles before we can more actuately date this portrait.

We have limited information on German sailor suits during tha late 19th century. The limited information that we have shows a wide variety of styles. Many were not traditional styles, especially the earlier suits. Many of these would have been sewn at home by mothrs. Traditional here means styles similar to the uniform actually worn by sailors, especiall "V"-neck middy blouse with 3-stripe detailing and a back flap. We see the V-style collar on 19tyhybcenturty German sdailor visited, but we don't see many with the three-stripe detailing. Sailor suit styles varied significantly by decade, although we do not yet have enough 19th century images to fully assess the many varied styles. We do note one style that seems to have been popular in the 1880s or even early 1890s. The style incorporated a more standrd collar with a sailor suit. We have not noted American boys wearing this style, but we are unsure to what extent this was a destinctive German fashion. More traditional styles began to become more standard in the 1890s. The problem with developing this chronology is that many of the images that we have found are not dates. The boy here is wearing his sailor suit with dark long stockings. We believe boys also wore three quarter-length stockings, especially during the summer, but again we do not yet have enough images to assess hosiery trends.

The 1870s

We believe that sailor suits began to become more popular in Germany during the 1870s. We afe unsure, however, as to just how popular they were. Many were sewn at home by mothers so there is still considerable variety as to actual sailor styles. Some of the outfits seemed to have been worked up by mother have a kind of amateurish look rather than the more traditiovally styled suits we see at the end of the century. We are not sure yet just what age groups would have worn sailor suits in the 70s. Norr do we know if girls had begun to wear sailor-styled dresses yet.

The 1880s

we do not know much about German sailor suits in the 1880s yet. We notice sailor suits with America and Britain becoming increasinly standardized in the 1880s. We think that process was not as well developed in Germany. Se see Germans boys wearing outfits that do not look at all like sailor suits, except there may be a nautical symbol like an anchor on the collar. Germany did not yet have a sizeable navy and we are unsure just how popular sailor suits in general were. Crown Prince Wilhelm married in 1881 and the royal couple had seven children, all but one a boy. The princes wore sailor-styled outfits even before they were breeched. Once breeched were dressed in fairly traditionally styles sailor suits. This must have affected the popularity of the sailor suit in Germany.

The 1890s

The sailor suit by the 1890s had become a very important style for girls. We also see girls wearing saikoe outfits, but of course with skirts instead of pants. We see a variety of sailor suit styles, including some more traditionaly styled sailor suits in the 1890s. We do note one style that seems to have been popular in the 1880s or even early 1890s. The style incorporated a more formal white collar with a sailor suit. We are not sure what to call this collar. It is something like a connecting collar as the two wings overlap. It looks to be an added collar, not part of the sailor suit itself. We have not noted American boys wearing this style, but we are unsure to what extent this was a destinctive German fashion. More traditional styles began to become more standard in the 1890s. This portrait is undated, but we believe it was probably taken in the 1890s, in part because of the length of the knee pants (figure 1). This we can pursue this with more insight as HBC expabds its archive of 19th century German images.

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Created: June 14, 2003
Last updated: 12:06 AM 12/3/2009