Figure 1.--This portrait of an unidentified German brother and sister is undated. We would guess that it was taken in the 1900s. Notice the boys collar. We see the traditional three strips, but with a and added group of smaller stripes. There are no stripes repeated on the sleeve cuffs. The children were from Deutsch Krone in West Pomerania. At the time this pgotograph was taken, Germans were becoming concerned about the increasing Polish population and land ownership in eastern Germany. After World War I Deutsch Krone was located in or near the Polish corridor. After World War it was part of the area of eastern Germany that was transferred to Poland. The Polish name of the town is now Wałcz.

Most of the detailing on a sailor suit was on the top, usually a blouse. While boys throughout Europe wore middy blouses, we note more variations from the traditional style in Germany than any other country. The traditional detailing based on Royal Navy uniforms was three stripes for Nelson's three great victories. We are not sure about mid-19th century German sailor suits as our archive is limited, but by the turn-of-the 20th century we see countless permutations on the traditional three stripe detailing. In the early-20th century before Eorld War I quite a wide range of styles were worn. We see collars that were solid colors without strips. And we see collrs with a multiplicty of stripes. We see this in other countries as well, but it seems particularly pronounced in Germamy. Perhaps this was because the sailor suit was so common in and widely worn in Germany. German mothers do not seem to have been particulsrly attached to the naval traditions concerned. This changed after World war I (19140-18). Sailor suits continued to be popular and the styling was much more traditional. The traditional sailor detailing was fairly standard after the War. We are not entirely sure why, but by the 1920s most of the sailor suits we see have very traditionally styled blouses with the three blue or white collar stripes, often repeated on the sleeve cuffs.

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Created: 5:08 AM 7/1/2009
Last updated: 5:08 AM 7/1/2009