Figure 1.--Here we see a German boy at home with his father during the 1920s. We are not at all sure about the radiator in the rear. Note how the boy's sailor scarfe is tied. This tight tie and white string was the most commpn approach. Click on the image for a fuller discussion of this snapshot. |
Sailor neckwear worn by German boys is a relatively easy topic compared to many of the fashion topics that we address. This is because German practices were so uniform. Many German boys wearing sailor suits wore them with black scarves. Not all boys wore these scarves, especially in the summer, but they were very common. The approach was very different than in America. The scarves were normally tightly tied and held in place with black string. We see thousands of images of German boys with the vert same knot and white string. I assume this was common in Germany because it was how German sailors tied their scarves. It is very rare to see these scarves with casually tied bows. We have noted others neckwear, such as floppy bow, but they were relatively rare.
Sailor neckwear worn by German boys is a relatively easy topic compared to many of the fashion topics that we address. This is because German practices were so uniform. Many German boys wearing sailor suits wore them with black scarves. Not all boys wore these scarves, especially in the summer, but they were very common. Black scarves were normally worn with boy dark and light collored middy blouses. Here we see a boy wearing his scarfe with a dark middy suit. An aexample of a boy wearing the black scarfe with a white middy blouse is Willie Horn in 1915.
Black scarves were also common in many other countriesm but it is the way rhe scarves were tied that were destinctly German. The approach was very different than in America. The German scarves were normally tightly tied and held in place with black string. We see thousands of images of German boys with the vert same knot and white string. I assume this was common in Germany because it was how German sailors tied their scarves.
We are not sure at this time if German girls wore their sailor scarves in the same way.
These sailor scarves were normally made out of silk. This of course would need to be imported by Germany. We are not sure what happened dufring World war I, but we assume that with the Royal Navy blockade that the scarves became difficult gto obtain.
It is very rare to see these scarves with casually tied bows. We have noted others neckwear, such as floppy bow, but they were relatively rare. We do notice a few. Presumably these were boys with especially fashion concious mothers. We are guessing the boys would have worn these floppy bows for special occassions. We notice different patterns, both plain bows as well as patterns such as plaid or polka dots.
While German bos very commonly wore black scarves with their sailor suits, this was not always the case. Quite a few boys did not wear scarves with their sailor suits. This seems to have been especially common during the summer.
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