Sailor Suits: German Garments--Sailor Blouses


Figure 1.--We believe that these children may be celebrating the Kaiser's birthday. Note the rather uncomfortable stiff- high-button collar that muter has added to this boy's sailor collar. Click on the image to see how his suster's were dressed. Note the traditional three-stripe detailing. Image courtesy on the BP collection.

The classic middy blouse had a "V" cut front and back flap detailed with nautical motifs. The sailor suit was popular with boys not only because of the military styling, but because the sailor suit was a simple basic unfussy style, in contrast to the fussy blouses with wide collars and big bows being worn at the time. The open sailor collar was mych more comfortable to wear than most of the alternatives. While the Victorians and Edwardians believed in dressing formally, many parents were content in allowing boys, but often not girls, to wear sailor suits to even formal events. The German mother here has added a high-button collar to this boy's sailor suit, but this rather uncomfortablr-looing addition was not very common. We have noted German boys wearing a wide variety of middy blouses, both the pull over and button up style. While boys throughout Europe wore middy blouses, we note more variations from the traditional style in Germany than any other country. The traditional sailor styling, was fairly standard after World War I, but in the early 20th century before the war quite a wide range of styles were worn.

Chronology

The sailor blouse was an item German boys wore for about a century. Few items have proven so popular for such a long period of time. We note substantial variation as well as some similarity over that period. The photographic record offers a substantial vuiew of these variations over time. Variations were especially pronounced in the 19th century. Collar treatment varied quite a bit. They became much more standardized in the 20th century, especially after World War I. The sailor blouse was an item worn by both boys anf girls, although there was some chronological variation. We note differences ober time in both cut and decorarive trim. There were also differences in styles like buttoning and pull-over time. Fabric pattens also varied. We note both flat colors and stripes. There were also color variations, although because of the black-and-white photograohy, color is more difficult to assess. We also notice diffeences in associated garments such as scarves, dickies and lanyards. The Germans develooped a destinctive way iof ieing their scatves in place. Some blouses had sleeve patches.

Basic Features

The classic middy blouse had a "V" cut front and back flap detailed with nautical motifs. It was worn with or without a dicky. Notice the simple doickey here with a blue band at the collar (figure 1).

Popularity

The sailor suit was popular with boys not only because of the military styling, but because the sailor suit was a simple basic unfussy style, in contrast to the fussy blouses with wide collars and big bows being worn at the time. The open sailor collar was mych more comfortable to wear than most of the alternatives. Notice how the mother has taken the basic comfortable sailor suit here and made it uncomfortable by adding a high collar (figure 1). The German mother here has added a high-button collar to this boy's sailor suit, but this rather uncomfortablr-looing addition was not very common

Conventions

While the Victorians and Edwardians believed in dressing formally, many parents were content in allowing boys, but often not girls, to wear sailor suits to even formal events.

Types

We have noted German boys wearing a wide variety of middy blouses. The two basic styles were the pull over and button-up style. We have also known button-on sailor shirts, but these strictly speaking are not middy blouses.

Detailing

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 srripes 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.

Colors and Patterns

German boys as boys in other countries commonly wore white or navy blue middy blouses. The colors were seasonal. The white ones were normally a light material while the navy blue ones were often a heavy material for winter wear. Middy blouses were also done in other colors such as grey, but this is difficult to tell from black and white photographs. Informnaion on colors is available from catalogs and written sources, but HBC has not yet found a source for this information in the 20th century. The different colors were more varied before the turn of the 20th century. There were also middy blouses done in stripes. The different styles varied over time.

Collar

The sailor suit was basically a comfortable style for boys. Boys commonly wore middy blouses with traditional collars, meaning like the collars worn on actual naval uniforms. There were, however, countless variations on the basic traditional style. These includes variations on the detailing, color, and shap. The traditional middy blouse had an open collar. The sailor collar was often worn with a dicky, but uring thesummer the dickey was often removed. Tsailor collar was not a stiff collar. Some mothers not quite happy with this informality, added a stiff collar. The boy here is a good example. We also note another boy with another style of stiff collar, Kurt Mahlke at about the same time. We are not sure just why German mothers did this, seemingly there was an element of comfort associated with informality. Thus for more formal occassions these uncomfortable stiff collasrs were added. This was, however, not common. We note both traditional an non-traditional styles of sailor collars.

Dickies

Middy blouses commonly came with dickies. These were attachments worn to cover up the area between the front "V" collar. The vickies varies, both the design and how they were attached to the collar. We wee dickies that were stripped, plain, and with embroidered designs. Most sailor suits came with detachable dickies. Some dickies buttoned on to the middy blouse. Others had tie on attachments. Some had both. Generally speaking the dickies were worn when the weather was cool, but taken off in warm weather. They were more likekly to be worn on special occassions, even during the summer. Here conventions variesd from family to family. Thus we photogrhs that show boys both wearing and not wearing the dickies with their sailor suits.

Neckwear

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 rate.








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Created: September 13, 2003
Last updated: 6:01 AM 7/14/2013