Figure 1.-- This Linz family had their portrait taken in 1913, just before World War I. The two children wear sailor outfits. We at first thought the individual at the left was mother, but after studying the portrait we thunk it is more likely that she was an older teen sister. The two older girls wear identical sailor blouses, but not done in the classic V-front style. The studio was Fleidchmann in Linz.

We believe that the conventions for sailor suits in Austria were similar to those in Germany. We see families dressing all of the boys in sailor suits and some dressing the girls as well. This was possible because there was a much wider age range for German and Austrian boys wearing sailor suits than was common in America and Britain. There were other Eurooean countries with a wide range, but we do not know of any country than there was a wider age range than Germany. Thus e quite commonly see all of the boys or girls and in some instances, all of the family turned out in sailor outfits, in some cases identical out fits. And this coulf mean from pre-school to the mid-teens. And the age range was even wider for girls than boys. As the phtographic record in Austria is much more limited than that of Germany, we cannot yet make a valid assesment of Austrian sailor suit conventions. What we have been able to find, however, suggests that there was little difference between the conventions in Austria and Germany. Only when we archive more images can we make any definitive assessment. We are constantly expanding the HBC archive and hope to add images here to develop our assessment.

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web sailor pages:
[Return to the Main Austrian sailor suit page]
[Return to the Main Austria page]
[Middy blouse] [Sailor suits]
[Reefer jackets] [Sailor dresses] [Other sailor styles]
[Sailor hats] [The Royals] [Ring bearer/page costumes]

Created: 5:32 AM 2/1/2017
Last updated: 5:32 AM 2/1/2017