Figure 1.--These Swiss boys Here we see brothers wearing identical sailor suits. The dealer estimates the portrait was taken in 1903, but we don't see the date written on the card. A three digit phone number may help date it. The CDV mount suggesrs the late-1980s or ealy-1900s. The studio was Ferd. Strake in Reichenburg. The sailor suits seem similar to turn of the century suits in Europe. The hats, however, are somewhat unusual. We do not know if this was a Swiss style. The striped long stockings were not common at the time.

We know much more about the 20th century. By the turn of the 20th century we know much more. Here we see brothers wearing identical sailor suits in 1903 (figure 1). The suits look similar to what we might see in France or Germany. Some Swiss boys were wearing sailor suits. The hats, however, seem different. As there were no required school uniforms, the clothes children wore to school reflect popular styles. Our assessment of Swiss schools suggest that sailor schools were not very popular, far less common than in France, Germany, and Italy. We notice that in German school portraits there are usually one or more boys wearing sailor suits. This does not seem to have been the case in Switzerland. A reader writes, "I have exhaustively looked through an archive there of Zuruich canton schools with class portrairs from the late-1920s through the 50s. There are are a few boys wearing sailor suits, but not very many, It was defintely a minority style in Switzerland, at least in the Zurich canton." This is certainly the case in the German speaking areas of Switzeland than the French area as smocks were common in the French-speaking catons. Sailor suits seem more common in the early 20th century than after Wold War I. We see very few sailor suitsat schools durung the 1930s. A Swiss reader reports to HBC that in the 1940s, "I never had a sailor suit and I believe only very few mates had them. They were not so popular and presumably reserved for sundays or important occasions, like First Communion ... until the cassocks took over."

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

Created: 4:07 AM 3/15/2011
Last updated: 4:07 AM 3/15/2011