Figure 1.-- This cabinet card shows three unidentified children, two boys and a baby brother or sister. The boys look to be about 6-8 years old. Thet wear identical sailor suits with double-breasted styling. The portrait is undated, but the mount suggesrs the 1900s. Notice how their V-front collars have a flat trucated base rather than the sharp V angle. The studio was Sappoe in Brooklyn, New York.

The basic middy blouse had a sharp V-neck front, often with stripe detailing, and a flap back with the detailing repeated. Many middy blouses had traditionally styling, meaning styled like Royal Naval uniforms. Irionically, the boy's sailor suit appeared in Britain just at the time that the Royal Navy was for the first time instituting a uniform for enlisted men (ratings). The U.S. Navy of course set the standard for American sailor suits, but like other navies in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the basic styles were set by the British Royal Navy and adopted by other navies. Clothing designers, however, came up with a wide range of variations in the 19th century. We even see some in the 1900s. Only by the 1910s is the classic V collar firmy established as the definitive sailor style. Some were major departures. Mothers at first were not wed to the traditional designs and fancy creations appealed to some fashion conscious mothers. Not all sailor suits had the "V" front. Some even had ordinary neck collars. Others were variations on the basic-V neck. We see collars that have the basic, V, but not necesarily the sharp intersection of the two V lines at the bottom. Notice the flat truncated base on the suits the boys here are wearing (figure 1). The great majority of sailor suits were done with the standard V collars, but the photographic record shows many boys wearing the many variations.

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Created: 1:54 PM 6/29/2019
Last updated: 1:54 PM 6/29/2019