Figure 1.-- These American brothers wear virtually identicala non-traditionsal styled cut-way jacket sailor suits. The unidentified boys look to be about 5-8 years old. The outfits are nearly identical, although the hats may be a little different. Note that under the jacket they wear a vest-like garment. This may be what was known as a vestee suit. This seems to have been an outgrowth of the dicky on a traditional sailor suit. They do not button uop the front like mosts vests, bit otherwise seem like a vest. At the time vested three-poece suits were very common for American boys. The portrait is not dated, but the cabinet card mount suggests the 1900s decade. We thought the cowboy hats which were not common with sailor suits might mean Texas, but the portrait was taken in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Vests are not a garment usually associated with sailor suits. The basic blouse sailor suit was a very simple garment, the anthesis of trends in the late-19th and early-20th century for elaborate , even fancy dress, including children's fashions. This impacted the sailor suit. We see the intriduction of jackets, making it more like standard suits boys were wearing. We also see the introduction of vdests which were very common with suits at the time. we see countless boys wearing three-piece suits in the photographic record. It is difficult to tell just what these garments were . We note the term 'vestee' being used. They seem to have developed out of the dickies or shields that evolved to cover the space created by the standard V-collar of the sailor suit. Unfiortunaeky, we don't get to see just wj=hat this garment is in the ophotography of the day. The boy here has a garment with the same stripe detailing as his V-collar. It looks to be more than a simple dickie. We have other images showing that the vestees were more like a vest han a shield. Unlike true vests, they rarely buttoned up the front. Not all boys wore vests with jackets. We someboys wearing blouses instead. This seems less common, but we do see some exanoles. We are not entirely sure about the chronoklogy of these garments, but most of the ones we have found are from the 1890s-1900s decades. That is just our initial assessment.

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Created: 5:10 PM 10/28/2022
Last updated: 5:10 PM 10/28/2022