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The sailor suit was introduced by Queen Victoria who decided to dress the princes in sailor outfits (1840s). It was soon adopted by mothers throughout Britain, especially mioddkle-class mothes. Beginning in the 1880s began to emerge as one of the most popular outfits for English boys. While some mothers preferred fancier outfits like Little Lord Fauntleroy suits, the sailor suit had the advantage that boys, especilly during this era actually liked them. They were compfortable to wear because they did not have a fancy tight collar like a Eton collar, although some mothers insisted on adding them. We also see girls wearing sailor outfits. By the end of the century, the sailor suit had become one of the most popular outfits for boys.
It is not entirely clear to me why it was during the 1880s that sailor suits emerged as such a popular style after being so little use for several decades. I can at this time only offer a few possibilities:
A new generation of royals was dressed in sailor suits and advances in publishing and reproducing images made it much easier for the general public to follow royal dress. Victoria's grand children wore sailor suits, but her great grand children, especially the children of George VI in the 1890s, wore virtually nothing but sailor suits. And they were expected to wear them properly. A kerchief out of place or hands in the pocket would earn a stiff royal rebuke. In fact the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) complained that the pockets in his sailor pants were sewn up because he kept putting his hands in his pockets.
Vast improvements in naval engineering were being achieved in the late 19th century. Ships were being armored and steam engines were repacing sails. Other countries were building powerful navies, including the America, newly united Germany and America, and France. It was in the 1880s as sailor suits emerged as popular boys wear in these countries. This appears to have affected the popularity in England, especially given the fact that the royal children wore them.
It is in the 1880s that the sailor suit becomes a major fashion for boys. We do not just seem some boys wearing sailor suits, we begin to see realy large numbers of boys wearijng sailor suits in the decade. And we begin to see a wider range of boys wearing the. Rather than a smart style for fashionable families, the sailor suit was becoming a standard style for boys. And we see the sailor suit spreading overseas. We see some foreign boy, especially in America, France, Germany, and Russia wearing sailor suits. At least in Europe, royal families were very important in populrizing the style. nd of course itwas Quen Victoria and Prince Albert that started the sailor suit fashion for boys. Almost all of Europe except republican France at the time was ruled by monarchies. But even in France the sailor suit ws popular. England set the standard and styles just as it did for actul naval uniforms. Each individual countries made some stylistic changes, but the basic Royal Navy uniform was the base for all of them. We do not know of aavy that id not have uniforms based on the Royal Navy uniform. And we begin to see increasing stabdardization in the sailor suit styles worn by boys. The basics were a middy or sailor top with knee pants or long pants. Girls wore a skirt in place of pants. Ans in the 1890s we increasingly see the classic traditional styling, sailor suits that look like Royal Navy uniform. The children�s sailor suits might have additions to the basic naval uniform such as embroidered stars, anchors, and eagles. Styles in the 1870s and 80s weresimilsr with a trend for increasingly tradition (Royal Navy styling) styles in the 1890s.
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Boys wore a variery of hair styles with sailor suits. Some boys wore long hair, alhough rtingle cirls were not as common as in America. Some families dressed all the boys in sailor suits, but differentiated the ages by the boys' hair styles.
We are collecting information on English sailor suits in the late-19th century and because of the growing size of the photographic record. A great deal of informtion is availble. We begin to see boys in the late-19th century wearung the soft caps like the boy here is wearing (figure 2). We do not see these caps commonly in the mid-19th century (figure 1). They were very common in the late-19th century. We believe this reflect a change in Royal Navy uniforms. We are not sure just they were introduced. We find more information about officers' caps than ratings' caps. Most of the styling associated with sailor suits was done on the blouse. Sailor blouses in the late Victorian era were often quite accurate copies of Royal Navy uniforms. Sailor suits by the turn-of-the century had begun to become more fanciful, especially as they were worn by increasingly younger boys. The suits worn in the late-19th century, however, were often quite faithful reporoductions of actual Royal Navy uniforms. The English helped set the principle that a boys' sailor suit was an enlisted man's uniform, not an officers' uniform. As a result future kings of England not to mention Czars' of Russia would wear a boys enlisted uniforms. The original sailor suits, like the uniforms worn by English sailors, had long bell bottom trousers. Gradually as boys began wearing knee pznts in the 1860s, knee pants sailor suits appeared. English boys wore sailor suits with both knee pants and long pants. Both were common. We believe boys also wore bloomer knickers with sailor suits. We are not sure which was more common, but I think knee pants became increasingly common in the 1880s. While royal children and perhaps children from titled families might wear the suits with long bell-bottomed trousers like the Prince of Wales in the famous Winterhalter painting, we see ordinary boys, however, were increasingly wearing kneepants suits.
While the sailor suit was worn by relatively old boys in some countries, particularly Germany, this does not appear to have been the case in England. Wenote quite a few photographs of younger boys wearing sailor suits. good example is one boy wearing a white sailor suit in 1893. The sailor suit was not commonly worn buy boys older than about 8 years of age. I believe this was primarily because in the late 19th Century the educational system was becoming more standardized. Preparatory schools educating boys for Public schools (exclusive private
schools) had become established. Increasingly these schools were standarfizing their program which called for boys to begin at about age 8. These schools
had their own uniforms, so boys began putting their sailor suits away for suits with Eton collars. Of course this as the
more affluent boys. But the styles they adopted were then copied by less affluent mothers for their children
I am not positive about the conventions, but I believe that in affluent families that the sailor suit was often used for everyday wear. A boy might have a kilt outfit or Fauntleroy suit for his party suit. In
lessaffluent families, a sailor suit might have to make do for the boys party suit. Some boys might have more than one sailor suit. One for everyday wear wear and another for more formal occasions. This is the
situation, for example, described for the Shepard brothers. Notice how the drawings by Shepard are similar to the sailor suits worn by the two brothers above, down to the sailor cap the one boy is holding.
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