Figure 1.--This unidentified boy had his portrait taken about 1920. He wears a button-up blouse sailaor suit. he long pants were norally worn for dressier suits. Note the slight bell-bottom flare. It ws a postcard back portrait. It has a K Ltd stamp box. We see a lot of these in Europe. We are not sure, but it does not seem to be a postcard manufacturer, but the K stood for Kodak paper. We see these cards throughout Europe including Britain. They date to about 1918-36. We might guess the image was English, but we are not at all sure

The first boy's sailor suit was the uniform blouse suits worn by Royal Navy sailors and throughot the ensuing century that boys wore sailor suits, the blouse remained the standard and most popular style of sailor suit. It was the blouse suits that people commonly thought of when they envisioned sailor suits. Sailor blouses became known as middy blouses, but for some reason that trm was used mostly for girls. These blouses were worn by both boys and girls, although the button up version seems virtually exclusivly worn by the boys. It could be worn for a wide variety of occassions, including dress occasions, school, casul, and play situations. They were done in seasonal versions, summer and winter versions, primrily affecting the weight of material and the color. Many of the suits had matching blouse and suit, but during the summer we see mixed suits. White or striped was the sandard for summer and navy blue for winter. We see white blouses with dark pants, but never the opposite. The first suits were pull over blouses, but eveually we see button-up blouses which became very popular. We are not entirely sure why that was. In the final phase of popularity during the 20th century we no longer see button-up blouses, only the pull-over blouses.

Pull-over Middy Suit

The classic pull-over middy blouse suit appeared at the onset of the sailor suit era. The first boy's sailor suit was the uniform blouse suits worn by Royal Navy sailors and throughot the ensuing century that boys wore sailor suits, the blouse remained the standard and most popular style of sailor suit, although in the late-19th and early-20th century we see many button-up blouse. Here there were importnt country differences. The popular pull-over middy blouse someties called a jersey that Prince Berie wore launching the style (1840s). For some reason, middy blouse and middy suit became more associated with the girls' outits even though the boys' and girls blouses were identical. Of course the suits were different becuse the boys wore pants and the girls skirts or for school gym outfits, bloomers. Boys usually worn these blouse suits with knee pants or bloomer knickers and long stockings. This varied somewhat over time. Long pants were also worn abd after World War I, short pants. White suits made of linnen or other light fabric were worn in the summer. Blue and black suits made of serge or flannel were worn during the winter. We also see light-wight summer white blouses with heavy dark pants. The better suits were lined. These were very popular school outfits also worn by girls.

Sailor Button-up Blouses

Many boys had what look to be sailor button-up blouses. Some might refer to them as blouses. jackets. These were not pull over middy blouses, but button up garments. We are not sure jacket is the best term because they were not worn with shirts undeneath. Some were bloused and others were not. You often have to look closely in old photographs to see that quite anumber of the sailor blouses boys wore were button-up blouses. There were important country differences. It was only the boys, not the girls that wore these button-up blouses. We are not sure what terms were used at the time for these garments. They were done in many different styles. And we note them being worn throughout Europe and North America. They were primarily worn before World War I, but we we still see them occassionalky after the War.

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Created: 7:01 PM 10/18/2016
Last updated: 7:01 PM 10/18/2016