The History of the Sailor Suit, Part 2

Reposting an old article of mine, originally posted on Your Wardrobe Unlock'd. Please note this article references images that aren't in this repost.

Introduction for Part 2

In the first half of the article, we examined the origins of the sailor suit and how Victorians adapted the style to meet a variety of wearers and occasions. The 20^th century played even more with the idea of the sailor suit, finding even more ways it could be used.  The sailor aesthetic was still used to clothe the body. It was also adapted to help teach others.

20^th Century Style

Around 1900, a man named Peter Thomson established a series of shops in New York City and Philadelphia. Before he started his business, he served in the navy as a tailor. His prior work experience coupled with the already existing popularity of the sailor style probably inspired the clothing he made. Not only did he produce sailor clothes for children, but also for grown women. The Metropolitan Museum of Art contains extant sailor dresses for adult women meant for street wear, with labels proclaiming Peter Thomson as their creator.

With Thomson, sailor clothes seem to have experienced a second boom in popularity. Sewing books from the early 20^th century refer to sailor outfits as Peter Thomson suits and dresses. A 1916 publication describes his dresses as blending "suitability with attractiveness, simplicity, and economy... to be considered in dressing for one's work." It seems that these clothes were regarded as something akin to the Little Black Dress of today.

The versatility of these outfits made Peter Thomson dresses very popular with college students, as well as younger schoolgirls.

The School Uniform Connection

The ubiquity of sailor dresses helped make them a candidate for uniforms. Their relaxed fit made them forgiving on energetic, still growing children. A 1915 article from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin describes the look of sailor dresses and remarks how they were the top choice for school uniforms on the continental US. The idea carried through until at least 1919, when the Maine newspaper Lewiston Daily reported the growing demand from local school leaders for more establishments to adopt uniforms for students, especially the sailor dress.

Sailor dresses also caught the eye of clothing reformers from the early 20^th century. Reformers in countries like the US and Sweden reasoned that clothing which provided freedom of movement made for healthier children. Hopefully, individual schools would have their own specific versions of relaxed fit outfits. When children wore these clothes while surrounded by classmates sporting the same attire, discipline and academic pride would follow.

Around the 1900s, the sailor outfit made its way eastward. Inokuchi Akuri, a Japanese teacher studying physical education abroad, was impressed by the sight of American students in sailor style gym suits, complete with middy style tops and roomy bloomers. When she returned home, she brought the gym suit idea with her, encouraging others to wear it for exercise.

The Japanese sailor ensemble designed for academic lessons appeared by 1920. The first known portrait of their sailor uniforms is a 1920 picture of a Heian Girl’s School student. The woman who popularized the Japanese sailor uniform was an American teacher named Elizabeth Lee, who often wore sailor dresses and was beloved by her students. The girls of Fukuoka Girl’s Institute began wearing similar clothes a few years later, and the style spread to other schools, codified as uniforms.

Sailor Suits for the Beginning Seamstress

Sailor outfits were popular enough to be used as teaching tools. From 1905 to 1960, Bleuette dolls were offered to subscribers of the French girl’s magazine La Samaine de Suzette. Each issue had a sewing pattern for Bleuette, encouraging readers to take up the needle to make clothing for their dolls. In the early years of the magazine, 1906 to 1919, sailor style patterns frequently appeared, and in a wealth of permutations, from suits to bathing costumes, dressing gowns, coats and separate collars. Depending on the pattern, suggested fabric could be serge, wool, flannel, linen, with suggested embellishments of braid, embroidery and even fur.

From the variety of clothes offered with this design, it’s credible that sailor clothes were popular enough with young girls that basic look and its variations were used to help entice girls to take up sewing and learn a variety of crafting skills. The cuts changed every issue, helping the designs to look current and stylish, as well as to teach readers how to navigate different designs.

To the modern audience, these antique patterns show us period sailor suits that come with modesty panels, separate underbodices, wrap fronts, jackets designed to hang open, close in front, and middies that pulled overhead. We get to see traditional styles of sailor clothes, and more fanciful interpretations that were around in the Edwardian and Titanic eras. Though the patterns may be simplified to match the skills of young sewers, modern sewers can get an idea of how human clothes of the time were put together, put on and stayed contemporary.

Dressy Wear

After 1900, the dressy sailor outfit was no longer the domain of young girls. Part of the way sailor clothes remained up-to-date was to adapt to all matter of wearers and occasions. A person could don a middy and bloomers to play sports, change into a serge outfit to take an afternoon walk and switch to velvet for a formal dinner, and still wear the sailor aesthetic collar all day.

It's easier to find fashion plates and other evidence of women and girls in stylish sailor clothes than it is for boys. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has in its collection a boy’s suit dated to around 1910. Rather than a typical loose middy cut, the top is shaped into a closer fitting style, with a double breasted front. Both the jacket and accompanying short trousers are made of dark velvet. It’s hard to tell if this suit is an anomaly as a dressy male outfit, or if such clothes were more common but hard to find evidence of.

In terms of stylish clothing for young girls, little seemed to change. The description says that the garment has a checked velvet sailor collar with more velvet gracing the skirt. Fur trims the neckline in addition to the collar and the waist is defined with a leather belt. The design is reminiscent of the 1883 dress and 1875 coat we looked at previously. The 1915 coat uses luxurious patterned fabric as large accent pieces and prominent use of neckline trim to dress up the garment.

A 1923 Butterick pattern is explicit in how the sailor dress can be transformed from casual to dressy. The outfit consists of a short sleeved blouse topped with a collar with built in ties, and a pleated skirt. If there are variations on the pattern, such as a long sleeve option, it’s absent from this image. At the bottom of the paper is a list of recommended fabrics to make the frock in. While cotton, flannel and linen are mentioned, the list also includes pongee, tussah, and other silk weaves. One cut, but many possible dresses for a number of occasions.

When it comes to dressy sailor clothes for women, evidence is trickier to come by. There are examples which date closer to the mid-20^th century, which are featured on the New York Public Library and Vintage Pattern wiki websites. One earlier exception comes from a 1915 photograph of a woman named Alma Taylor.

The photo is in black and white, and she’s wearing a dark dress that blends in with the shadowy background. The cut is hard to determine. What is discernable is her collar, buttons, a necklace and her shoulders. One look at the shoulder nearest the camera tells us Ms. Taylor’s dress is made of velvet, and at least some of the dress is cut to display the rich fabric. The way light plays off the sleeve head shows that the sleeve wasn’t gathered, but it was likely eased into place. A fold by the front of her left shoulder implies that the dress has a relaxed fit, probably in accordance with contemporary styles.  The sailor collar is made of a white material without a nap and has no embellishment. A string of beads tucked under the collar completes the look, and possibly stands in for the neck scarf.

Other examples of dressy women’s sailor clothes come from the late 1930s-early 1940s. The New York Public Library has a series of sketches by a designer from the New York Fashion District, identified on the drawings as Andre.

A note on the 1940s

The 1940s stand out as a curious time for sailor clothes. Due to World War II, civilian clothing with military or patriotic themes were popular. However, material was often rationed or otherwise restricted, leading to a slew of designs that used minimal fabric. One of the most recognizable elements of sailor outfits is its large collar, which may have limited its prevalence. Whether or not sailor garments or middies were worn seems to depend on the country.

The political situation may have lead Andre to design clothes with a naval flair, with less worry over making coats with as little cloth as possible. Andre’s sailor style coats for women show some flairs for design that haven’t appeared in other outfits we’ve looked at so far. He favored a square fronted sailor collar, using it as a means to highlight padded shoulders or to showcase a double collar or pocket flaps. Other sketches featured a sailor collar that reached the hem of the coat, and patch pockets deep enough to sink a forearm into.

All of Andre’s sketches were made prior to 1942 and the American implementation of Order L-85. These guidelines affected clothing manufacturers, telling them what was and wasn’t permitted on clothing made for sale. Coat hems could be no more than 72 inches, the size of pockets were restricted and single collars no wider than 5 inches were permitted. If Andre kept designing sailor coats after 1942, they’re not on the New York Public Library database.

The Vintage Pattern Wiki has several WW II era sailor patterns. Many of these patterns date to 1941, and come from American companies like Butterick, McCall, Simplicity and Hollywood. It’s possible that home sewers made clothes from these patterns during the L-85 limitations. It also helps that home sewing was exempt from restrictions until 1943. As there are sailor patterns published after the modified limits, it’s possible that home sewing rules were relaxed, people saved or reused cloth to make these clothes, or manufacturers made use of loopholes.

It seems that the United States had looser clothing rules than other countries. This could lead to awkwardness, as some pattern companies exported their wares. Customers may purchase a pattern, only to find that their country’s laws didn’t permit so much fabric to be used for an outfit. One book, “Forties Fashion,” shows an American pattern with a Canadian stamp on it, proclaiming that one of the pattern variation is contradictory to Canadian regulations.

In Japan, like elsewhere, fabric was in short supply. By 1944, the only material available for sale was used as slang for items of poor quality. Limited resources did not deter the use of sailor dresses as uniforms for girls. In order to be dressed for school, girls probably wore secondhand uniforms or took apart old clothing to make a new outfit.

Conclusion

The civilian sailor suit was born when a young prince posed for a portrait in a miniature naval uniform. The style spread in earnest in the mid-Victorian era and never truly faded from fashion. Victorian boys took to the sailor suit as a simple but presentable outfit made for an energetic lifestyle. For them, the suit multitasked as an outfit roomy enough for running and athletics, and could be cleaned up enough to emulate the prince and pose for paintings.

Over time, the sailor aesthetic became a chameleon of a design. Mid to late Victorian girls could look as casual or sharp as they pleased. Their older sisters used the style to appear chic while they exercised, swam and remained comfortable. By the twentieth century, sailor dresses were a standard outfit for school girls and college students, becoming official or de facto uniforms by region. Sailor clothes even became teaching aids, encouraging girls to take up sewing.

Designers kept experimenting with the style. With the right material, one cut of a sailor outfit could be appropriate for any occasion of the day or night. Others took the aesthetic as far as they could, tweaking the collar and other distinctive features to be as unique as possible. Not even fabric shortages could fully dissuade the sailor aesthetic. Even today, the style remains.

Sources

Ashcraft, Brian and Ueda, Shoko. 2010. Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential: How Teenage Girls Made a Nation Cool. Kodansha International.

Dwyer-McNulty, Sally. 2014. School Uniforms: A New Look for Catholic Girls. UNC Press Books.

Mrs. Mathews. 1916. Neglected Fraternity Opportunities. The Anchora of Delta Gamma, Delta Gamma Fraternity.

Vidler, Lisha. 2012. Rules for Victorian Dressing. Your Wardrobe Unlock’d.

Walford, Jonathan. 2008. Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look. Thames & Hudson Inc.

Bleuette Pattern Library. The Bleu Door. http://thebleudoor.com/BleuettePatternLibraryHome.index.htm (Accessed June 2016)

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1870s Girl’s Kilted Suit. The Ladies Treasury of Costume and Fashion. http://www.tudorlinks.com/treasury/index.html (Accessed June 2016)

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(Accessed June 2016)

Category: Sailor Collar. The Vintage Pattern Wikia. http://vintagepatterns.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Sailor_Collar (Accessed June 2016)

Category: Sailor Suits. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sailor_suits (Accessed June 2016)