A sailor suit is a uniform that originated in England, traditionally worn by enlisted seamen in a navy or other governmental sea services. It later developed into a popular clothing style for children, especially as dress clothes and school uniforms.
In the Royal Navy, the sailor suit, also called naval rig, [1] is known as Number One dress and is worn by able rates and leading hands. It is primarily ceremonial, although it dates from the old working rig of Royal Navy sailors which has continuously evolved since its first introduction in 1857. [2] [3] Versions have been adopted by many navies from around the world.
The flap collar is perhaps the most recognizable item of the sailor suit. It is often considered lucky to touch a sailor's collar. [4] The bell-bottomed trousers were designed so that they could be rolled up easily when scrubbing the decks.
In 1846, the four-year-old Albert Edward, Prince of Wales was given a scaled-down version of the uniform worn by ratings on the Royal Yacht. He wore his miniature sailor suit during a cruise off the Channel Islands that September, delighting his mother and the public.[ citation needed ] Popular engravings, including the famous portrait done by Winterhalter, spread the idea, and by the 1870s the sailor suit had become a fashionable dress for both boys and girls in many countries. Some Western cartoon and comic characters use a sailor suit as their trademarks; examples include Popeye, Donald Duck, and Fiddler Pig. Sailor suits have been worn by the members of the Vienna Boys' Choir on their international tours.
A female version of the sailor suit, the sailor dress, was popularly known in early 20th century America as a Peter Thomson dress after a naval tailor with outlets in New York and Philadelphia. [5]
Many schools in some Asian countries, including Japan, the Philippines, [6] [ better source needed ] Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand, have adopted sailor outfits as a school uniform. [7] [ better source needed ]
Sailor suits are especially common in Japanese girls' schools, known as sailor fuku by the Japanese. They are so common that the image of the outfit has evolved to be strongly associated with youth and female adolescence in popular culture. As a result, sailor uniforms are seen very frequently in Japanese dramas, movies, anime, manga, music videos and concert performances of pop teen idol groups.
Just like in Japan, sailor uniforms are also common in Philippine schools, particularly in high schools. Most public schools adopted the sailor uniform as the official uniform for the girls and some of them adopted with derivatives.
Japanese (sailor) school uniforms replicate the traditional English clothing piece that is heavily based on the British Royal Navy sailor uniform. These school uniforms were used in Japan in the late 19th century, replacing the traditional kimono. Today, school uniforms are common in many Japanese public and private schools. The Japanese word for this type of uniform is seifuku (制服).
Seaman is a military rank used in many navies around the world. It is considered a junior enlisted rank and, depending on the navy, it may be a single rank on its own or a name shared by several similarly junior ranks.
Formal wear or full dress is the Western dress code category applicable for the most formal occasions, such as weddings, christenings, confirmations, funerals, Easter and Christmas traditions, in addition to certain state dinners, audiences, balls, and horse racing events. Generally permitted other alternatives, though, are the most formal versions of ceremonial dresses, full dress uniforms, religious clothing, national costumes, and most rarely frock coats. In addition, formal wear is often instructed to be worn with official full size orders and medals.
A military uniform is a standardised dress worn by members of the armed forces and paramilitaries of various nations.
Mess dress uniform is the most formal type of evening-wear uniform used by military personnel, police personnel, and other uniformed services members. It frequently consists of a mess jacket, trousers, white dress shirt and a black bow tie, along with orders and medals insignia. Design may depend on regiment or service branch, e.g. army, navy, air force, marines, etc. In modern Western dress codes, mess dress uniform is the supplementary alternative equivalent to the civilian black tie for evening wear. Mess dress uniforms are typically less formal than full dress uniform, but more formal than service dress uniform.
A frock coat is a formal men's coat characterised by a knee-length skirt cut all around the base just above the knee, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods (1830s–1910s). It is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at the back and some features unusual in post-Victorian dress. These include the reverse collar and lapels, where the outer edge of the lapel is often cut from a separate piece of cloth from the main body and also a high degree of waist suppression around the waistcoat, where the coat's diameter round the waist is less than round the chest. This is achieved by a high horizontal waist seam with side bodies, which are extra panels of fabric above the waist used to pull in the naturally cylindrical drape. As was usual with all coats in the 19th century, shoulder padding was rare or minimal.
Full dress uniform, also known as a ceremonial dress uniform or parade dress uniform, is the most formal type of uniforms used by military, police, fire and other public uniformed services for official parades, ceremonies, and receptions, including private ones such as marriages and funerals. Full dress uniforms typically include full-size orders and medals insignia. Styles tend to originate from 19th century uniforms, although the 20th century saw the adoption of mess dress-styled full-dress uniforms. Designs may depend on regiment or service branch. In Western dress codes, full dress uniform is a permitted supplementary alternative equivalent to the civilian white tie for evening wear or morning dress for day wear – sometimes collectively called full dress – although military uniforms are the same for day and evening wear. As such, full dress uniform is the most formal uniform, followed by the mess dress uniform.
The uniforms of the United States Navy include dress uniforms, daily service uniforms, working uniforms, and uniforms for special situations, which have varied throughout the history of the navy. For simplicity in this article, officers refers to both commissioned officers and warrant officers.
Workwear is clothing worn for work, especially work that involves manual labour. Often those employed within trade industries elect to be outfitted in workwear because it is built to provide durability and safety.
Fashion in the period 1900–1909 in the Western world continued the severe, long and elegant lines of the late 1890s. Tall, stiff collars characterize the period, as do women's broad hats and full "Gibson Girl" hairstyles. A new, columnar silhouette introduced by the couturiers of Paris late in the decade signaled the approaching abandonment of the corset as an indispensable garment.
This is a list of existing articles related to fashion and clothing. For individual designers, see List of fashion designers
The uniforms of the Royal Navy have evolved gradually since the first uniform regulations for officers were issued in 1748. The predominant colours of Royal Navy uniforms are navy blue and white. Since reforms in 1997 male and female ratings have worn the same ceremonial uniform.
The uniforms of the Royal Canadian Navy are a variety of different official dress worn by members of the Royal Canadian Navy while on duty. Originally, the uniforms of the RCN were modelled after their counterparts from the United Kingdom. However, after the RCN was merged with the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1968 to form the single-service Canadian Armed Forces, the RCN began to wear "Canadian Armed Forces green" uniforms, worn throughout the Canadian Armed Forces
A sailor cap is a round, flat visorless hat worn by sailors in many of the world's navies. A tally, an inscribed black silk ribbon, is tied around the base which usually bears the name of a ship or a navy. Many navies tie the tally at the rear of the cap and let the two ends hang down to the shoulders as decorative streamers. In the Royal Navy the tally is tied off in a bow over the left ear and in the early 20th century it was customary when going on shore leave to tie a small coin in the bow to make it stand out. In wartime, as a security measure, many navies replace the name of the ship with a generic title. The cap may be further embellished with a badge, cockade or other accessory. Visorless caps of this kind began to be worn in the mid 19th century.
A Greenwich Pensioner was the Naval equivalent of a Chelsea Pensioner.
The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Nazi Germany prior to and during World War II. Kriegsmarine uniform design followed that of the preexisting Reichsmarine, itself based on that of the First World War Kaiserliche Marine. Kriegsmarine styles of uniform and insignia had many features in common with those of other European navies, all derived from the British Royal Navy of the 19th century, such as officers' frock coats, sleeve braid, and the "sailor suit" uniform for enlisted personnel and petty officers.
Royal Navy ranks, rates, and uniforms of the 18th and 19th centuries were the original effort of the Royal Navy to create standardized rank and insignia system for use both at shore and at sea.
School uniform is a practice that dates to the 16th century in England. Charity schools such Christ's Hospital, founded in 1552 in London, were among the first schools to use a uniform for their students. The earliest documented proof of institutionalised use of a standard academic dress dates back to 1222 when the Archbishop of Canterbury ordered wearing of the cappa clausa.
A sailor suit dress is a traditional English civilian clothing piece that follows the styling of the British Royal Navy's sailor suit, particularly the bodice and collar treatment. A sailor-collared blouse is called a middy blouse. In early 20th-century America, sailor dresses were very popularly known as Peter Thomson dresses after the former naval tailor credited with creating the style.
Japanese clothing during the Meiji period (1867–1912) saw a marked change from the preceding Edo period (1603–1867), following the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate between 1853 and 1867, the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854 – which, led by Matthew C. Perry, forcibly opened Japanese ports to American vessels, thus ending Japan's centuries-long policy of isolation – and the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which saw the feudal shogunate dismantled in favour of a Western-style modern empire.
A kind of dress worn by young girls, the waist of which is made in exact imitation of a sailor's blouse. This style of dress derives its name from its creator, Peter Thomson, who was a tailor in the navy...