A sailor suit is a Military uniform that originated in the United Kingdom, traditionally worn by Enlisted rank seamen in a navy or other governmental sea services. It later developed into a popular clothing style for children, especially as dress clothes and .
Origins and history
In the
Royal Navy, the sailor suit, also called naval rig,
is known as Number One dress and is worn by
and
. 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.
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.
As children's clothing
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
Queen Victoria and the public. 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
and
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.
File:Edward VII (1841 – 1910).jpg|Prince Albert Edward (the future Edward VII of the United Kingdom) in a sailor suit, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1846
File:Sailor Suit - Oxford St Sydney - John Hubert Newman.jpg|Photograph of a boy on Oxford Street, Sydney, Australia, wearing a sailor suit, with a sennit straw hat at his feet
Asian school uniforms
Many schools in some
Asia countries and regions, including
Japan, the
Philippines,
,
South Korea,
Singapore,
Vietnam, and
Thailand, have adopted sailor outfits as a school uniform.
Japan
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.
Philippines
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.
See also
External links
