Sailor Suits Saturday

A quick break from postcards today. Here's a class picture from about 1910. I don't know for sure where it's from, but I suspect it was a school in or near Binghamton, New York.

What fascinates me, besides the adorable faces of all of these children, is the number and variety of sailor suits.  According to the Fashion Industry of Design Museum blog, the sailor suit became popular, first in England and then in the United States, after Queen Victoria dressed  5-year-old Albert Edward, Prince of  Wales, in a scaled-down version of the Royal Navy uniform for a portrait. The article's author also points out that boys seemed to actually like wearing sailor suits, which was not the case with previous fashions, such as the Little Lord Fauntleroy suit.

Sail on over to Sepia Saturday for more great photos from the past.

Purple Velvet Dress

The little girl's dress on this postcard is actually soft and velvety.  Not surprisingly, the card was printed in Germany.  At the turn of the century, most of the outstanding cards were printed there.

Italian Swiss Colony

Whenever I've been to a wine-tasting event, the hosts were never dressed like this, and they were much more serious. Mind you, these two seem to be pouring for themselves and ignoring us.  You can't buy Italian Swiss Colony wine anymore, but you can see the old advertisement and jingle on Youtube.

Italian Swiss Colony was one of the most visited wineries in California back in its day. Today it is known as Cellar No. 8 at Asti Winery.

If you would like to find out more about the history of Italian Swiss Colony, click here. Here's another rather dull card of the winery from the 1940s: