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I have relatively little written information on Belgian boys clothes, but belive they have basically followed French syles--at least among the French population. Belgium at various historical periods was part of France, as recently as the early 19th century. Even after Belgium became an independent nation--following France's defeat in the Napolionic wars, the powerful uniting force of language has cemented cutural and social ties. One trend in the 20th century has been the cultural convertism of Belgium. New fashions sometimes do not become established in Belgium as quickly as in France.
Belgium is a bilingual country with French being spoken in Walonia and Dutch in Flanders. Belgium became an independent county in 1830 declaring independence from the Netherlands. Once independent, Belgium was dominated for years by a French speaking minority in Walonia. Interestingly the Dutch speaking majority in Flanders share cultural similariies with both the Waloons and Dutch. The Flemish for example are mostly Catholic like the Waloons and share many culinary traditions. Many other traditions, like the language, are shared with the Dutch. Clothing is one of the trends which have been affected by the linguistic division.
A HBC reader tells us that Belgium has an important place in the world of childern's fashion design. This is something that we have no information about. Our initial assessment was that Belgian parents generally followed French trends. This we will be interested in hearing from our Belgian readrs about the role of Belgium in children's fashions.
Despite the limited information on Belgium, HBC has begun to sketch out a basic outline of the chronological development of Belgian boys' fashions on the basis of available paintings, drawing, and photographs. There appear to be many similarities with France. Hopefully Belgian visitors to HBC will eventually provide some historical details. While we still have realtively little information on the 19th century, we have begun to compile a much better assessment of 20th century fashions.
Caesar described the Belgae as "the bravest of all the Gauls" ("horum omnium fortissimi sunt belgae"). His Legions conquered them (54 BC). The Roman province of flourished. The two provinces include what would be come known as the Low Lands or Low Countries. The medieval history of the Low Lands in genral was complicated, but led to the development of an independent spirit which caused the Dutch to resist first Spanish and then French rule. Here they were assisted by both geography and the interests of the English in preventing a continental power from dominating the area. The Lowlands were inherited by the Hapsburghs which after the Protestanr Reformation set up a struggle between the indepent-minded Low Landers and the Hapsburgs leading the Counter Reformation. The Dutch (United Provinces) in the north managed to maintain their independence in the North, but the Spanish prevailed in the south which is why the Flemish are predominately Catholic. French Revolutionary armies conquered the province (1794). Austria formally ceded it to France (1797). After the Napoleonic Wars the Congress of Vienna combined it with the United Provinces to form the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815). The province revolted from Dutch rule and formed modern Belgium with a German monarchy (1830). The Kingdom combined Dutch speaking Flanders with French speaking Walonia. The independence and neutrality of the Kingdom was guaranteed by Britain. The Belgians were responsible for one of the most reprehensible activities during the "Scramble for Africa". Belgium was a bi-lingual country and during the 19th century the Flemish struggle for language rights. After the unifcation of Germany, Begium found itself between two hostile countries--France and Germany. The German war plan entiled attacking France through Germany. King ??? complained, "Belgium is a country not a road". The German invasion brought Britain into World War I and ultimately was a major cause in Germany's defeat. The heroic Belgian resistance and suffering under German occupation helped turn American public opinion against Germany. Germany invaded Belgium again in World war II. Belgium after D-Day was liberated by the Allies, but was the scene of the Horific Battle of the Bulge. Belgium participated in the movement toward European unification. Conflict between the Waloons and Flemish continue.
Pre-History
Some of the styles most associated with Belgian boys are the French styles like smocks and berets. Younger boys wore dresses well into the 20th century. Tunics were a very popular style throughout the 19th century. Boys wore pantalettes with both dresses and tunics. Smocks were commonly worn to school in the late 19th centurty and early 20th century, but I am not sure how common they were as a non-school garment. Sailor suits became very popular in the late 19th century--even though Belgium havd no navy of any importance, Boys mostly wore kneepants in the late 19th century, but short pants became more common by the 1910s. As in France, smocks and berets appear to have quickly went out of fashion in the 1950s. Belgian boys also common wore short pants. Belgium is a very traditional country. Boys in Belgium continued to commonly wear shorts even after other boys in Europe were wearing long pants and jeans. Kneesocks were also commonly wornn by Belgian boys. Boys in siome private Catholic schools wore white kneesocks although I don't think that was common outside of school.
HBC has noted certain outfits worn for a variety of occassions or activities such as school or youth groups. We have also noted more specialized outfits worn for choirs or First Communion. We are archiving information on these activity uniform or clothes in this section. There is also specialized clothing worn for dance or dressing up for music recitals.
We have only limited information on styles at this time. Boys styles could be quite elaborate in the mid-19th century. Sailor styling became very important in the late 19th century. We are not sure how popular Fauntleroy suits were in Belgium.
HBC has not yet acquired dextensive details on the hair styles worn by Belgian boys. We believe they were largely similar to French styles, but there may be some differences between trends in Walonia and Flanders. We have noted that short hair styles have predominated since the late 19th century. Long often shoulder-length, but generally uncurled hair was a popular fashion for younger boys in the late 19th-century. By the 1910s, shoulder-length long hair had become less common, but fashionable boys might still wear their hair over their ears. HBC has noted Belgian boys in the 1930s-50s wearing the the "choupette" curled hair style that was also popular in in France.
Family portraits are an interesting way of comparing the clothing of the other members of the family with the ways that boys dressedin any given time period. Many of the HBC pages show boy's clothing in isolation. This is necessary because we donot have the ability to address the enormous additional topics of girls, women's, and men's clothing. Images of families, however, enable us to relate boys' clothing to hat worn by the other family members which might be useful to readers with a wider dfashion focus. These images also provide some insights into Belgian family life.
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Belgian films look remarably similar to French ones. I do not know of
particularly classic Belgian films, but HBC correspondents have provided
some sample images. Belgians boys are often shown wearing short pants
and until the 1950s schoolboys are commonly seen in smocks. Berets are
also worn, presumably in the French speaking areas. Modern movies
show boys wearing the same pan-European styles.
One good source of information on Belgian boys' clothes during the early 20th century is postcards. Children were a popular subject for cards during this period. Many of these cards have been carefully saved by collectors in Belgium and other countries. The clothes depicted are sometimes rare fancier than those actially worn. HBC believes that the colors that are painted in are largely imaginitive as they can be quite bright. HBC does not think that Belgian boys commonly wore bright yellow sailor suits.
We have only limited information on Belgian clothing catalogs and advertisements as well as fashion magazines at this time. Belgian is a complicated country to assess. Sirely Dutch publications must have been read in Flemish (Dutch speaking) areas and French publications in Waloon (French speaking) arreas. German publications also probably were distributed in Flanders. We know there were many similarities with French fashions. Dutch and even German fashions may also have influenced Belgium. One of the subjects we want to consider is to what extent English and French fashions affected the two different language communities. It is unclear howeasy it was to order clothes kisted in foreign catalogs.
The two major Belgian ethnic groups are the Flemish in Flabders and the Waloons in Walonia. Ethnicity mirrors the language divide. This cultural, ethbiv, lingistic divide has been a major issue in Belgian national life since its creation in 1830. There is also a small German minority in the east along the German border. Until World war II Germany had a small Jewish community
HBC has few specific details on individual Belgian boys, other than the royal family. Given that French and Belgian clothing clothing styles have been very similar, readers interested in Belgium may want to persuse the more numerous accounts HBC has collected on French boyhood. We will also include published accounts of Belgian boyhood.
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