Figure 1.--This class of Italian primary school children, probably in norther Italy. They were photographed in 1930 at some undisclosed school in Italy, showing the wide-spread use of smocks in Italian schools. These children seem to be about about 8 years old. The girls wear smocks all of which seem to have prominent white collars. When children are dressed alike like this it is because they are required to do so. The boys, however, were not required to wear smocks. Most of the boys are wearing dark shirts or long-sleeved jerseys with matching short trousers. They also wear long stockings--beige or dark brown--obviously with hose supporters because the stockings are so smoothly and tautly held in place. The girls wear long stockings also, but their legs are mostly covered by skirts. Note that one of the girls wears a hair bow.

Italian boys and girls have dressed very differently, but these differences have varied substantially over time. The differences were fairly standard during the first half of the 20th century until well after World War II. The boys wore long and short pants and the girls dresses and skirts. This began to change in the 1970s when we begin to see girls beginning to wear pants. Both boys and girls commonly wore smocks. We note, however, some schools where only the girls wore smocks. Here we do not yet fully understand the conventions. While both boys and girls wore somocks, there were often differences on the color or design of the smocks differentiating those for boys and girls.

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Created: 7:02 PM 7/1/2007
Last updated: 7:02 PM 7/1/2007