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The inter-war years are notable for the diversity of the First Communion suits worn by French boys. We see boys wearing different styles of suits. We see both single and double-breasted jackets as well as sailor suits. We also see formal suits rather like tuxedos. We note some suit jackets that are rather stylish and seem to be primarily for First Communion and would not be worn as a normal suit jacket. The suits tended to be dark in contrasts to the girls' white dresses. Boys wore both kneepants, short pants, and long pants. Hosiery included kneesocks and long stockings. A few boys wore albs, but this became more common after World war II. The sleeve ribbons were very popular.
We note French boys wearing a variety of suit jackets for their First Communions in the inter-War era. Most of the available images show three different types of jackets. First we notice Many boys wore dark suit jackets. White suits were not very common. We think the suits were mostly navy blue rather than black, but we are not yet positive. The dark suits contrast with the girls white dresses. We see boys wearing both single and double-breasted jackets. Some boys wore three piece suits with vests. Even greater variry is created by the many different types of shirts and neckwear worn withj the jackets. We notice both standard collars as well as wing collars. We also see sports collar, although collars worn with ties and bowtie were more common. Second we notice Eton suits We also see short jacket worn with Eton collars. We think these Eton jackets were black and commonly worn with grey pants, usually long pants. Third we see sailor suits. A large number of boys did their First Communion in a variety of sailor suits. Most seem to be sailor jackets rather than blouses, but there was quite a lot of variation. We see both white and dark suits. The collsrs abnd dickies varied. Dark suits seem somewhat more common, but we see many white sailor suits as well. In addition to these three principal styles we notice some other less common stytles. Some boys wore what look like standard suit jackets but with a sailor collar.
Many boys wore short pants or kneepants suits for First Communion during in the inter-war years, but long pants suits were very common. his varied quite a bit from school or church. Perhaps the parents were given some advise on this so bthere was a degree of uniformity on th big day. Knee pants were still worn in the early 1920s, but by the 1930s had mostly been replaced by short pants. In fact, for many boys their First Communion suits were their first long pants, a kind of symolic coming of age, emerging from boyhood to adulthood. The images I have seen are of many long pants sailor suits, but short pants suits were worn as well. A French reader tells us, "Before the 1950s, sometime a boy wore for his first communion wore long pants for the first time. Then he would usually wear long pants
only on Sunday during the following winter when he was 12/13 years old. Later the next spring his mother might dress him again for Sunday with short pants suit, the boy was thenm 13/14 years old. But in school, little changed, he still wore short pants. Here there were social class differences. A a boy younger as 13/14 years old who wore long pants was much more common in working-class families."
We notice boys wearing a variety of shirts. There are some Eton collars. Often it is difficult to see the shirt and collar because the boys have buttoned their jackets and wear. As tgey are white shirts, the details of the shirts are often not clkear. The bows, however, were less common by the 1930s. Almost always the boys have buttoned collars.
Neckwear varied quite a bit. Large bows were common before World War I. After the War the situation was more varied. We still see floppy bows in the 1920s, but many boys wire ties or even no neckwear at all.
Some Catholic schools instead of having parents buy new oufits would have the boys dress up in identical white albs for the First Communion ceremony. Some of these schools had monks or priests wearing cassocks as teachers. This was not as common in the inter-war era as it was to become after World War II. Only the boys, however, wore the white cassocks. This same style was worn by Swiss boys during First Communion and it may well have been used in other countries as well.
Boys continued wearing large bows on their arms. These were only for the boys, not the girls. We also notice lapel ribbons, but they were much less common.
We can of course only observe the hosiery of the boys wearing short trouseres or kneepants with any certaity. this somewhat complicated the topic of hosiery as quite a few boys wore long pants suits. Some boys wore dark long stockings, especially in the 1920s. We do not notice boys wearing white long stockings, but we do notice white knee socks. White knee socks were more commonly worn by French boys than English boys, but they were considered dressy, not every day wear. I'm not sure just when the style of wearing white knee socks began. We do, however, notice quite a few boys wearing white knee socks with their First Communion suits by the 1920s. Some boys also wore black kneesocks. Interestingly there does not seem to be any realtionship between hosiery and the suit type. We see boys wearing white knee socks with both sailor suits as well as three-piece suits. We also notice boys wearing black long stockings, interesting because except for these formal occassions, long stockings were not very common in France. We do not notice many boys searing white long stockings, but they were worn by many girls.
Most boys wore black leather Oxford low-cut shoes. We nore some boys wearing court pumps, mostly with white knee socks. None of the boys wear strap shoes.
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