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French boys clothes : French Families: Chronology--The 1900s
French Families: Chronology--The 1900s
Figure 1.--This postcard-back snapshot was done with fancy framing, a popular device for early snapshots. Here a large unidentified family is all lined up according to age. The youngr children mostly wear smocks. As they are not at school, apparently mother wanted to wear the smocks to protect their clothing. And we are not sure these were school smocks which in the 1900s were mostly black like one of the boys is wearing. One boy wears a knee pants sailor suit. The adults at the back seem to be grown up children rather than the parents. We know that the portrait was taken in 1908 because of a postmark. It seems to read Chmalie wjhich appaently is not correct as it does not show up on a Google search.
We still see some younger boys wearing dresses. Long hair was also seen as well as hair boys for boys from comfortable families. French boys in the 1900s commonly wore blouse sets and to a lesser extent suits. Sailor suits were very popular. Boys mostly wore knee pants and boomer knickers in the 1900s. We notice a lot of children wearing school smocks. Apparently children did not just wear their smocks at school, but commonly wore them after school as well. We are not sure if mothers encouraged this to protect clothing or if the children just could not be bothered to change. This was he first decade with extensive family snapshots. So we cannot compare it to 19th century trends. We continue to see boys wearing smocls oitside school in the 1900s, but notvas commonly in the 1900s. Hosiery varied, but long stockings were not as common as in Germany or America. They could be worn in cool weather or when dressing up. Some poor children went barefoot. And we still see some destinctive provincial dress such as the Breton family.
Here we see three unidentified kids at Dunkirk (Dunkerque), a beach and small port near the Belgian border. We of course recognize it as critically important World War II battle. At the time i=t was just one of many French Channel Coast coast resorts. The cabinet card portrait is undated, but the mount looks to us like a style prominent in the early-20th centuty. The children look to be about 6-13 years old, two boys and a girl. Notice how they are dressed for the beach. The younger children could be twins, but are probably just close in age. They wear velvet outfits with white collars. The girl wears a dress with a lace collar. The boy wears a knee pants sailor suit. Their big brother wears a Norfolk suits with an Eton collar and knicker panrs. Botyh boys wear long stockings. The children hils beach play itemns, a net and and spade. This suggests to us that they are tourists rather than residents. The studio was Luzzatto in Dunkirk. The pohitographer brags aboiut using electrical illummination. We have not seen that before.
Here we see a image of an artistic, French bourgeois family. As far as we know, Duran never painted a portrait of his young family in the 1870s, at least we have not found one. The artist had three childre, two girls and a boy. We have found a family portrait later in life with the grandchildren which he painted in 1902. He also painted them separately. Most are the children of George Feydeau and the artist's daughter Marine-Anne. The painting is titled 'Ma familie'--My family.
Here we have a family portrait of a posperous bourgeoisie familly. We know the children's Cgristiann names, but not the family name. We see how French adults dressed at the turn of the 20th century. Notice that several of the woen re wearing blouses and skirts. The men wear vested suits. Notice how the neck ties are tied with large Windsor knots. Along with all the adults are twins, presumably the grand children. The children are twins born about 1898. They look to be about 4 years old. Georgette (1898-1982) and Georges. The children have white dresses with colored sashes. They wear them with colored three-quarter socks. Their hair is long, but not curled. Notice the white hair bows. They seem more commion in America than France.
We note an unidentified Parisian father and young son. The father looks to be prosperous, either a civil servant or professional. They live in a nice house. We see them both inside and in the back garden. The boy wears a sailor suit. He has a button-up sailor jacket and bloomer knickers. I'm not sure about the color. The V-collar is done in contrasting white. He looks to be about 7-8 years old. He looks to be wearing a flat cap with the suit. He has ankle socks and high-top shoes.
Arthur Coquard (1846�1910) was a French composer. The photo was taken in Noirmoutier (on the French western coast) in 1905, in front of the family villa. Arthur Coquard and his wife Laure Auffray (in the center of the back row) are depicted with their children, children-in-law and grandchildren. Unusually for a French family in a formal occasion, three of the girls are barefoot.
This commercial postcard shows a French fisherman's family in Equihen, a Channel coast village near Boulogne-sur-Mer. They are in front of their house, made with an old boat. That was common in the region only in late-19th and early-20th century, when the fishing organization changed and many boats were decommissioned. The postcard is undated, but we would guess that it was taken in the 1900s. Differently from other familes, among fishermen's families it was common that children went barefoot. That was very common throughout Europe, except during the winter in northern countries. We are not sure what the girl has on her head. It seems to me that she had fixed her hair, but it is not clear.
Unidentified Large Family (1908)
This postcard-back snapshot was done with fancy framing, a popular device for early snapshots (figure 1). Here a large unidentified family is all lined up according to age. The youngr children mostly wear smocks. As they are not at school, apparently mother wanted to wear the smocks to protect their clothing. And we are not sure these were school smocks which in the 1900s were mostly black like one of the boys is wearing. This was he first decade with extensive family snapshots. So we cannot compare it to 19th century trends. We continue to see boys wearing smocls oitside school in the 1900s, but notvas commonly in the 1900s. One boy wears a knee pants sailor suit. The adults at the back seem to be grown up children rather than the parents. We know that the portrait was taken in 1908 because of a postmark. It seems to read Chmalie wjhich appaently is not correct as it does not show up on a Google search.
