Figure 1.--This little French boy on a family outing during 1952 wears bib-front rompers ( Barboteuse Bain de Soleil). It looks to be a print romper although this is difficult to tell. The pboy is probably about 4-years old. Notice no one is wearing life jackets. Such precautions did not become common until much later.

French boys have worn several different types of rompers. The romper puffed pants style was very popular and we notiuce quite a range of variants. Rompers were worn by children in several countries where they were not strictly a boy's garment. But we see a much greater variety of these garments in France and they wee exclusely for boys until the late-20th century. . We do not know of any study which has assessed different types of rompers. We have attempted to identify different types by assessing available images. We are unsure as to precisely wht the correct term was for these different types of rompers. The principal types are the full romper one-piece suit, the bib-front romper, and the romper bottom worn with a blouse or other shirt. The one-piece romper or barboteuse was the classic French romper garment, but has we can be seen there were quite a variety of these garments. There are, however, some other types of varying popularity. There are many variations on both the one-piece-suit rompers and the blouses as to how the garments buttoned. We welcome any insights our French readers may be anle to offer here.

One-piece Suits

A French reader tells that the one-piece suits were the most common. The original rompers were the one-piece suit type which first appeared in France during 1922. They were the first outfit to be called a 'barboteuse. This style were the rompers that the youngest boys wore. I'm not sure to what size they were made, but probly to 3-4 years. They were initially a play outfit, but dressier versions with front smocking were also made. They had waist draw bands attached at the side and were tied in a bow at the back. These suits were almost always back buttoning.

Two-piece Suits

Although one-piece suits were the most popular. We also notice two-piece suits done in various styles. A HBC reader has sent a family portrrait of a boy wearing a two-piece romper suit. The top has a rather curios collar that I have no seen used very often. Notice that normaly his little collar should be turned round. Our reader tells us, "I am not surprised at this about this original way to do. It was a idea more his mother. The puff pants had one botton on each side. There was no bow at the back. The pants probably has croch butonning, most romper suits did. This romper was worn alone on sunny days. If it was cool mother might add a wool jacket or a very short coat with , if necessery.

Blouse-jacket Rompers

Two-piece romper suits were suspender romers with a blouse that tucket into the romper panys. Some buttoned on to the rompers. This was by far the most common type of two-piece romper suits. We note a few boys weating a kind of blouse jacket. It was not tucked into the romper pants. Rather it was worn like a jacket that hung over the waistline of the romper pants. I'm not sure how the rompers were held up, they may have been suspender rompers. We are not entirely sure how common these rompers were, but we do not note many examples in the photographic record.

Bib-front Rompers/ Barboteuse Bain de Soleil

Bib-front rompers are also commonly called sunsuits. these appear to have been worn by somewhat older boys than the dressier rompers. This was especially the rompers designed for beachwear, as reflected in the French term barboteuse bain de soleil. The bif-front style was often used for play rompers while the suspender style might be used as a dress garment. The bib of course served in a protective function. The bib-front rompers came in different types of bib fronts. Some tied around the neck. More substantial bibfront had shoulder straps which was the ore common construction. The standard barboteuse bain de soleil had a bib front with shouder straps. Some has a bow in the back. They were also croch butonning like the standard barboteuse. This pattern was normally made made up to size 55 cm or to age 6 years old. Unlike the classic barboteuse, the barboteuse bain de soleil was also worn by little girl on beach by about 1955--but this seems to have been quite rare. Some magasines in 1955 asked if it was appropriate for girls to wear thd barboteuse bain de soleil as beachwear. A French reader writes, "I don't remember having seen little girls wearing the barboteuse bain de soleil, but apparently there were some girls who did wwar them. The traditional barboteuse had never been worn by girls in France. It was seen as a boy's garment." Unlikesuspender rompers, bib-front rompers could be wirn without a blouse orshirt.

Suspender Rompers

Another popular style was romper pants without bib-fronts, but atttached suspenders in the same material as the pants. The suspenders attached at the front with buttons. Usually the buttons were white to contrast with the colored romper bottoms, but colored buttons were also used. The suspender rompers were usually worn with blouses. A boy might wear a bib front romper without a shirt during the summer, but never suspender rompers. Usually the blouses were white, but some were the same color and material as the romper bottoms. Peter Pan collars were very popular. There were both front and back buttoning blouses. They might have puff sleeves. The dressier ones were smocked. Usually they were short sleeved with cuffs and trim. Embroidered trim on the collars might be repeated on the cuffs. These were often a more dressy style than the bib-front romper suits. We have noted some made with pleats. Interestingly, all the images of front buttoning blouses worn with these rompers show the collar buttons buttoned, the blouses and rompers were not worn with open collars. There might be side buttons to improve the fit. We are not sure when the suspender rompers first appeared the suit shown here was made in 1949. They were made in sizes up to about 6 years. Even the larger styles had buttons at the crotch.

Button-on Rompers

The blouses worn with the rompers were usually button-on style. Thet had buttons at the waist which fitted into button holes at the waist of the romper pants. The blouses varied widely in style and included Peter Pan collars and puff sleeves. Some of the blouses were smocked.

Costume Bloomer

The "costume bloomer" (bloomer outfit) was for boys 1-4 years old. It was the vogue during 1957 to the mid 1960s. This suit was worn everywhere as much for play as for formal dressy occasions like weddings. Generaly the bloomer-like romper pants had suspenders, but there were also romper pants without the suspenders and an elasticated waist. The pants usually had butonning at the crotch and well puffed pants. People called these pant worn with a blouse a "costume bloomer" and never a 'barboteuse' although both have the bloomer-like puffed pants. [HBC note: While the French only use 'barboteuse' for the one-piece garment, HBC for organizational simplicity is listing these garments together as rompers.} This garment in French had only one name commonly used: costume bloomer. Quite often it could be referred to in magazines: "costume 2 pièces". This term had no real meaning because there are many different types of two piece suits. The term commonly used was "costume bloomer". In the 1960s it was replaced with two different styles for the garçonnet, younger boy. The first was the "costume garçonnet à culotte demi bouffante" or little boys' outfit with slihtly puffted short pants. The second was the "costume garçonnet à culotte droite" or little boy outfit with straight short pants. These two styles were worn year round with a "manteau baby" during the winter.

Culotte Bloomer

Rompers in French are best translated as "barboteuse", but there are many related garments with baloon/puff pants. True barboteuse are one-piece suits with the bloomer-like short pants and elasticized leg openings, usually back buttoning. The bloomer short pants by themselves with suspender or elasticized waists are called "culotte bloomer" and not barboteuse. Commonly they had suspender straps in the same fabric as the pants or bib fronts, similar to standard short pants outfits. The term culotte is used because they were so similar to short pantrs except for the romp[er/bloomer puff pants. Culotte bloomers were also made with plain elasticized waists. We see both play and dressy versions. Dressy "culotte bloomers" were commonly worn with fancy blouses and referred to as a "culotte bloomer costume". They might be worn by older boys than wore the classic one-piece barboteuse. We note boys up to about 6-7 years old wearing them.

Culottes Bloomer Costume

The romper outfit was exclusivley a style for little boys. According to our French source, rompers were never worn by girls. He writes, "The French mentality at the time did not permit changing boys' garments to girls wear. A 1955 magazine article "Femmes d'aujourd'hui" asked, "Why not a romper for a girl?" The article even gave a description of one, it seems without succes. Romper suits were only for boy and in this time a girl dressed in a romper would have been like a boy in a dress! This should not be confused with culottes bloomers. These were bloomer pants worn by women and little girls underneath a dress or smock frock.

Other Types

We notice a range of other romper outfits tht do not seem to fall easily into the major variants listed here. The romper style was very popular and seen as stylish. Thus mothers came up with many differenbt variants of the basic romper types. A factor was that many mothers as well as aunts and grandmothers sewed at home. This led to more variety than the standard romper types available in the shops. We note for example two brithers wearing identical romper outfits with tops that look like jackets or shirts. we think in the late-1950s when the romper style was especially popular in france. We can not tell what kind of rompers the boys were wearing because the jackets cover up the top part of the rompers. They were probably either plain boxer-style romper pants or more likely suspender rompers. The elaticised waist or the suspenders were neeeded to hold them up. The home sewing also expanded the age range which was especially important when mother wanted to dress boys in identical outfits.

Knitted Romper

Rompers were also knitted rather thgab sewed. Many grandmothers and aunts knitted. Mothers did so, but voften did not have tge sprec timelike grandmothgers ad older or maiden aunts. Knitted rompers were popular for younger boys. Of course here we have overlap as rompers were knitted in variuous styles, including many of the romper types noted here. Rompers were knitted in wool. French mothers and grandmothers often preferred wool for babies and young children. Most of the time wool garments were selected, especially for babies. This was true even in the Summer. The knitted romper didn't have a bow in the back. The belt was normaly knitted at the side. Often two ponpoms were at the end of the belt. Like other rompers, they had crotch buttoning and sliped on by the head. A reader provides a 1946 photograph of a one-piece romper suit. The anckle socks were turn up. This was a vogue just after World War II. This boy wore knitted white underwear with his romper suit. The ankle socks were also knitted in cotton.

Romper Bathing Trunks

We notice French boys after World War II wear romper bathing trunks. They were essentially romper suits without the tops and with bottom that did not blouse out as much as the romper suits for younger boys. This was a style that somewhat older boys wore than wore romper suits. We do not yet have a fix on the chronology. We do not know when boys began wearing them and how long they were worn. We see school age boys wearing them. We are not sre about colors and patterns. The one exanple we have is a boyabot 8 years old weating a patterned suit. The examole is fated 1950, but we are not entirely sure if this means 1950 or the 50s decade. We see some European boys wearing romper pnts as a gym uniform. It was not very common, but we note several examples.