Figure 1.--These French brothers were photographed in 1947 in matching rompers. The boys are about 2 and 3 years old. The front of the rompers are very heavily smocked. Notice the puff sleeves on rompers. These are rather dressy rompers with flower paterned material.

These French brothers were photographed in 1947 in matching rompers. They are about 2 and 3 years old. It was their mother's favorite portrit and hung prominently in the home. The front of the rompers are very heavily smocked. Notice the puff sleeves on rompers. These are rather dressy rompers with flower paterned material.

Brothers

This photograph shows two French brothers. Charles Gérard was born in December 1943. Than 18 months later his brother Claude arrived. They lived a large house in Paris. At the time France was occupied by the NAZIs. The boys of course knew nothing of that. France was liberated in 1944 and the boys grew up in the immediate post-war period. It was a very difficult period for many French families because of the destruction and economic dislocations caused by the War and German occupation. These boys, however, did not miss anything.

Photographer

The portrait was taken by the " Mignot Portraitiste ". This studio also shot may postcards, a popular medium at the time. The postcarss were sold under the trade name "Noyer ". The studio specialized in children's photographs.

Chronology

These French brothers were photographed in 1947 in matching rompers.

Age

The boys are about 2 and 3 years old. The portrait was taken on the occassion of the older boy's third birthday. His younger brother was 18 months old.

Mother

It was their mother's favorite portrit and hung prominently in the home. The portrait hung in our parents' sitting room. On the back of the portrait is written " Gérard est mon filleul il est très gentil et aussi très obéissant " which meant "Gérard is my godson , he is very nice and very obedient too." The boys grew up seeing the portrit. Our reader tells us, "About he portrit we realy thought nothing. We were used to see it at home and it was the fashion of this period."

Memmories

Our HBC contributor reports, "I remember very well, in spite of my youth. At that age, it was very nice to fussed over and dressed in beautiful new clothes. Both my brother and I wear the same matching rompers here. It is curious, however, that my younger brother, was less often dressed in rompers than me. I do not know why, for that it would have been necessary me to ask our mother. My memories go up whereas I was not yet 5 years old, of course I did not have an opinion on this clothing and at the time it certainly did not bother me."

Clothing Details

These boys were always well dressed. By looking through the family photographic albumns we always see these boys emaculately dressed in the latest fashions.

The Rompers

The boys here wear a matching pair of tradititional French rompers ( barboteuses ) with puffed sleeves and pants. The front of the rompers are very heavily smocked. These are rather dressy rompers which would have been worn on special occassions. They had a waist band which tied in a bow at the back. Charles and his brother were often dressed in rompers. Charles often had bangs and long hair well over his ears. Curiously his younger brother has shorter hair. The photograph here was taken when Charles was about age 4. Indeed the rompers were a popular traditional fashion for boys at that time. Thus yonger boys in both the cities and the country side commonly wore rompers if they were not yet dressed in short pants. The rompers were not a summer outfit, but worn year round. They were especially popular for pre-school boys up to about age 5, but some boys had a dressy romper suit even at age 7.

Gilets

Grandmothers knitting rompers would also knit several gilets which made a beautiful combination. A gilet is a vest (waistcoat) or cardigan, knitting in wool with buttonig at the front. A good example of a gilet can be seen on a HBC page about a French boy in the1940s-50s or about the same time we are discussing here. The length reached just to the waist, no longer. This garment was very popular for boys in this period . The description of this model (from 3 utill 14 years) was easily found in many sewing and fashion magazines. A gilet could be without sleeves or with puffed sleeves or with long sleeves for chilled days. Notice the length, exactly at the waist; no more. While even younger teenagers might wear gilerts, the styled with the puffed sleeves was only worn to about 6 years.

Un ensemble

The romper and the matching gilet were called: Un ensemble

School smocks

At the time this portrait was taken, children both boys and girls in France still commonly wore smocks to school. At the beginning, smocks were to protect clothing. They quickly became an accepted style in France. Thus almost all the younger French schoolboys were outfitted in smocks for school. A traditional style was commonly worn by children in the 1930s and changed little until smocks disappeared during the 1960s. Like the rompers they were commonly made in gingham (vichy) and buttoned in the back. It was decorated with a [?bent] collar and boys' smocks had a cloth self-belt which buttoned in the back. (A girls' smock had a waisdtbelt that tied in bow at the back.) Charles here tells us that "I wore a traditional smopck regularly to school. They were not reqwuired by our school. I commonly wore smocks until I began secondary school at age 12."

Short pants

After World War I, short pants became the commonly accepted style for French boys. I am not precisely why that ocurred, but the same phenomenon occurred in other European countries as well. (In America, knickers became more common.) Mothers were undoubtedly influenced by their classes at school where sewing was a required class for girls. The first shorts were quite long, like kneepants. As the 1920s and 30s progressed, the style for short pants became increasingly short. Charles tells us, "Our family was well off and nothing prevented mother from dressing us in long trouser outfits, but she never made any long pants outfits. She preferred that we wear short pants all the year. Thus until age 13 years we only wore short trousers; except of course the few very cold days of the year. In this period of the 1950s there was a kind of standard behaviour for the boys of less than 10 years which included simple cloth shorts. Woolen shorts were common in the winter, but both summer and winter shorts were commonly very short well above our knees. They always had straps (suspenders) to hold them up. During a long part of the year many little boys wore very short cut short pants under their school smocks. These short pants always had suspenders or a bib front for the younger boys."

Other clothes

Charles also tells us, "On cool days, mother never failed to add a sweater or a gilet. During the 50s we often wore sandals with short pants. We wore both ankle and kneesocks. [?At that time the fashion was more with the sets with the costumes.] We also had beautiful Sunday clothes which remained in the style expalined here. Younger boys wore rompers. Older boys wore short pants suits. We would today see these styles as rather juvenile, but they were very typical of the French mentality of these years. These style were accepted throughout France for children, they were worn by children in the affluent neighborhoods as well a in working class districts."

Material

The material has a flower pattern. This was not the most common pattern. Solid colored and ginghah (vichy) rompers were more common.

Hair Style

One interesting aspect of this portrait is that the boys are dressed preciselly alike in matching romper outfits, yet they have entirely diferent hair style. In addition it is the older boy who wears the more juvenile bangs hair style. Here our reader is not sure. He tell us, "Realy I don't know. My brother never had long hair. Me I had keep this hair style till 5 years old; and even later my hair was done sometimes in a choupette or curls."

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Created: November 28, 2002
Last updated: February 20, 2003