Figure 1.--This is Charles andhis brother wearing the light blue classic romper he commonly wore as a boy. This portrait was taken about 1949 during a trip to Nice. Notice the smocking on the front. |
The boys had 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. One photograph 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.
The boys had several pairs of traditionally styled rompers. Almost all of thge rompers had short puffed (ballon) sleeves and puffed bottoms with elasticized legs. Most were one-piece suits which buttoned in the back and had back tieing bows. Charles remenber some of the suits and there are also family photographs.
Charles perfectly remembers,even at a young age, a pair of flower patterned rompers. He and his brother were dressed in these rompers for a charming portrait together. Unlike most of their romper outfits, these did not have a Peter Pan collar. It was possible to find for the little boy a model without a collar worn with a maching embroidered bib. This bib was worn during the meals and taken off for walks and play. This model of romper was normally only for the little boy less than 18 months old. In the family portrait, Charles was 3 years old and apparemty his mother chose the same romper that my younger brother was wearing so that our rompers matched instead o the more common style for oldr boys. The portrait is on the previous page.
Charles remembers that most of his rompers were light blue. He remembers one romper suit with a Peter Pan collar (col Claudine). This collar did not have the normal rounded Peter Pan colar hape. Thre also look to be colord edging. Primarily Charles remembers wearing a classical french one piece style of romper which had puff/balloon sleeves and Peter Pan collar (col Claudine) (figure 1). This one had front blouce buttons. Many rompers were back buttoning. There was also a flower embrodiery on the front waistband. They had some smocking on the front and a big back tieing bow. This was the classic French boy's romper. Like the print romper, Charles and his brother wore matching rompers in this style as well.
Mothers commonly preferred knitted wool rompers for the winter.
Very often they were knitted by the grandmother. The knitted winter rompers often had long sleeves, but the same short ballon pants as the summer rompers.
French mothers in the 1930s-50s addored the romper look and the pants were often made to balloon out a great deal which was considered very stylish. There was a waist band with tied with a large knot in the back, but this cannot be seen in the portrait. These rompers were made uin the same prinyed material. Such prints in a light fabric were popular for summer wear. Often the fabric was gingham (vichy cloth). Plain rompers were often made in white Poplin which had an elegant look. Many mothers and grandmothers made these rompers from patterns that were available through several magazines and companies. The same styles were widely available in stores as as well explaining why the same styles were so widely worn by children throughout France.
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