German Boys' Clothes: Rompers --Patterns


Figure 1.--This family snapshot shows two unidentified German brothers. They look to be nout 5-7 years old. This gives a good idea anout romper age conventions. We believe that most boys stopped wearing them at about 6 years of age which is when most children began school. Note the bright floral pattern. At the time boys did not wear patterned grments. Rompers apparently were an exception. Also note the younger oy's whit kne socks with tassles. The snapshot is not dated, but the older boy's long shorts and suapendrs and the style of salute, suggest the early-1930s.

We notice some boys wearing patterned romper suits. This is interesting, because patterned garments for boys, either shirts or pants, were not worn. Girls wore patterned dresses, but boys did not wear patterned shiers or other garments until after World War II when we begin to see checked shirts. A rare exception was rompers. The first rompers we see in the 1920s were white and rather lumpy garments. We see more stylish garments in the 1930s, including bright florid patterns. We think this is a French fashion influence, but can not confirm it yet. Solid-colored rompers were more common, but we see a number of boys wearing rompers done in bold patterns, rather like girls' dresses which were a summer fashion staple. We think rompers in Germany were primarilt a summer fashion. We at first thought these bright patterns were more of a 1940s development, but we ahve found some snaphots that seem to date to the early-30s.







HBC






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Created: 9:31 AM 3/24/2015
Last updated: 9:31 AM 3/24/2015