Figure 1.--This family portrait is undated, but looks like the 1950s. We are not entirely sure the boys is wearinf romperpsnts, but there does seem to be a band at the hem and the pants seem to baloon out. Note that his big sister is wearing a coordinated outfit.

We also note German romper pants as opposed to one-piece romper suits. Most were done with varied suspension, different kinds of strap suapension. This included suspenders, h-bar, and bib-front. These seem to have been particularly common in Germany as a type of summer sun suit. The H-bar style seems the most common. The cut is generally much shorter than the romper suits we saw in the 1920s. Most of the examples we have found seem to date from the 1940s and 50s. We suspect that the French clothing obtained as part of reparation payments during the World war II occupation (1940-44) were a factor in romper outfits becoming populr in Germany. We have not yet noted German boys wearing just the romper pants, but this was not common in France either. We notice both play and dressy oitfits. These romper pants were worn with a variety of shirts and blouses. Some seem to have been worn as sun suits or beachwear without shirts during the summer. We also notice them being worn as a kind of dressy outfit in formal portraits. Sometimes they were done as coordinated outfits with sisters, usuall big sisters wearing skirts. We do not see German girls wearing romper pants. We also notice romper pants without any suspension. Perhaps some had elasticized waists. These were not nearly as common as the romperpants with strap suspension. We do not find very many in the photographic record, but we do see a few examples.

Suspender Strap Romper Pants

Most were done with varied suspension, different kinds of strap suapension. This included suspenders, h-bar, and bib-front. These seem to have been particularly common in Germany as a type of summer sun suit. The H-bar style seems the most common. The cut is generally much shorter than the romper suits we saw in the 1920s. Most of the examples we have found seem to date from the 1940s and 50s. We suspect that the French clothing obtained as part of reparation payments during the World War II occupation (1940-44) were a factor in romper outfits becoming populr in Germany. We have not yet noted German boys wearing just the romper pants, but this was not common in France either. We notice both play and dressy outfits. These romper pants were worn with a variety of shirts and blouses. Some seem to have been worn as sun suits or beachwear without shirts during the summer. We also notice them being worn as a kind of dressy outfit in formal portraits. This was not as common, but we have found examples. The family portrait here is a good example (figure 1). Sometimes they were done as coordinated outfits with sisters, usuall big sisters wearing skirts. We do not see German girls wearing romper pants.

Plain Romper Pants

We also notice German boys wearing romper pants without any strap suspension. Perhaps some had elasticized waists. These were not nearly as common as the romper pants with strap suspension. We do not find very many of these plain romper pants in the photographic records, but we do see a few examples. Th Most seem to date to the 1940s or perhaps the early-50s. These plain romper pants seem to be almost entirely outdoor summer play outfits. The romper pants with suspender straps could be both play garments and deressier garments. The plain romper pants as far as we can tell were strictly a play garment.

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Created: 12:41 AM 5/2/2011
Last updated: 5:04 AM 6/28/2011