|
French mail order catalogs and clothing advertisements offer a very useful time line on changing fashion trends. HBC notes fashions from a 'Star L'Enfant'catalog. We believe it dates to 1938, but can not yet confirm that. We have several pages with different types of clothing that give us a good overview of 1938 fashions. We do not, however, know much abiut the Star catalog. For some reason the Star catalog does not provide sizes and prices in the ad copy. We also note that companies in 1938 were offering more stylish school smocks. One company offered a diamond pattern for boys' and girls' in 1938 looking rather like plaid. Earlier school smocks for boys were mostly dark colors.
We see several styles of overcoats offered in the Star catalog (figure 1). There were single and double breasted styles and one with a fly over the buttons. These were formal cats designed to be worn over suits. They are pictured with headwear, including a beret, and th boys are all wearing short pants suits. For some reason overcoats for young women are inclyded on the page. No sizes or prices are indicated.
Most French school boys in the 1930s still wore smocks. Boys mostly wore dark back-buttoning smocks, although more stylish colors and patterns had begun to appear, as well as more varried styles. One company offered a diamond pattern for boys' and girls' in 1938 looking rather like plaid.
Gédéco patterened smocks: One company offered various styles of patterened school smocks. This company's image appeared in a 1938 French magazine. The article was captioned "Gédéco rend gaie la rentrée des classes." Which I think means, "Gédéco ( trade name) makes going back to school merry." Note that there are both back and front buttoning smocks as shown in the schimatic in the lower-right hand corner. I'm not sure what the attached article said, but the models suggests that the smocks were for primary-age boys and girls as wellmas teen-age girls.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing catalog/magazine pages:
[Return to the Main French mail order 1930s page]
[Main photo/publishing page]
[Store catalogs]
[Fashion magazines]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Bibliographies]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[French glossary]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Sailor suits]
[Sailor hats]
[Buster Brown suits]
[Eton suits]
[Rompers]
[Tunics]
[Smocks]
[Pinafores]
