Figure 1.--These children on a 1936 postcard wear seemingly idealized outfit. The boy wears a button-on short pants sailor suit with rather traditui

Sailor suits were especially popular in France. They were also popular garments in French post cards. Usually thry were short pants sailor suits, both blue and white. Often younger boys were depicted in button-on suits. Sailor suits were popular when postcards first began to appear and were still in the 1930s, although perhaps not quite so commonly. The early shots of boys in sailor ha often included the boys with wide brimmed sailor hats. Generally longer style kneepants were worn sailor suits in the early 1920s, but by the 1930s short cut, short pants were very common on the cards. By the 1920s boys increasinly were shown wearing white kneesocks with sailor suits.

The French reader who provided this image writes, "French children during 1936 in sunday clothes. French children's fashions change in the 1930s. Girls adopted the shorter dress styles like Shirley Tempele. Boys stopped wearing the longer cut knee pants for shorter cut short pants. French mothers found the short cut shorts looked very smart on boy. Most boys until they were 10 years old would often wear short cut shorts." HBC notes that much older boys wore short pants in France, but not such short shorts as the younger boys.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Sailor suits]
[Sailor hats] [Buster Brown suits]
[Eton suits] [Rompers] [Tunics] [Smocks] [Pinafores]

Created: September 29, 2001
Last updated: September 29, 2001