Boys at this typical French elementary school wore smocks. Unfortunately only one image is available with three boys. HBC is not sure if this is a representative sample.
HBC is unsure if this is a state or primary school as the boys, unlike most French schools, wear uniforms.
Many of the younger boys in secondary schools, like the elementary school boys, wore smocks. Here we see all the boys wearing smocks. It seems as if it was almost a requirement.
Here we see the Ecole Seone-et-Loire which looks to be a small town primary school. The boys wear all kinds of different outfits. Only one boy wears a smock. We notice other schools in the 1900s in which nearly all the boys wear smocks. Most of the boys had short even cropped hair, but here also there was considerable vaariety.
We see the boys still wearing suits in the 1900s. A few boys have military-style caps, but they do not seenm as common as we noted in the 1890s. The boys are wearing sack suits with lapels, The lapels are still set quite high. Most boys have white shirts with collars and various kinds of necvkwrear. We see boys wearing knickers and more commonly kneepants. Given the way the photograph is set up, it is difficult to determine which kind of pants are more common. We suspect that most boys are wearing long pants.
Here we see what we believe to be a French secondary school in the 1900s. The building shows a rather impressive school, but they could be on a school trip. They would have been the juniot students at a secondary school. Perhaps someone with regonize the building. Most secondary schools at the time were single gender schools. The photograph is not identified or dated, but it looks to be the 1900s. We think it is French because all the names written on the back are clearly French names. It could be a Belgian school, but French is more likely. The boys wear cadet uniforms, but it probably was not a military school. as part of the desire to toughen the national character after the disaterous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Most boys French secondary school had military-styled cadet uniforms.
The 1910s
The boys in the 1910s wore both the suits that buttoned at the collar and the suits with "V" fronts and lapels. A few boys wore styles such as Eton collars, cut-away jackets, and sailor styles. Most boys wore neckties, but we see a few boys with floppy bows. It is difficult to tell the way the photographs are posed, but most boys appear to be wearing long pants. A few of the younger boys wear kneepants, but we do not note many boys wearing knickers.
The 1920s
These boys are celebrating in Alsace after graduating from elementary school and receiving their school certificate.
(Lycée) Saint Etienne
Lycée is a term variously used in France and the meaning as changed over time. We note a portrait of the 2eme classd at the Lycée Saint Etienne (St. Stephen) in 1920. The boys look to be about 10-11 years old. They are younger than the children at modern French lycées. Today French lycees are for the older secondary students, rather like an American senior high school. But this was apparently not the case in 1920. Lycees apparently had boys beginnuing at about age 10 years or so after they had completed just a few years of primary school as well as older teenagers. Saint Etienne is a city southwest of Lyon. At the time there may have been only one lycée in St. Etienne, today there are probably more.
Ecole Publique Trun presumably was the state school located in the village of Trun. We do not know where that was in France. We are guessing it was a village or small town school. Note that the full name was Ecole Publique Trun. We think that in the early 20th century it was more common to use the term publique to specify that it was a public or state school. Many French schools that or state schools became known more commonly as just Ecole dropping the publique. This scjool was a coed school which was common in village schools at the time because the village was not large enough to have two schools. The image here is a little unusual in that most of he children are girls, but we see two boys in sailor suits. We think there are a few mor boys in the class, but several of the children are a bit hard to identify.
This is the Lycee de St. Malo. We have images from 1920-66. We know vurtually nothing about the school. St. Malo may be the location. It is clearly a Catholic school, presumably a private school. We note in 1920 most of the boys wear uniforms. We are not sure if this meant that it was a military school or that the school just had a uniform with a military look. Hopefully our French raeders will be able to tell us something about this school.
Boys at the school still wear suits. Almost all boys wear the sack suit with lapels and neckties. We see more varied colors. Before World War I, most boys wore dark suits. We see more lihjter-colored suits in the 1920s. We also see a few boys wearing sailor suits which we did not note in the 1910s. This is a little surprising as the sailor suit seemed a popular style in the 1910s. We are unsure why we only begin seeing them at the school in the 1910s. We believe many of the younger boys are wearing short pants suits with kneesocks, but this is difficult to tell from the portraits.
The 1930s
We believe that the name of this school is the Ecole Champagnat, but we are not positive about the name. We know nothing about the school at this time, but it appears to be a state primary school. The one impage we have shows that it was a boys school. We do not know where the school was located. Champagnat may be the name of the village. We have one image from 1930. The boys wear a range of different outfits, including suits, sailor suits, and smocks. This looks to us like the entry level CP class.
The boys at this state elementary school wore a variety of clothes, including smocks, short pants, and long pants. There apparently were no school rules and it was up to the parents what the boys wore.
This private Catholic school had a uniform of black or dark blue double breasted jackets, short pants, and knee socks. Brass buttons and school pins give the jacket a military look.
The boys at this private Catholic college did not have a uniform, but the older boys wore suits and ties. Photographs are available for each form at the school as well as some activities.
Most boys still wore suits. Boys geneally wore ties with their suits, but it is a little hard to tell in several cassess. Quite a few bioys were not wearing ties. We see some boys wearing sweaters with and without suit jackets. We see both patterened and solid colored sweaters. We still see a few boys wearing sailor suits in quite
varied styles. Most of the younger boys appear to be wearing short pants suits. We see some boys wearing casual jackets rather than suit jackets. Most of these leisure jackets were solid colors, but we note one older boy with a rather wild jacket.
Here we sse the Ecole Talange in 1931. We have no details about the school at this time other than a 1931 image. It looks to be quite a substantial school. The image we have is a class of boys. Presumably this was the boys' school and there was another school for the girls. Small village schools were often coeducational, but towns which were big enough for two schools, commonly separated them by gender. As far as we can tell this is a town primary school. We assume Talange is the name of the town. The boys here wear sgort pants suits or sweaters.
We noticed a school named Béthisy St. Pierre. We know little about the school. We do not know where it is located. We are not sure what Béthisy means, The school appeaes to be a boy's primary
school. A class portrait in 1933 shows all the boys wearing smocks. There does not appear to gave been a required style. Most were dark smocks, but there are
also a few light-colored smocks as well. When all the boys in a class are wearing smocks, it suggests they were required by the school. We do not know when the photograph was taken, but the boys seem bundled up so it looks chilly. Even so they all wear short pants.
Here we see a French primary school at Chigny in 1933. I may be reading the legend incorrectly. We assume that Chigny is a village, but we are not sure where it is located. Presumably this is the village school. I'm not sure what the name of the schoole was. In fact I am not sure if French village schools had names or were just given the name of the village where they were located. There were both boys and girls at the school, but it appears they were not taught together in the same classes. I'm not sure how common this was in France at the time. The boys seem to be wearing smocks, although the image is not real clear.
As best we can figure out this was the company school at the Château Mouton. Wine aficianados will recognize the name. This was a wine estate near the village of Pauillac in the Médoc region, 50 km north-west of Bordeaux. It was originally known as Château Brane-Mouton speeciliing in red wine. Nathaniel de Rothschild tenamded it Château Mouton Rothschild (1853). They began bottling the harvest at the estate itself, rather than shipping the wine to merchants for bottling at other locations. The branch of the Rothschild family owning Mouton Rothschild are members of the Primum Familiae Vini. This looks to be a small school on the estate for the children of the workers (1935). Most of the children look very young, many sem to be kindergarterners. There are some older children, but not very many. The boys are wearing a mix of rompers, smocks, and short pants. We are not sure what happened to the estate during the German occupation (1940-44).
Here we see a class at the Ecole St Vincent Ardent in 1937. We know very little about the school. Ardent seems to part of St. Vincent's name rather than the name of the village. Presumably there was more than one St. Vincent. Ecole here means a primary school. Presumably given the saint's name this was a Catholic school. It appears to be an all boy's school. At least the classes were separated. The boys all wear similar, but not identical dark smocks. At many schools smocks were optional. Here the school appears to have required the boys to wear smocks.
Figure 2.--Boys at this French primary school wore a wide range of clothes, including smocks, sailor suits, and suits. One boy wore a beret. They were common before World War II, but rapidly declined in popularity after the War.
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The 1940s include 4 years of German occupation (1940-44) and the dofficult economic conditions following the war. The French Republic had secularized French schools in the 1870s. The NAZIs did not interfere with French schools except to fire Jewish teachers and search for Jewish children. The Vichy regime also implemented anti-Semetic policies did institute dreforms to strengthen the role of the Church in education. France was not heavily damaged during the German invasion (May-June 1940). There was much more damage as a result of Allied bombing (1942-44) and the liberation (June-August 1944). School portraits show that clothing varied widely. There were no uniforms except at a few private schools. Smocks were widely worn at some schools and not worn at others. Most boys wore short pants. A few oldr bous wore knickers. We see some boys wearing berets during the Wr,but for some reason berets rpidly went out of style after the War. Children clothes were hard to obtain during the ccupation and the period after the War when the economy was recovering.
The 1950s
The Ecole Jeanne d'Arc was a French school located in Oran, Algeria. We know little about the school. We note an image of the Maternelle or nursery school from 1950. The school was presumably a primary school with a nuresery as one of the classes. The boys wear a varietyy of outfits. Many of the younger boys wear rompers, but we do not see any of the boys here wearing smocks.
We are not sure about the name of this school. The Ecole Normale in the title means that it was a primary school attached to a teacher training college or university. We are not sure what is meant by the d'Institeuteurs. The actual name was Saint Eugene. We know very little about the school, except that it was located in Oran, Algeria. The school was an all boys primary school. We have two school portraits from the 1950s. There was no required uniform, but we notice some of the boys wearing smocks. This was not a school requirement, but rather school wear selected by the mothers concerned. We notice both patterened gingham socks and dark and white solid colored smocks. The photograph gices a good idea of the different kinds if smocks worn by French boys in the 1950s.
Boys at theschool are wearing mostly casual clothes. Here in 1958 we see the 5A9 class at the Lycee Lamoriciere in 1958. The boys all wear casual clothes. It looks to be chilly and the boys are mostly wearing heavy sweaters. None of the boys are wearing ties, but most have buttoned their collars. One boy looks to be wearing a blazer. The boys seem to almost be wearing long pants, although one boy seems to be wearing shorts. I'm not sure if seasonality is a factor here.
Here we see a class at an unidentified French school. All we know for sure is that the photograph was tken in 1953. in 1953. The children look to be about 8-9 yers old. The school building does not look very French to us. We wonder if a number of very basic new schools wre not build after World War II because of either war damage or the post-War baby boom. Or a school in Algeria is another possibility, although the absence of any Algerian children suyggests to us that the school is in France. The pohotograph given the way the children are dressed was taken during the winter, posibly in northern France. A few of the children, both boys and girls, wear smocks. The boys wear a variety of outfits. We see boys wearing short pants, knickers, and long pants. Presumably more of the boys ould have worn sdhort psnts in warmer weather.
The 1960s
We are not entirely sure what to make of the caption for this French primary school. It was labelef Polygone Classe de Lili. We thought at first it was a scgool in Lille, a city in northern France, but then decided that it probably meant that it meant that this was the school Lili, a girl, attended. Polygone is French for Polygon. We are not sure what that has to do with the school, perhaps it was the name of the school. The image was also marked 'memorie de Brest'. Apparentltly Lili's school was located in Brest--a French Atlantic-coast sea port. The class portrait was taken in 1961. A few children werar smocks. It was apparently taken on a cool day as we see sweaters and coats as well as heavy shoes. Intetrestingly, one girl wears long pants, thst was not yet very common. We assume it was because the weather was chilly. The school has a modern look to it. Brest was heavily damaged during World war II. It was a major port for German U-boats. The U-boats were protected by a bomb-proof reinforced cement open, but the rail lines leading to the port was attacked by the RAF to interdict supplies. As a result, large areas of the city were leveled. Perhaps this was one of the new schools built after the War.
We have little information about the French Lycée Regnault school in Tangiers at this time. It appears to be a single gender school or at least the classes were separated. We do not know if the school is still operating. A few school portraits are available from the 1960s. As in France, the school did not have a school uniform and the dress code, if any, was very relaxed. at this time. It appears to be a single gender school or at least the classes were separated. We do not know if the school is still operating. A few school portraits are available from the 1960s. As in France, the school did not have a school uniform and the dress code, if any, was very relaxed.
A French HBC reader has provided us a portrait of his Paris school class in 1962. The childrn are 12-13 years old, just beginning scondaruy school from their primary school. There is no school uniform. The classes are coeducational. The children simply wear their ordinary clothes. The boys wear a wide varity of shirts, both long and short sleeved. Most are colored, but not patterened. There are regular shirts as well as Some of the boys wear short pants, none of them with kneesocks. One boys wears high-top sneakers and one girl does also. Another boy wears sandals. All the girls war dresses.
The school is much smaller by the 1960s. We suspect this reflects decling inbterest in agriculture among young people. School clothes are now much more casual thasn in earlier years. The school is still all boys. Several boys still wear suit jackets, bit most boys just wear casual shirts. Ties are no longer commonly worn.
The 1970s
The 1980s
HBC has only limited information on the school. We note students at the Ecole Saint-Joseph d'Allex wearing a uniform of blue shirts, string ties, blue, shorts, and white kneesocks. Boys were wearing this uniform for a trip to London in 1984. This may, however, had been an earlier style and in 1984 just used by the choir.
The 1990s
Riaumont is a Catholic school in the northern France has a traditional school uniform. The boys wear a uniform inspired by the Spahis which were a unit of the french
colonial army. The school has a Scout unit which also believes in a traditionally styled uniform.
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Created: October 30, 1998
Last updated: 4:24 PM 1/15/2023
