Figure 1.--The boys in the junior forms at Saint-François mostly wear short pants suits without neckties. All the boys in shorts wear kneesocks.
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Figure 1.--The boys in the junior forms at Saint-François mostly wear short pants suits without neckties. All the boys in shorts wear kneesocks. |
Images from Saint-François from the mid-1930s provide a glimpse of school wear atba French catholic in the 1930s. Notable is the absence of smocks, even by the younger children. The boys in fact wear quite varied clothes, including short pants and less commonly knickers as well as short pants. The Ecole libre Saint-François Régis is located in Montpellier, France. Montpellier is located 7 km from the Mediterranean Sea, roughly between Marseilles and Spain. The photos here are are from the scholastic year of 1934-1935, i.e. stretching between beginning of October 1934 to end of June 1935. The Ecole libre Saint-François Régis was a catholic school for boys only. Most French boarding schools are catholic schools. It looks to be a boarding school. The school still exists and is functioning. The students attending the school would be mostly from affluent middle-class families. Most would probably come from conservative, church rerlted families. The school in the 1930s did not require uniforms, thus photographs available from the school show what French boys were wearing not only to school, but their regular clothes. Granted the boys might have dressed up for the photograph, but the photographs are a good reflection of what boys at the time were wearing. The Saint-François page is interesting because it provides a complete record of what all the boys at the school were wearing.
The Ecole libre Saint-François Régis is located in Montpellier, France. Montpellier is located 7 km from the Mediterranean Sea, roughly between Marseilles and Spain. Montpellier at this time was a city of about 100,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of a rural country
whose staple product was wine.
The school in the 1930s did not require uniforms, thus photographs available from the school show what French boys were wearing not only to school, but their regular clothes. Granted the boys might have dressed up for the photograph, but the photographs are a good reflection of what boys at the time were wearing. The Saint-François page is interesting because it provides a complete record of what all the boys at the school were wearing. Often only a photograph of a few boys are a class is avialble. In this case we see what the boys at each age were wearing. This would not be as significant in England where the boys wear uniforms. But the Saint-François where there own individual clothes. Thus the photographs offer a complete snapshot of what French boys were commomly wearing at each age level during the 1930s. Thus this page shed some light on how popular sailor suits and at what age the were worn at, how popular sandals were, at what age boys begam to wear long pants, and many other questions. Of course, one school is hardly a valid sample, but it is an interesting indicator.
The photos here are are from the scholastic year of 1934-1935, i.e. stretching between beginning of October 1934 to end of June 1935.
The Ecole libre Saint-François Régis was a catholic school for boys only. Most French boarding schools are catholic schools. It looks to be a boarding school. The school still exists and is functioning.
The students attending the school would be mostly from affluent middle-class families. Most would probably come from conservative, church rerlted families. The boys here range from the 8th and 9th form to the Rhetoric and Elementary Mathematics and Philosophy classes preparing for the Baccalauréat which is the diploma ending the Lycée studies in France. So the classes range from the primary school to the end of lycée. This would mean boys from about 8 to 17 years of age. A few boys were even older if they were not very clever students and had to repeat 1 or even 2 years. There were no social promotions in the 1930s. Photographs are also available for events like renewing the boys' First Communion vows for which the boys wear sailor suits. Another picture shows a Scout group at school.
The staff totaled 25 professors (teachers), including 1 lay woman, 12 lay men and 12 priests. Nowadays in France school staffs are very different. Women have come to dominate education in modern France. Maybe at this time women were not so much represented in the
professorial profession but one can think women had not their place in a catholic school for boys at this time
The pupils at the Ecole libre Saint-François Régis do not wear uniforms. They wear their own clothes. Most boys wear suits, many with ties. Many dress more cassually without ties, but most have suit jackets. A French contrbutor notes that he has not found uniformed pupils in all the photos he has from this era.
Septième or seventh is the entry level or first of the junior forms. All of the boys appear to be wearing short pants, except for a boy wearing a sailor suit. The boys look to be about 9 or 10 years old.
Quatrième is one of the junior forms, but not the youngest boys. It was such a large group that it had to be split into two classes. The boys would be about 14 tears old. All of the boys appear to be wearing short pants, although it was not required by the school.
Troisème or the third form is a senior form. While most of the fourth form boys still wear short pants, many but not all of the third forms boys wear long pants. The boys would be about 15 years old.
Figure 2.--Even in seconde (the second form) several boys are still wearing short pants suits. Many are presumably the younger boys who had been promoted, but some may be some boys who look young for their age. Even some of the older-looking boys, however, are also wearing short pants suits. |
Seconde or the second form is a senior form. It is the last form where the boys take regular classes. The second form appears to be composed of a wide age range. Most of the boys were about 16 years old, but several younger boys were in the form. The older boys probably are wearing long pants, although it is difficult to be sure. The smaller boys wear short pants suits.
I believe this was boys in the senior form at the school studying for the Rétorique exam. Except for a few younger boys, presumably especially bright lads, the boys look to be about 17 or 18 years of age. In the Rhetoric class one boy seems to be much younger than the others are. He is wearing shorts, although they are not visible because he is on the steps at the rear. He is visible again in the "Les Congreganistes photo".
An important part of the Saint-François program was of course religious instruction. This would include First Communion and the later renewal of their vows. This was a major event at a Catholic schoolmand the boys would dress up in special costumes.
The Saint-François boys took First Communion at about 10 or 11 years of age, an older age than is the common practice in America. Presumably they wore white sailor suits. Presently French boys do not wear sailor suits for First Communion Boys and girls wear a white alb above their Sunday clothes. Spanish boys, however, still do commonly wear sailor suits for First Communion.
Boys subsequently renewed their vows. These boys were called "Les renouvelants". These boys generally renewed their vows of first communion the next
year. The boys at Saint-François wore white
sailor suits.
I'm not positive what this group was, but French contributors report it is a kind of school honor society whose members engage in literaey, philosophical, and religious discussions. The photograph was marked "Les Congréganistes". The boy are from a cross section of age groups, except the very youngest boys are not represented. The members were probably selected based on their academic performance and religious devotion. It looks like some have won a kind of award.
Saint-François had its on scout troop. A photograph shows the boys in their uniforms. There was no single French Scout association. The boys at Saint-François presumably belonged to the separate Scout de
France. It was the French catholic Scout association, but outnumbered the other associations. Most French boys were Catloic and the French church actively promoted the Scouting movement. The school also had a cub troop. Unlike the scouts, the cubs wore berets.
An analysis of the available photographs show the boys in the 1930s wearing the following garments. The analysis is based upon a study of the photographs. No actual information is available from the school. It is not known, for example, if the school required short pants for the junior boys, but HBC believes that probably not. The prevelence of shorts simply is a reflection of French boys' fashions in the 1930s.
The boys at Saint-François did not wear smocks, even the younger boys. Smocks were still common during the 1930s at French elementary schools. At Saint-François thre is, however, only one boy wearing a smock!!! Presumably this was his mother's idea. One wonders what he are the other boys thought of it. A French contributor notes that it is generally very difficult to find pupils taken in photo in smock. This can be explained because smocks were considered a practical way of protecting clothes under them and have not the
aura of a uniform. They can thus be be removed before a photo is taken. This may well have occurred befor a formal photograph like a school photo was taken. So more of the younger boys may have actually worn smocks to school. He does not, however, think this is the case here. At any rate, smocks would have only been worn by the younger boys. A French source reports that it would have being more embarassing for an older boy to
wear a smock than short pants.
A few of the younger boys wear blue sailor suits. Only 3 boys (2 at least with shorts) in the 9th and 8th form and 2 (one at least in long pants) in 7th. This shows that at this time the sailor suits were still not out of fashion. Of course all of the boys wore white sailor suits for renewing their First Communion vows. They would not, however, have worn these suits to school. They were only for the ceremony.
Figure 3.--The boys at Saint-François even wear their suits when going on excursions. Notice the one boy wears sandals, both wear kneesocks. Click on the image for a closeup of the boys. |
Most of the older boys wear suits or sport jackets. (A sports jacket is an American term for a suit jacket worn without matching trousers. The term probably derives from the British blazer worn orifinally at games.) A few boys wear other less fornmal jackets. Some wear just sweaters. Most of the younger boys mostly wear sweaters rather than suits and jackets. Suits except for the oldest boys are not common. Many of the boys wear sports coats (a suit jacket). A French contributor to HBC reports, "I think parents usually did not buy suits because they were much to expensive and not practical for a young boy who has to play inside/outside school. It was much cheaper and easier to buy separate shorts/pants and jackets/jumpers that you could find at any quality and price."
The boys at Saint-François wear longs, shorts and knickers. Shorts are worn with knee socks (0 ankle
socks), a least for the boys in the front row. It is not possible to see what kind of pants most of the boys in the back rows are wearing. It is likely that most if not all of the younger boys are wearing shorts. In the older forms, most of the boys in shorts may have been placed in the front because they were generally younger and smaller than the other ones who would be more likely to wear long pants. The shorts worn are sometimes part of suits, but they do not always match. The short pants worn at Saint-François generally seem to be fairly long knee-length shorts. There does not appear to be a huge difference between the shorts worn by the different age boys. A French HBC contributor reports, "I think that in 1935 shorts were longer
than in the 1950s (my era). I remember that us boys in the 1950s considered that the shorts worn by boys in old photographs always seemed too long. We thought the long shorts looked old fashioned." Shorts are worn until the second form (age 15), knickers are not worn until the 3rd form (age 14): 3 for the 3rd form, 2 for the 2nd, 1 for Rhetoric and 1 Phil/Math. One can say knickers replace shorts until the age to wear longs as grown-ups. Anyway knickers do not seem to be much in use at this time in this part of France. One has to remember that puberty was beginning in this time much later (I would say 15 or 16) than it is now (12). There was less pressure for boys to look and act grown up. So it was natural to wear shorts longer than it would have been in the 1960s or 70s. The school does not appear to have any dress code, other than suits were required. While specific details are not available, a French HBC contributor reports that, "... as far as I know no French school where pupils could wear plain clothes has ever insisted that they wear short pants. The prevalence of shorts is simply a reflection of French boys' fashion during the 1930s." Note that some of the boys here in the mid-1930s wear both long (knee-length) shorts and others wear short-cut shorts. The mid-1930s were a transitionasl period from the long-leg shorts of the 1920s to the shorter-cut shorts of the 1950s. As a result you can see boys in the 30s wearing pants cut in a a wide variety of lengths.
The boys at Saint-François all wear kneesocks. Reports from the 1950s suggest that kneesocks were being worn seasonally. These 1930s photographs appear to be taken in relatively warm weather as the boys mostly have open collars. Even so they all wear kneesocks. Perhaps kneesocks were considered more formal and thus worn for the school photograph. Or perhaps this just reflects that French boys in the 1930s commonly wore kneesocks. A French HBC contributor reports, "I think kneesocks reflect the fashion of the 1930s. In the 1950s I do not remember having worn knee socks. If weather was cold
we were put into long pants."
Most boys in the photographs appear to be wearing lace up Oxford-style shoes. A few of the junior boys in several, photographs, however, war sandals. Even one of the Scouts in the photograph of the school Scout troop wears sandals. A French HBC contributor reports that "
In France it was only a leisure shoe worn
in warm weather by everybody. In this era,
for leisure, we had only the choice between
sandals and tennis shoes. Excuse me but in
warm weathers the tennis shoes, how could I
say, smelt a lot. On the opposite sandals,
with feet in the open were very hygienic."
Black armbands are worn by 7 boys. This signified morning and was in respect for a family member who had died. This custom has completely disappeared in France nowadays.
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