Ecole Libre Saint-François Régis: Seconde

Figure 1.--Seconde was the second most senior form. Even in seconde, however, many of the boys wear short pants suits. One boy appears to be a younger boys that must have skipped a form.

This photograph shows Seconde, the second most senior form at the Ecole libre Saint-François Régis about 1935. All of the boys wear suits, many are short pants suits. One boy wears a knicker suit.

The Form

The Seconde form Saint-François Régis was the second most senior form. This was the last form in which the boys would take regular classes. In the last form they will study for graduating examinations. The boys in the form would be mostly about 16 years old.

Clothing

The boys in Septième Seconde are all wearing suits, mostly without ties. Many boys are wearing short pants suits and one boy a knicker suit. It is unclear what the boys in the back rows are wearing. Most probably wear longpants suits, but not necesarily all of them.

Figure 2.--Two of the boys in Secunde wear knicker suits.

Suits

All of the boys are wearing suits. A few are wearing sports jackets, but most wear suits. I'm not positive that all of the boys would have worn their suits on a normal day or if they dressed up for the photograph. The suits and jackets tend to have large lapels, several are double breasted. There is also a wide mixture of colors.

Pants

Boys are wearing short pants, knickers, and long pants with their suits. Only one boy can be seen with knickers, most boys wear either long or short pants. Boys suits in the 1930s might come with two pairs of pants. Sometimes they were mixed, such as a pair of knickers and a pair of longs or a pair of shorts and knickers. I'm not sure if there were suits with a pair of short and long pants. Thus some of the boys might not have worn the same kind of pants year round. Some may have worn shorts in the summer and knickers or longs in the winter. Some boys may have long their long pants for the photograph. The picture shows that in the 1930s, boys even 16 years of age might still wear short pants suits.

The form photograph is somewhat misleading. For some reason the photographer appears to have placed the boys in short pants in front. I'm not sure why this was. Perhaps they were the smaller boys. Whatever the reason, it gives an incorrect impression. It looks like most of the boys wear shorts whereas in fact only about one-fourth of the boys wear shorts.

Ties

Ties were not commonly worn by the boys in the younger forms. Even in Seconde, relatively few boys wear ties. Most wear open-necked shirts. I see five boys wearing ties, but it is difficult to tell precisely how many.

Figure 3.--All the boys wearing short pants suits wear kneesocks with them.

Sweaters

Sweaters were commonly worn by the junior boys, butb only two of the boys in Secinde appear to be wearing sweaters.

Kneesocks

All of the boys in short pants are wearing kneesocks. Mostly they are plain light colored kneesocks, but a few have patterned kneesocks. Kneesocks were still very common in France. By the 1940s they were becoming more seasonal, worn during the cooler months. It seems in the 1930s, however, that they were commonly worn year round.

Shoes

All of the boys appear to be wearing Oxford-type lace up shoes. None of the boys are wearing sandals which were commonly worn by younger French boys.

Created: November 25, 1999
Last updated: November 25, 1999