Figure 1.--This is the front of a girl's back-buttoning smock about 1950. Note the long waistband which was tied un the bavk in a bow.
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Figure 1.--This is the front of a girl's back-buttoning smock about 1950. Note the long waistband which was tied un the bavk in a bow. |
The front of a girls' smock commonly had mpre detailing than a boys' smock. From a distance it woyld be hard to tell the differnce between boys' and girls' smocks because the colors were so similar--except for pink. Actually the child's headwear might be the only way to destinguish French children in smocks at a distance. Boys might wear berets but the girls never did. Many of the most obvious differences such as back tieing bows were in the back of the smock. Thus the differences from the front were not as obvious. One of the most obvious front differences were the pleats on boys' smocks which were destinguishable if freshly ironed. The gathering or "plissé" on girl's smocks often showed at the front, but this was only possible upon a close imspection of the garment. The smocks that had collars were also destinguished by the collar. Girls generally had rounded collars and boys pointed collars.
HBC at this time is unsure just what girls' smocks were like when they were first instituted for regulastion schoolwear in 1871. We know that the smocks were quite long. We believe that the same styles were worn until well after World War I (1914-18), but our information is still too limited to make any assessment at this time.
The front of a girls' smock commonly had mpre detailing than a boys' smock. From a distance it woyld be hard to tell the differnce between boys' and girls' smocks because the colors were so similar--except for pink. Actually the child's headwear might be the only way to destinguish French children in smocks at a distance. Many of the most obvious differences such as back tieing bows were in the back of the smock. Thus the differences from the front were not as obvious. The gathering or "plissé" on girl's smocks often showed at the front, but this was only possible upon a close imspection of the garment. The smocks that had collars were also destinguished by the collar. Girls generally had rounded collars.
Figure 2.--A boys' smock, if it had a collar, would normally have a pointed collar. Also the waistband was normally quite short as it buttoned rather than tied in the back. |
HBC at this time is unsure just what girls' smocks were like when they were first instituted for regulation schoolwear in 1871. We know that the smocks were quite long. We believe that the same styles were worn until well after World War I (1914-18), but our information is still too limited to make any assessment at this time.
The front of a boys' smock commonly had less detailing than a girls' smock. From a distance it woyld be hard to tell the differnce between boys' and girls' smocks because the colors were so similar--except for pink. Actually the child's headwear might be the only way to destinguish French children in smocks at a distance. Boys might wear berets but the girls never did. Many of the most obvious differences such as back tieing bows were in the back of the smock. The boys' smocks had shorter waistbands that had a button. Thus they did not have back tieing bows. Thus the differences from the front were not as obvious. One of the most obvious front differences were the pleats on boys' smocks which were destinguishable if freshly ironed. We believe that mothers, however, would not commonly iron these smocks every day. Thus the plats generally were probably most pronouncd on Monday and Tuesday and perhaps barely destinguishable by Friday. The smocks that had collars were also destinguished by the collar. Boys generally had pointed collars. Baby boys' smocks did not have collars, but the ones that did were normally pointed rathrer than the rounded collars on girls' smocks.
