Figure 1.--This little boy who lokks to be about 6 years old wears a bib-front romper suit. This was a style that we mostly saw in France. The image, however, came from a British dealer so we we are unsure about the country. The children are in a swing chair, probably in their back yard. The snapshot looks to be taken in the early-50s.

Rompers were mostly for pre-school children. We have noted them in nursery school classes and even occassinaly in the first year of primary school, but for the most part they were for boys before they began school. They were very common in pre-schools, but not once the boys began primary school at age 6 years. We also note a few younger school-age boys wearing dressy romper outfits. These were not school outfts, but rather dressy outfits for a variety of formal occasions, often home occassions like parties and holidays like Easter and Christmas. Age trends are a little complivated becuse they varied so much from country to country and over time. This also varied by gender. In most countries there were rompers were for pre-school children. We see some younger school-age boys wearing rompers in France where they were particularly popular. We also see some older boys wearing romper pants, but not romper suits in Scandanavia. This seems primarily for gym and physical eduction. These older children wearing rompers seem primarily clustered in the 1940s and early-50s for some reason. With these limited exceptions, most of the older children wearing rompers were girls. This too varied by country. In France, rompers were a boys' garment and we do not see either younger or older girls wearing romper suits. We see many older American girls wering romper suits as part of gym or summer cmp uniforms. we also see this in Germany and other Europen countries. We see girls wearing romper suits as a kind of girl's casual wear beginning in the 1950s, this was primrily pre-teen styles, but we se some younger teens wearing them as well.