Figure 1.--

We know next to nothing about rompers in France during the 19th century. We have found no examples of romper suits in the 19th century. We thought we found an example of romper pants, but we the fortrait found that the portrait was actually Belgian. That said, Belgian fashions were havily influenced by French fashion trends. We do not even know if the French term for ropmers, barboteuse, was used in the 19th century. Our 19th century French archive is very limited so it is not a good indicator of prevalence. We do see some romper outfits in other counties, including the United States, but they were not very common. And our American archive is large enough that it is a good indicator of prevalence. The American examples we have found in the 19th century were always worn with long stockings. French boys we have found wearing romper pants or other shortened-length pants were more likely to wear short socks.