Figure 1.--The question we have is to what extent the children in these post card images reflect the clothing actually worn by French children at the time.We would date thisimage to about 1930. Note that despite the different clothing that the boy and girlwearifentical white kneesocks and strap shoes. |
Many of the images that we have of French boys wearing strap shoes are post card images. These are images staged for sale. Apparently French mothers in the early 20th cenbtury liked to buy post carsds of children in formal dressy clothes. Many of these dressy outfits include strap shoes. I believe these cards were usedrather like writing paper today. Some were sold in tourist sites, but others were used just to snd occasional, often family greetings. The question we have is to what extent the children in these post card images reflect the clothing actually worn by French children at the time. We know from the number of post cards that French mothers liked cards with the dressy outfits including strap shoes. Not quite as clear is the extent to which mothers actually dressed their children in these outfits. Note the suspenders that the boy is wearing over his sweater.
A HBC reader writes, "I just wanted to comment on this page, that I thought the girls shoes in this image don't have straps, looking between the table legs and spreader bars, it seemed to me that there are no straps around her ankles." HBC was unsure about this. We have vnoted in other images boys and girls wearing patent-leather shoes both with and without the straps. The basic shoes here look virtually identical, but the girl's shoe may not have the straps. This card was, however, part of a series and in other cards from the series, the girl can be seen clearly wearing strap shoes. As our reader suggests, however, children both boys and girls wore hese shoes with and without straps. The styles with straps appear to have been more common. The second image also shows how the suspender wee afixed to the boy's short pants.
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