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 this image to about 1930. Note that despite the different clothing that the boy and girlwearifentical white kneesocks and strap shoes. |
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 these shoes with and without straps. The styles with straps appear to have been more common. Note that this card has what looks like a Dutch greeting saying Happy New Year. (The German wish for a Happy New Year would be: "Ein fröhliches Neues Jahr".) That does not mean that this was a Dutch post card. The French had a large postcard industry and printed their cards in foreign languages for export markets. The image here also shows how the suspenders were afixed to the boy's short pants. Even though the suspenders were worn over the sweater, apparently there were slots in the sweater near the wauistline through which the suspenders could be attached to the shorts.
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