Figure 1.--This hand-tinted French post card was postally unused, but probably dates to the late 1940s. It shows a boy about 4 years old with a choupette hair style. He is holding a "nounour"--teddy bear.

The choupette appaers to have been a hair style for young childre, primarily pre school children. As far as we can tell, the styles worn by boys and girls were essentially identical. Perhaps the girls' choupettes tended to be somewhat longer than the bous' cuts, but it is virtually impossible te identity the gender of the children based on the choupette cut alone. Some HBC readers have written to say that surely the child in figure 1 must be a little girl. Two features of the image, however, clearly identify the child as a boy. The child in figure 2, however, seems to be a girl.

Gender Style

The choupette appaers to have been a hair style for young childre, primarily pre school children. As far as we can tell, the styles worn by boys and girls were essentially identical. Perhaps the girls' choupettes tended to be somewhat longer than the boys' cuts, but it is virtually impossible te identity the gender of the children based on the choupette cut alone. The only indicators that we can use to identify the cjildren is the clothing that they are wearing. This is complicated by the fact that the images are often only partial shots of the upper body. And here many Frenbch styles in the 1940s and 50s were identical for boys and girls. Only the bottoms were different. The girls wore skirted dresses and the boys wore romoper or short oants bottoms. The blouses worn by boys had collar and ballon sleeve that were simukar to the bodices of the dresses worn by girls.

Figure 1

Some HBC readers have written to say that surely the child in figure 1 must be a little girl. Two features of the image, however, clearly identify the child as a boy. First, girls in the did not wear dressy romper outfits like this boy wears. A little girl would have worn a dress. Also notice the emroidered car--a boys' motif. Second, the choupette hair style leaves no doubt that the child is a boy because the choupette were only for boys. He in fact has a typical look for a well-dressed the boy of the 1950s. A French reader reports, "I have had the same look at that age." French mothers whould have done their daughter's hair in "anglaises" (meaning Englishes) or big ringlet curls. HBC notes that sellers on E-Bay almost always identify children with the choupette hair style as girls. French readers, however, inform HBC that this was a boys' hair style. The card show here for example was described on E-Bay as, "Pretty deckle edge French card, child and bear. Wonderful old teddy bear and child real photo post card from a major teddy bear card collection, privately owned. This card is in excellent condition. Pretty French card with very pretty little girl, hand tinted photo, lovely bear, excellent sharp photo which allows you to really see the bear. Notice his feet are dirty. A lot of the bears in this group seem to have dirty feet. Very active animals, I imagine. Lovely child. Pretty card with gold on the decke edging. Notice the roll curl on the child's head. Very pretty little girl." A French reader, however, insists that the child is a boy and that only boys wore the choupette hair style. As a boy he reports wearing a choupette and tells us, "Yes, absolutely. This child is a boy. It is a typical French boys' style before the 1950s. Boys with choupettes would offten wear a blouse with puffed sleeves, although it is not the case in this photo. The choupette were only for boys of less than 5 years old. Perhaps his hair was not naturally curly and he was obliged to have some bigoudis and barrettes during the night! Poor boy, we had to suffer a bit to be beautifull! In reality we absolutly dind't suffer. We found that normal and did not consider it to be anything special."

This photograph seems to have been taken just after World War II. The shirt with this style motif was only for boy and was considered as a casual shirt. In 1930-1960 period, the teddy bear ("nounours") was the pricipal toy for boys. Teddy bears appeared about 1900 in America and England. The term "nounours" is more recent, appearing about 1930. Girls had dolls (poupée). At the time the popular dolls for girls were called "Baigneur". They were much in demand from about 1920 until about 1960. They were made in celuloide or plastic. They were infant baby dolls and very loved by little girls. "Baigneur" is not now used in France. The infant baby doll are becoming popular again and repalcing the more stylish Barbies that were popular from the 1960s-90s.

Figure 2.--This hand-tinted French post card appears to show a French girl wearing a choupette very similar to the one the boy in figure 1 is wearing. This child also holds a teddy bear. A French reade tells us that the child is a boy.

Figure 2

This hand-tinted French post card appears to show a French girl wearing a choupette very similar to the one the boy in figure 1 is wearing. Determining the gender here is not easy, but the child does appears to be wearing a dress rather than a blouse, but it may also be a boy in a fancy romper suit. Our guess though is that the child was a girl. Here are French readers may be able to advise us. One French reader tells us that the child is definitely a boy. We see almost no difference between the hair styles in the two images, if any thing the cut worn by the boy in figure 1 is slightly longer. This child also holds a teddy bear. The child here also holds a teddy bear. Both boys and girls had teddies, but they were more common with boys.

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Created: March 13, 2002
Last edited: February 16, 2003