Figure 1.--This hand-tinted French post card appears to show a French girl wearing a choupette. This child holds a teddy bear. A French reade tells us that the child is a boy and that he is wearing a romper suit.

This hand-tinted French post card appears to show a French girl wearing a choupette. 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 was 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 have seen many images of boys waring the choupette hair style. Evaluating the image is complicated because it is cut of in the photograph. 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.

Background

A French reader provides us some insights on this image. "I understand very well the questions of foreign readers. I know well the Noyer (teddy bear) photos. I realize that it is difficult for forigners to determine the gender of the gildren in images like this. We French people of this period never have trouble understanding the gender of the children in these images. There were clear, well understood rules in France for children. 1) The choupette was an exclusively boys hair style. Girls did not have choupettes. 2) Rompers were worn only by the boy. Girls did not wear rompers. 3) Boys like the child here wore blouses (figure 1). 4) Boys had teddy bears while girls had dolls. 4) Sky blue was a color used mostly for boys. 5) While choupttes were for boys, bangs were a style worn by both boys and girls. After the 1950s, some fashion magazines proposed that little girls wear rompers like boys and hav their hair done in choupettes. It seems very few mothers accepted these suggestions. I have to say I had never seen a little girl with a romper during the late 1940s when I wore them or even later in the 1950s."

Image

This hand-tinted French post card appears at first glanc to show a French girl wearing a choupette. 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 have seen many images of boys waring the choupette hair style. Evaluating the image is complicated because it is cut of in the photograph. 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. Our French reader tells us about the image here. "The chouptte varied. This hair style could be in various lengths and the top curl varied in several different ways. Some images had got some little change, such the hairs shorter or with curl. The color of the garment is also significant, blue was much more common for boys. The boy here is wearing a romer suit. I am sure this is a boy here."

Reader Comments

An American reader comments, "I agree with your French reader. I also think that the child is a boy based mainly on previous HBC pages indicating that only boys wearing the choupette hair style. I have, however, nokted some of these French post cards hat show girls with Teddy bears."

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main French hair page]
[Return to the Main French page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [French Glossary] [Satellite sites] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]

Created: February 16, 2003
Last edited: February 16, 2003