Figure 1.--HBC believes, however, that it is German. Both the children and the cart, for example, look rather German. The boy on the right, presumably his brother, wears a longer pinafore smock. The little girl, however, seems to wear a more traditional smock. We believe that the photograph was taken in the early 1920s, after World War I. It is an interesting picture in that this is probably how these children looked every day in summer. Image courtesy of the MD collection.

As far as we can tell the pinafore and pinafore smock for boys in Germany was essentially a practical garment for home wear, to help mutter keep the children's clothes clean. The few available images we have show these garments being worn at home. Before World War I, school age boys might swear them, but after World War I they were exclusively worn by pre-school boys. We are not yet sure of the gender conventions here. We believe that these pinafore smocks may have been worn by both boys and girls, however so far we have only noted boys wearing them. Girls on the other hand might wear more traditioanlly styled pinafores other than around home, such as to school.

Image

This is another photo with no identifying marks. HBC believes, however, that it is German. Both the children and the cart, for example, look rather German. Note the large front pocket the boy on the left has. The boy on the right, presumably his brother, wears a longer pinafore smock without a front pocket. The little girl, however, seems to wear a more traditional smock. We believe that the photograph was taken in the early 1920s, after World War I. It is an interesting picture in that this is probably how these children looked every day in summer. A HBC reader writes, "I think it is also worth noting that the boys are both bare foot while the girl is not."

Created: August 23, 2002
Last updated: August 26, 2002