Figure 1.--Here we see an unidentified Belgian family in 1958. We know nothing about the family, but they look to be an affluent middle-class family living in the subirbs of a large city. There are three children, two boys and a girl. It looks to be Sprng.

Family portraits are an interesting way of comparing the clothing of the other members of the family with the ways that boys dressedin any given time period. Many of the HBC pages show boy's clothing in isolation. This is necessary because we donot have the ability to address the enormous additional topics of girls, women's, and men's clothing. Images of families, however, enable us to relate boys' clothing to hat worn by the other family members which might be useful to readers with a wider dfashion focus. These images also provide some insights into Belgian family life.

The 1900s

The 1910s

We note that sailor suits were very popular for Belgisn boys during the 1910s. The national life wasc of course devistated by the German World War I invasion and occupation. Most of the country was occupied throughout the War. Thousands of children were orphaned and starvation was only averted by the delivery of aid by America which was neutral until April 1917. Even so behind the German lines, life went on for many families and we have a few portraits from this period. White dresses and hair bows seem popular for girls. Men might wear wing collared shirts. Women might wear a white blouse and skirt.

The 1920s

We have a charming portrait of a Belgian boy and his sister. It is undated, but we believe was taken in the early 1920s. The boy wears a fancy middy blouse with a tie, showing the silor style is still popular. His sister wears a large hair bow and what looks like a Chinese or Japanese inspired dress.

The 1930s

The 1940s

The 1950s

Here we see an unidentified Belgian family in 1958 (figure 1). We know nothing about the family, but they look to be an affluent middle-class family living in the subirbs of a large city. There are three children, two boys and a girl. It looks to be Sprng. The younger boy wars a classic French romper suit (baboteuse). The little girl a simple frock. The older brother seems to be wearing a short duffle coat with short pants. We have some images from what we at first thought was a French family in the 1950s, but we have since learned that they were another Belgian family named Ripens.

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Created: July 12, 2002
Last updated: 12:48 AM 10/31/2005