Figure 1.--This French school portrait in 1976 provides a good reflection of popular children's clothing styles. The children here are about 12 years old and just finishingtheir primary education.

French boys today dress virtually indistinguisably from boys in Germany, Spain, Italy, Britain, and the United States. A major changed occurred after the Paris student riots of 1968. Boys wear jeans, large "t" shirts, sweat shirts, and tennis shoes--a kind of pan-European style for boys and teenagers. Distinctive French outfits are a thing of the past. Baseball caps are less popular in France than in America, but that is one of the few differences. A French reader reports that "Nowadays in France the children fashion have a lot influence because of the Moslems from North Africa present in our country." French girls now wear dresses much less than in the past. Many wear jeans. A French reader suggests that the boys preferd wear is "bermuda" perhaps to not annoy the more conservative immigrants. Boys in the 1990s began wearing longer knee length shorts instead of the shorter cut shorts that were once popular. This may be in part influenced by the Moslem minority.

Pan European Fashions

French boys today dress virtually indistinguisably from boys in Germany, Spain, Italy, Britain, and the United States. A major changed occurred after the Paris student riots of 1968. Boys wear jeans, large "t" shirts, sweat shirts, and tennis shoes--a kind of pan-European style for boys and teenagers. Distinctive French outfits are a thing of the past. Baseball caps are less popular in France than in America, but that is one of the few differences. Many elements of this Pan-European fashion have a destinctive American look. Actually these Pan-European are increasingly becoming a world-wide fashion look.

Decade Trends

There were major cghanges in French boy's clothing in the late 1970s. This can be followed thtough the various decades. There was in the post-World War II era still destinctins between French boys' wear and styles worn in other countries. Ths was especially true in the 1950s, but begin to decline in the 1960s. In the late-20th century, French boys' fashions gradually lost its destibctive character, Therewere still some differences in the 1970s, but by the 1980s it was becoming very different to determine Frebnch biys by their clothing as more and more boys in France and other European countries increasing wore a kind of pan-European fashion. Some of the trends notable in this period was that more and more boys wore long rather than short pants. Boys increasingly wore long pants to school and even during the the summer. Jeans beecame a popular fashion statement. We also notice that boys wearing short pants in the 1970s began to wear longer cut shorts. We also notice girls in the 1970s beginning to wear pants, both short and long pants, and not just dresses. Many of the clothes French boys were wearing in the 1970s on had a destinctive American look.

Fashion Trends

After the 1970s French fashions for boys began copying U.S. styles for "T"-shorts, Bermuda shorts, and sneakers. Shorts except for casual wear went out of fashion for older boys. Sunday clothes for younger boys also changed. Dressy short pants with creases and suspenders went out of fashion. Boys except for the very youngest stopped wearing smocks. Some younger boys still wore smocks to school in the 1970s, but by the 1990s school smocks were not commonly worn except by very young children. French boys in the 1970s wore very short short pants, but this changed in the 1980s and much longer shorts became more stylish. Older boys wore American-styled jeans which became almost a uniform for teenagers. Another American fashion import was the baseball cap which was virtually unknown in the 1970s, but increasingly common in the 1990s.

North African Influence

There is some difference of opinion concerning the fashion influence of France's large population of North african immigrants. One French reader reports that "Nowadays in France the children fashion have a lot influence because of the Moslems from North Africa present in our country." French girls now wear dresses much less than in the past. Many wear jeans. A French reader reports that the boys preferd wear is "bermuda" perhaps to not annoy the more conservative immigrants. Boys in the 1990s began wearing longer knee length shorts instead of the shorter cut shorts that were once popular. This may be in part influenced by the Moslem minority. Another reader is skeptical of this assessment. He writes, "Personally I do not think that North African or Moslem attitudes (prudishness) have had any influence on the length of shorts of the [?autochthonous] population in European countries. What baffles me in this statement is that the influence of Muhammedan immigrants would work in different directions for each gender. With boys it is supposed to stimulate longer shorts, apparently accommodating to the newcomers' prudishness. But girls ar led to wear jeans more often, certainly not an exemplary modest garment in the eyes of the conservative faithful."

American View

A good example of this is an American who grew up in France when boys dressed destincitively wearing school smocks. He compares this with his children now growing up in France, "Although my children are living in the same place at roughly the same time in their lives, their experience as expatriates is very different from mine. The particular narratives of American history aside, American culture is not theirs alone but that of their French classmates, too (as is Japanese culture, as embodied in Pokémon). The music they listen to is either "American" or "European," but it is often hard to tell the difference. In my day little French kids looked like nothing other than little French kids (we wore blue smocks in school); but Louise and Henry and their classmates dress much as their peers in the United States do, though with perhaps less Lands' End fleeciness. When I returned to visit the United States in the 1950s, it was a five-day ocean crossing for a month's home leave every 2 years; now we fly over for a week or two, although not very often. Virtually every imaginable product available to my children's American cousins is now obtainable here." [Charles Trueheart, "A French Fourth: The challenge of raising expatriated children," The Atlantic Monthly July/August 2001.]

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Created: January 2, 2002
Last updated: February 25, 2004