Figure 1.--Three children can be seen in a French garet in this photograph by the noted French photographer Doisneau. One boy wears romers and a girl wears a skirt. The girl on the right wears a dress and pinafore. Click on the image to see a view from the outside.

French girls did not wear rompers which were exclusively an outfit for little boys. They were normally worn by pre-school boys, but HBC has noted rompers made for boys up to 7 years old. Boys wore both play and dressy styled rompers. Girls even for play would wear little dresses. A French reader tells us that this was the accepted convention for rompers.

Convention

This photograph is a good example of the dress for younger French children in the early 1950s. A boy would be dressed in a romper. Little girls, however, would wear dresses, with smock are pinafores. Unlike te boys, they did not wear rompers.

Chronology

We do not have the precise date for this image, but belive it was taken in the early 1950s, probably 1952.

The Photographer

The photographer was famed French photographer Robert Doisneau. He made many wondergul photographs of French children at school and at play during the early 1950s.

Clothing

The boy on the left wears a romper. Note that he also wears a harness belt. This was considered practical at the time in the dangereus street when the mother had to keep several child in hand. A younger child that was especially active might wear one of these harnesses. The girl in the middle wears a dress and pinafore. The girl on the right also wears a pinafore.