Swiss Mail Order Catalogs with Boys Clothings: 1938


Figure 1.--Every Swiss child in primary school during the 1930s had this kind of school-bag. Here is a selection of different types offered by Jelmoli in 1938.

We have some pages from the Jelmoli catalog during the 1930s. Only a few pages were devoted to boys clothing, but they provide a great deal of very useful information. The pages show boys outfits, school, smocks ( Kinder-Schürzen ), book bags and other items. Our Swiss reader points out, "I just received a Catalog form the "Grand magasins Jelmoli," Zurich for the year 1938. In it it has a few good pages relating to fashions of boys. I am going to make copies of these pages and will send them to you. Again, as Jelmoli was in Zurich, it reflects the more urban fashions. I know, that in the poor mountain sections of Switzerland such fancy clothing was not available." When I was reading these descritions in detail I found two things very interesting. Just about all the outfits are made of wool and only very few out of linnen. All outfits were fully lined. It is very evident that these our fits were not for daily wear but just for holidays and special occasions. The were much too fance for every-day wear. I am also surprised, that I did not find any shirts or sweaters for boys in this catalog. I guess that brings me back that this catalog was more for the upper-crust of the population. Intersting is the fact on the boys shorts page, that for the smaller sizes they indicate that they had to be held up with a waist (Gstaeltli).

Headwear


Younger Boys Outfits

We note several outfits for younger boys in the Jelmoli 1938 catalog. Some seem like play clothes. Other outfits may have been suitable for dressier occassions, although I don't think they would have been a boy's best outfit. They are for boys 1 1/2 - 6 years of age, this varied from garment to garment. All but te overalls are done in short pants. The sailor suit outfit had buttons at the leg hem, suggesting that this might be an outfit suitable for dressy occassions.

Smocks

Swiss schools required children in primary schools to wear smocks. I'm not sure when this rule was introduced, but it was standard in 1938. We note Jelmoli offering sevwrl different styles for both boys and girls.

Coats

Swiss boys wore a variety of capes and coats. We note Jelmoli offering both a cape and an overcoat type rain coat on the page with suits. I think the cape was generally seen as a school style. This appears to have been primarily a French style. The raincoat seems to be more of a generalized style.

Jackets


Suits

Boys still commonly wore suits in the 1930s. Jelmoli in its 1938 catalog offeredc several different styles of boys' suits. The Norfolk style seems to have gone out of fassion. We note jackets with both single- and double-breasted jackets. They were done as short pants and knicker suits.

Shirts

The Jelmoli catalog offered a variety of long and short-sleeved shirts for boys. For some reason they were on the same page as men's pajamas. Some like the polo shirts look rather modern.

Pants

The Jelmoli catalog had a page devoted to trousers. Most were boys' short trousers, but there were also some men's trousers as well. We note a number of different styles and materials. One nother page Jelmoli also offered a pair of knickers.

Hosiery

The Jelmoli catalog offered several styles of boys anc children's hosiery on the page with men's hosiery. Jelmoli on page 70 offers stockings for "Kinder" The largest size is about a size 8 1/2 in todays UD-adult sizes. As it is a summer-catalog there ism only one on display, but in different colors and of quite heavy materials. I guess, as this is a summer-catalog, no garments to hold stockings are shown.

Underwear

Jelmoli had a page for children's underwear in its 1938 Summer catalog. Most of the items on the page were for girls. The sizes go up to about 12 to 14 years. On that page they show only two distingt pieces of underwear for boys. That is the union-suit (combinaison) and one pair of underpants. The rest is or "Kinder". Again for both gender. Jelmoli offered Kinder-strumpfhalter (articles 601,45 and 601,46) on page 103 of their catalog. This indicates that stockings were worn quite by both boys and girls. One pair is in white and the other in pink and it says"Kinder" many children. The term Kinder always reflects boys and girls up to about 12 or 14 years old.

Footwear

The Jelmoli catalog offered several styles of children's sandals on the page foe women's summer shoes.

Swimsuits

Switzerland is not a country known for bathing and beaches. Of corse there are all those beautiful lakes like Lake Geneva. I have never swam there, but I imagine it is rather a bracing experience. The Jelmoli catalog include bathing suits for boys or girls. There were one-piece suits for girls. They were two styles foe boys. Some were the suits that had attached tops. Other were suits consisting of just the trunks or pants.

Bookbags

Every Swiss child in primary school during the 1930s had this kind of school bag. Here is a selection of different types of school bags offered by Jelmoli in 1938. The back-packs were used by kids in primary schools. The others by students in secondary and advanced schools.







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Created: 6:48 PM 6/22/2006
Last updated: 7:50 PM 8/20/2006