Figure 1.--These orphans at a French or Belgian orphanage in a photograph taken arounf World War I mosrly wear short pants with long black stockings. Interestingly the older boys appear to be wearing smocks.
It is unclear to me how clothes worn by orphans reflected clothes worn by other children. It is likely that French orphans probably was similar to that of families with moderate means. In France this meant that uniforms were common. Many orphanages appeared to have used smocks, in some cases similar to those worn by French school boys. Smocks seemed to have been used by many schools as they wefre a useful garment to protect clothes and reduce laundry.
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Figure 1.--These orphans at a French or Belgian orphanage in a photograph taken arounf World War I mosrly wear short pants with long black stockings. Interestingly the older boys appear to be wearing smocks. |
I have no details as to the conventions for wearing smocks. They do not seemed to have been confined only for very little boys. Sone boys as old as 11 or 12 years of age appears to have worn them. At the orphanage pictured above it is the older boys that are wearing them.
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