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HBC has very little information on the clothes worn by French boys to schhool in the early and mid-19th century. It is unclear to HBC if French boys commonly wore smocks before the late 19th-century. A few available images suggest that many boys wore military style uniforms at seconadry schools. I'm less sure what the younger boys wore. The major event affecting schoolwear was the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). The Emperor Napoleon III's disastrous loss in the war cost him the crown and paved the way for the Second Republic. The decision to require French boys and girls to wear smocks was a decision implemented by French authorities during the 1870s. The smock was in keeping with rhe Republican sensibilities of the day. The smock was viewed as a very democratic garment, hiding the inexpensive clothes that might embarrass pooer children. It was in keeping with the styles of the day as both boys and girls commonly wore smocks, altough I am not sure if they were commonly worn to school. France has such a centralized, highly respected educational system, that the decision was relatively easy to implement. I'm not sure just what age boys wore smocks. Presumably it was just elementary schools, but I have seen photographs showing what appear to be younger teenagers wearing smocks as well as younger boys.
HBC has very little information on the clothes worn by French boys to schhool in the early and mid-19th century. It is unclear to HBC if French boys commonly wore smocks before the late 19th-century.
HBC has little information on French school clothes during the early 19th century. The reforms of the Revolution and Napoleonic period meant that many more boys of modest means were attending school than before the fall of the monarchy in 1789. The resestablishment of the Bourbon monarcy in 1814 after the defeat of Napoleon arrested the movement toward popular education, but could not turn the clock back to the era before the Revolution. The Emperor Napoleon I created the lycée at the very beginning of the 19h century. Previosly schools were largely admiistered by the church. One of the reforms of the Revolution was to create secular schoos. Some of the early lycées were former Jesuits colleges. This was the case of the lycee the boy pictured here attended (figure 1). A French reader tells us, "The Lycée Louis Le Grand, which is still one of the most presigious lycées in Paris, and probably in all France. Up to the 1970s, you could spend all your secondary school in a lycée, which had all the 7 secondary classes, so from about 11 to about 18. Nowadays, lycées are only second cycle schools, that is 5th, 6th and 7th years of secondary school, in French seconde (2nd), première (1st) and terminale (last year). Up to about World War II, there were only separate lycées for boys and girls. Now, they are never separated. When I attended lycée, in the 60s, I was in a coed lycée in a small provincial town in Normandy, but the 'good' lycées in main cities became coed only in the 1970s."
The first real school reforms appeared with the Guizot law which made primary education free to the poorest families, but was still reserved only for boys (1833). .
HBC has little information on schoolwear trends during the varied changes of government during this period (Naopleonic Empire, Bourbon monarchy, constuitutional momarachy, and finally the Third Republic (1871-40). Lycée boys may have worn military looking jackets, but thy were not military schools. Napoleon I gave military looking uniforms to everybody, including the teachers, the judges and so on. I'm not sure, however, just when lycée boys began earing military style jackets.
We are not yet sure about French schoolwear in the mid-19th century. We see some primary-age children wear military-styled uniforms. W are not sure, however just what kind of schools these were. A few available images suggest that many boys wore military style uniforms at seconadry schools in the mid-19th century. Many lycees, for example required military style uniforms. The lycée boy shown here was photographed about 1867. Napoleon's nephew. Louis Napoleon or Napoleon III was ruling France at the time. Perhaps he had the same pemchant toward uniforms as his illustrious uncle. The palms on the uniform means that it is a school uniform. HBC is not yet sure how common it was for boys to wear uniforms at mis-19th century France. As far as I know only military schools had full military uniforms. A HBC contributor indicates that boys that wore military uniforms to school included: war orphans who has special schools, children of soldiers on duty abroad in the colonies, and of course the case for the schools meant to train the boys who wanted to become soldiers (officiers or sub-officiers). I'm not sure what the younger boys wore. They may have commonly wore smocks even before the new Third Republic Government made the smock required sdchoolwear, but we can't yet conform that.
The major event affecting schoolwear was the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). The Emperor Napoleon III's disastrous loss in the war cost him the crown and paved the way for the Second Republic. The decision to require French boys and girls to wear school smocks was a decision implemented by French authorities during the 1870s. The smock was in keeping with the Republican sensibilities of the day. I'm not sure if this increased the number of schools that had military uniforms. One French contributor to HBC reports that the catistrophic defeat by the Germans fometed a desire for revenge. He reports this explains why military touches, like a waist belt was often added to school smocks and worn over the smock with no apparent purpose. HBC has noted French schoolboys in military style uniforms at the turn of the 20th century. The Third Republic did further promote public education and increasing numbers of French children attended school. We have few images from the 1870s and 80s in our archives. Images we have collected from the 1890s show great variations from school to school, showing that there were no nation-wide regulations being enforced. Some images show large numbers of boys wearing smocks, while other images show only a few younger boys wearing them. HBC is still confused as to what the regulations were and when they were in effect.
The garment most associated with French schools during the 19th and much of the 20th century was the school smock. They were worn by both boys andvgirls. We are not sure when the school smock first appeared. It was mandated by the Third Republic as part of educational reforms. Some children may have worn smocks to school before this. We are not sure, but we see many children wearing school smocks (1870s). We notice a lot of 19th century photographs, however, where French boys are not wearing socks. Other important garments were berets, military caps and jackets, sailor suits, and knee pants. Military uniforms were commonly worn by lycee boys,especially in the late-19th century and into the early-20th century.
Available images suggest that at least some French boys in the 19th century were taking their First Communions in their school uniforms. We note one boy in the 1870s wearing what looks to be his school uniform. Our knowledge of French school uniforms in the 1870s is still incomplete. We do know that France was badly mauled in the Franco-Prussian War, causing a great soul searching on France's part. The new republican government introduced school smocks at this time. We also think that many schools had military uniforms, but we are not sure just what kind of schools had the military uniforms. We do not think that these were necessarily military schools. Some French thought, however, that more military discipline was needed to prepare for a future war with Germany. The boy shown here does not look to have a new suit for first communion, but rather his ordinary school uniform. He is wearing a First Communion shoulder bow, but a rather primitive one. We do not know if these bows were a new inovation in the 1870s or perhaps his parents could not afford a fancy one. The later is unlikely given the fact he was having a portarit taken in the 1870s. The cost of a portrait was declining, but still not cheap. Note that the boy in this 1870s portrait is wearing long trousers (figure 1). Kneepants became increasing common in the 1860s and by the 1870s were being widely worn by French boys. Many of the schools with military uniforms appear to have retained long trousers for the boys, at least in the 1870s.
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