Figure 1.--This image appears to have been taken in a French or Belgian school or orphanage, probably during the 1910s. Notice the light-colored smocks and the belts worn over them.
|
Figure 1.--This image appears to have been taken in a French or Belgian school or orphanage, probably during the 1910s. Notice the light-colored smocks and the belts worn over them. |
Some smocks came with belts of the same material as the smock. In the early 20th century smocks were often worn with a leather belt. The belt had no real purpose than as a stylistic element. Wearing belts over smocks became less common in France after the 1920s. HBC has also noticed boys wearing belts over their sweaters, but was most common with smocks. This style has also been noted in Germany, but rarely in America or Britain. This is a style that HBC does not fully understand, but has begun to assess. A French HBC contributor has offered some interesting insights.
Fashion designers in many garments for both men, women, and children often mark or draw attention to the waist as a stylistic feature. Hence the belts often added to coats,
raincoats and dresses. Sometimes they are somewhat useful, other times they are purely stylistic.
Smocks generally have a belt made in the same fabric. It is true that, I would say before WWI, in France smocks were often worn in schools and colleges with a belt. In fact I would
rather say a military (or similar) belt (wide leather: in French "un ceinturon").
One must remember that France was severely defeated in 1870-71 by a German coalition,
two provinces (Alsace and Lorraine) were lost. The disaster of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) brought about the Second French Republic which as acdemocracizing reformmintroduced the smock to French schools. "L' esprit de revanche" (revenge
spirits) reigning everywhere in France and above all in the schools until 1914 when the Germand invaded Belgium and France initiating World War I. Pupils were paramilitary drilled and that spirits pervaded everywhere. Songs often had a martial air. That may explain this martial look given by the belt over the smock. Maybe it was not only the boys but also adults that had that fashion. Moving men ( removal men) or workers having to lift heavy objects often wear such belts.
In a book Les disparus de Saint-Agil", one of the pupils, André Baume, 16 years
old, is depicted as wearing a rough black smock tightened in the waist par a military
belt ("ceinturon") with a brass buckle. The date is about June 1914.
Figure 2.--These Germans boys in a boarding school, probably during the 1930s wear belts over there sweaters. This was purely stylistic, being no purpose in doing so. |
For both men and women, there are two ways to mark the waist when
wearing a sweater. Both provide a rather military look.
Pulled down: One can pull down the sweater above the trousers or skirt and mark the waist with a belt or better with a belt above the sweater. Again in Les disparus
de Saint-Agil, but this time in the movie that was filmed just before World War II with
action taking place at this time, Sorgue, which is much younger than in the novel (I
would say 11), is wearing short trousers, knee socks, a sweater pulled down and a
military belt above with a big buckle.
Tucked inOne can also tuck the lower part of the sweater in the trousers skirts and
underline the waist by a belt in the loops on the trousers. This was mandatory in
the old times for the scouts in France and although not a scout I remember having noticed this fad in the 1950s.
HBC has noted belts being worn over sweaters in both France and Germany. This style may have been worn in other countries, although it was not common in America or Britain. It has rather a military look to it. As explained above, this might be why French boys wore belts over their smocks. The popularity of the military look in Imperial Germany (1870-1918) and after the rise of the NAZUs in 1933 may explain its popularity in Germany.