Figure 1.--This little American girl was photographed with here mother who was visiting her at camp. The photograph was taken about 1934. Note the bloomer camp uniform. Do you recognize the girl? It is future film star Lauren Becal.

A outfit related to rompers--bloomer pants usually with middy blouses became adopted as a gym costume ans sports uniform for girls in many American highschools. Actually this was similar to girls' bathing costumes (swim suits). We are not sure when this first occurred. We do know that i was a standard by the 1910s. A good example is the Coalinga High School girls basketball team in 1916. I am not sure if they wee called rompers or bloomers or if this changed over time. We also believe that they were worn at summer camps at least in the 1930s. Here we see them being used as a camp uniform about 1934 (figure 1). The camp uniform here was a two piece outfit, a top worn with bloomer pants. By the 1940s, bloomer outfits were still being used as a girls gym outfit in secondary schools. I can remember as a Virginia high school student in 1958 that the girls wore rompers rather than shorts for gym. They were light blue rompers and as short as shorts would have been. I rememember when I was in highschool (1957-61) that the girls thought that they were terribly old fashioned and some girls also complained that they were childish. Other readers have mentoned wearing them throughout the 1960s. We believe, however, that by the 1970s that they were no longer common.

Created: April 12, 2004
Last updated:4:57 AM 2/21/2005