French Rompers: Postcards--Rompers


Figure 1.-- A French reader tells us about one of the postcards we found. It is a French card, although mailed from Belgium. He tells us, "These two little boys aren't Belgian but French. This colorised postcard was published by A Noyer. It was made in Paris duringh 1949 or 1950. The boy on right named Jacques lived in Paris Boulevard de Strasbourg. He did several pastcards. On this photo, in fact both boys wore white blouses. The rompers have been colorized. The bib-front rompers and short pant was made in Boussac material and was fashionable in the 1950s. This Boussac material was easily available from 1948. I have found another postcard made from the same shoot."

We notice French post cards during the first half of the 20th century. In Britain the term 'French postcards' became a term meaning naughty images. In fact there were all kinds of French post cards, it was a big industry. We note humerous cards, ethnographic Empire cards, tourist cards, greeting cards, and much more. One popular type of card was sentimaental images of well dressed children. These are of course useful for HBC. Rompers were one of the garments we see in some of these cards. A French reader tells us about one of the postcards we found. It is a French card, although mailed from Belgium. He tells us, "These two little boys aren't Belgian but French. This colorised postcard was published by A Noyer. It was made in Paris duringh 1949 or 1950. The boy on right named Jacques lived in Paris Boulevard de Strasbourg. He did several pastcards. On this photo, in fact both boys wore white blouses. The rompers have been colorized. The bib-front rompers and short pant was made in Boussac material and was fashionable in the 1950s. This Boussac material was easily available from 1948. I have found another postcard made from the same shoot." A reader writes, "Interesting that the older child is dressed more juvenile (at least from today's view) than the younger boy. The older one has puff short sleeves while it does not appear that the younger boy has puff short sleeves. Yes, I think that the mother's train of thought may have been fashionable more than hvenile, The younger boy also wears a blouse and his sleeves are slightly puffed if you look closely.

French Post Cards

We notice French post cards during the first half of the 20th century. In Britain the term 'French postcards' became a term meaning naughty images. In fact there were all kinds of French post cards, it was a big industry. We note humerous cards, ethnographic Empire cards, tourist cards, greeting cards, and much more. One popular type of card was sentimaental images of well dressed children. These are of course useful for HBC. Rompers were one of the garments we see in some of these cards.

A. Noyer

A Noyer was a major French postcard publihing company. Thy began publishing postcards about 1910.

Postcard Shoots

Photographic shoots varied. Early post cards show the children wearing fancvy outfits which we suspect were provided by the compamy or photographer. Later cards like the one here tend to be clothes that the children actually wore. The photographer/Noyer chose the children, but the mothers chose the clothing. A Frenvhj reader tells us, "The A Noyer company chose the children. The mother dressed her kid as she wanted, either clothes of the week or in sunday outfit. Children look on these postcards was the same we could see through Paris streets."

Post Card Example

The Noyer postcard here shows two boys (figure 1). The pose might suggest that they are brothers, but remenmber that this is a commercial portrait and not a family portrait. Thus the boys are posed as if they were brotyhes, but gthey were not. This expalins why they are dressed differently. The image has been colorized and is not an accurate depiction of the ciolors, but the outfits are acurately depicted. The older boy wears a bib-front romper suit with puff-sleeve blouse. The younger boy wears a bib-frongt shorts set, also with a blouse. They look to be about 4-6 years old.

Clothes

Our French reader tells us, "On this postcard the youngest (Jacques) is dressed like he might be for school. The older (maybe 7 years old) is dressed in a more dressy Sunday outfit. His outfit included a French romper with bib, a white blouse shirt with short puffed sleeves. At his age he didn't attented school dressed in aromper, but perhaps he might vwear this outfit for fetes. It is quite by chance if the older boy had a more juvenil look as the youngest. Many French mothers liked romper styling for boys. And remember that two nothers are involved here. From 1936 to 1968, rompers were a very popular garment in France, but only for boys. They were not just infant styles, but worn by many pre-school boys and even some younger primary school boys. In 1950 a boy of 7 years old could be dressed in rompers, but they were especially common for boys in pre-schools.

Reader Insight

A French reader who posed for some of these postcards as a boy tells us about one of the postcards we found. It is a French card, although mailed from Belgium. He tells us, "These two little boys aren't Belgian but French. This colorised postcard was published by A Noyer. It was made in Paris duringh 1949 or 1950. The boy on right named Jacques lived in Paris Boulevard de Strasbourg. He did several pastcards. On this photo, in fact both boys wore white blouses. The rompers have been colorized. The bib-front rompers and short pant was made in Boussac material and was fashionable in the 1950s. This Boussac material was easily available from 1948. I have found another postcard made from the same shoot."

Reader Comment

A reader writes, "Interesting that the older child is dressed more juvenile (at least from today's view) than the younger boy. The older one has puff short sleeves while it does not appear that the younger boy has puff short sleeves. Yes, I think that the mother's train of thought may have been fashionable more than juvenile, and remenber that there are two different mothers involved here. The younger boy also wears a blouse and his sleeves are slightly puffed if you look closely.








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Created: 4:50 AM 11/11/2013
Last updated: 4:50 AM 11/11/2013