Figure 1.--Here we see German girls wearing romper-style gym outfits, we think in the 1920s I think her posture and expression suggests that she saw them as old fashioned. Put your cursor on the image for another German photograph. A few years later German girls were wearing shorter rompers without the log stockings.

Romper or bloomer style gym suits became very common. These were normally not romper suits, but rather middy or other blouses worn with bloomer/romper pants. There were worn both in America and Europe. I do not have a complete list of European countries, but believe that this was a very common style of school gym suits throughout Europe. We have seebn images from both England and Germany and believe they were also worn in many other countries. The European images show girls wearing them with long stockings. almost always long black stockings. American girls also wore them at summer camp. I am not sure when girls began wearing this type of gum uniform, perhaps the 1890s or even earlier. They were still being worn in the 1930s. we no longer see them in Europe after World war II (1939-45), but our archive is still limited. We do see American girls still wearing them after the War, but a much shorter length and without the long stockings. These outfits were actual romper suits. While primarily a girls' gym uniform, we also see some boys wearing them for gym, althoughtly as pants rather than a romper suit.

Girls Gym Suits

Romper or bloomer style gym suits became very common. These were normally not romper suits, but rather middy or other blouses worn with bloomer pants. There were worn both in America and Europe. The romper outfits were very common as America gym uniforms. They were very commonly worn with middy blouses. I do not have a complete list of European countries, but believe that this was a very common style of school gym suits throughout Europe. We have seen images from both England and Germany and believe they were also worn in many other countries. The German girls seem to be wearing a square-necked blouse. The European and American images show girls wearing them with long stockings. almost always long black stockings. American girls also wore them at summer camp. I am not sure when girls began wearing this type of gum uniform, perhaps the 1890s or even earlier. They were still being worn in the 1930s. we no longer see them in Europe after World war II (1939-45), but our archive is still limited. We do see American girls still wearing them after the War, but a much shorter length and without the long stockings. These outfits were actual one-piece romper suit gym uniforms and not the middy blouse and bloomer outfits worn before World War II. .

Boys Gym Suits

While primarily a girls' gym uniform, we also see some European boys wearing them for gym, althoughtly often as as pants rather than a romper suit like the gils wore. We do not know how common this was, but we notice examples in several countries for boy of various areas. We note Swedish boys wearing romper pants for gym. We also notice some school-age boys wearing romper pants as a kind of gym suit or outfit for fresh aor activities. An exmple is an unidentified Swiss school, perhaps a sanitormium set in a rural area during 1929. We note an Italian orphanage school using romper sunsuits. We suspect here, however, it was a summer uniform rather than just for gym.

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web chronological pages:
[The 1890s] [The 1900s] [The 1910s] [The 1920s] [The 1930s] [The 1940s] [The 1950s]

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web style pages:
[Dresses] [Smocks] [Bodice kilts] [Kilts] [Sailor suits] [Sailor hats]
[Ring bearer/page costumes] [Shortalls]

Created: 3:54 AM 11/12/2006
Last updated: 1:17 AM 5/21/2019