Figure 1.--This photograph of some French children was taken in Provence in 1980. The boy did not always wear tighrts, but his moth used them occassionally.

HBC has litle information on French boys wearing tights. HBC did note that during the late 19th and early 20th century when American boys mostly wore long over the knee stockings that French boys commonly wore three-quarter length socks. While boys in Germany, Switzerland, Scadanaviam, and other countries wore tights for warmth. HBC has not noted this in fashion trend in France. We are not sure at this time why France differed from neighboring countries like Germany and Switzerland. The only factor that HBC can see may be that the climate in southern France is warmer than Germany and Scandanavia and thus warm weather wear like tights may have been less needed. Even in southern France, however, mothers occassionally dressed younger boys in tights. While French boys do not appear to have commonly wore tights, we have noted a few images of boys wearing them. notice that the French boy is very young. Three or four and has very long hair. A reder writes, "I think a few younger French boys might have worn tights, but I don't think it was very common. Perhaps in areas such as Alsace-Loraine (where there are German influences) some boys may have worn tights. But for the most part I do not think it was common for school age boys." A Frenvch reader writes, "Tights have not been comonly worn by French boys. We do note that boys in cold regions have worn them during the winter, often under long pants. We also note that brown tights were not popular in France, in part because long stockings worn by Frnch girls in the 1920s nd 30s were often brown."

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Created: July 24, 2001
Last updated: December 24, 2003