Figure 1.--French postcards picturing children were popular in the, inter-war years. Boys in sailor suits were a common subject. Note the foreign language salutation. |
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The sailor suit continued to be a popular style for French boys in the inter-war years. The sailor suit was not nearaly as dominate a style for boys as during the Edwardian era. Boys in the inter-war years wore a more varies range of clothes. The inter-war sailor suits were styled more like classic sailor suits and boys often wore them with both long and short pants.
French boys still wore sailor suits, even at ages up to 12-13 years,
with both short and long pants--some suits came with both. Older
French boys wore knickers in the 1920s, but not with sailor
suits. The fact that some sailor suits came with both short and long
pants suggests a somewhat different approach
to long and short pants than in England and America. There boys would be likely to wear either shotrt or long pants, but not both. Once a boy was allowed to wear long pants, most no longer wanted to wear short pants. Sailor suits with two pairs of pants, a pair of shorts and longs suggest that boys' attitudes may have been some what different in France.'m not sure how both shorts and longs would be worn. Presumably the mother would decide on which days and for what events shorts would be worn and when longs would be more appropriate. Longs might be worn more during the winter, but both blue flannel suits and lighter white summer suits came in both shorts and longs. Sailor suits continued to be popular in the 1930s when they were made in sizes to 12 years in both short pants and long pants styles. This meant French boys through about 13 wore sailor suits.
French clothing ads
French clothing advertisements show sailor suits in sizes from 6 to
12 or even 13 years of age. It was rare to see older boys of 13 or especially 14 in sailor suits, particularly by the 1930s. This was somewhat different from Germany and Italy when some older boys might still wear sailor suits, especially in the 1920s. During the inter-war period there was a general decline in the age of boys wearing sailor suits.
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Several different styles were worn. The most common were pullover
middy blouses, but some had button-up jackets, mostly double breasted
styles. These suits came in a wide variety of styles, collkars, sleeves,
and pants making for multiple combinations.
Middy style: Middy blouses were the pull over style. They came in both long and short sleeve styles. Middy blouses mostly came with stripes, but some had collars with no styling. Some of these had the middy collar in white, with both blue and white suits. Bows were only worn with the middy blouse style. The blue suits were always long sleeved.
Button style: French sailor suits also came with button jackets. This was a style not commonly seen in England and America, although it was also worn in Italy. The jacket came with lapels rather than the traditional middt collar. Note the two lapels were not mirror images. Even so, the lapels looked like middy blouses. Another style had a rather plain doublr breasted shirt.
Pants: French boys during the inter-war period wore sailor suits with both long and short pants. I'm not sure precisely what the conventions were for wether long or short pants were worn. I believe that the long pants suits were more popular in the winter, but have few details at this time.
There were several different styles of caps worn by French boys in the inter-War era. We no longer see bys wearing sailor hats, but sailor caps were worn. The wide-brimmed sailor hat worn before World War I had disappeared. Even little boys no longer wore them. Caps came in a variey of atyles. The flat top style was still available. There was also a modern-looking style with
leather bill. There was also the style worn by French sailors, a soft cap with a red pom. Some boys also wore a cap which looked similar to the caps worn by Americam Navy, I'm not sure what these styles were called. The French cap, however, was not plain right, but rather hada a blue band and insignia. The caps seem to have been most common when the boys were dressing up.
French sailor suits in the inter-war years were mostly made in navy blue and white. This was much more standard than the more varried suits worn before World War I in the Edwardian era. Some suits had mixed colors, with white blouses and blue pants, but never the reverse. Some white suits may have had detailing in other countries such as red, but this was less common than blue.
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Sailor suits by the 1930s had become a less common outfit for boys
who would more commonly wears suits or sweaters to school and
for dressup. They were still worn, however, and photographs of
French childrem during the 30s will show some boys still outfitted in
sailor suits--even boys of 12 and 13 years of age. This is quite different from the era before World War I when any group of children would have included several in sailor suits, mosly worn with kneepants.
With the decline in the cost of photography and printing, cards became very poular in the 1900s. This continued to be the case in the inter-war era. Cards appeared on a wide range of subjects. One popular subject was children. Often the French cards showed the boys in fancy outfits. While they are an interesting source of information on French fahions, the styles depicted are priobably fancier than won by most boys.
These cars served several market. One was for tourists. Another market was greeting cards. Thus these French cards appeared in many different language wishing happy birthday or other salutations.
Some informatiin from fashion articles and other scources is available.
Fashion article: 1920s
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