Figure 1.--This Belgian cabinet card is undated, but the clothes and mountvstyle look luke the 1900s. Sailor styles were populsr for both boys and girls. Notice the girl holds a ball. We see both knee pants and bloomer knickers, often worn with socks instead of long stockings. The older boy wears a collar-buttoning Norfolk jacket with an Eton collar and a modest floppy bow. They seem to be a very close family, notice how not only the older boy is holding his younger brother's hand, but boy and girl are also holding hands. The studio was G. Rees in Brussels.

HBC still has very little information on Belgian boys' clothing during this period. We would be interested in any details visitors to this page may have. Available information suggests that smocks were commonly worn by boys, especially for schoolwear. As in France, sailor suits were very popular which is interesting because the country had virtually no navy. Both boys and girls wore them as you can seen here (figure 1). . We see various suit styles. Norfolk-styling was poplar. Boys at the turn-of-the century mostly bloomer knickers or knee pants. The blouced knicker style seemed to have been popular. And were often worn without stockings. This was something you almost never see in America unless the boy was going barefoot. As in England, the Boy Scout movement had an important influence. Smocks were still commonly worn to school, but were less common whe the boys came home from school. Older boys might wear knickers. One particularly valuable source of information on early-20th century boys' fashions are postcards as children were popular subjects of cards during this period.

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Created: 1:21 PM 11/4/2015
Last updated: 1:21 PM 11/4/2015