Figure 1.---The Belgian children here are siblings Pierrot and Mimie Gallez in 1947. They were living in the Belian Congo. You can see their school in the background. Pierrot was a first grader and presumably about 6 years old. For some reason only Pierrot has a book satchel. The small sweater the boy is wearing is a gilet. Apparently it was a little cool in the morning. Probably they lived somewhere in the eastern highlands. Click on the image for additional information provided by a French reader.

Rompers were commonly worn by Belgian boys from about 2-6 years old, primarily pre-school boys. Our assessment is preliminary at this time, primarily becuse we have rlatively few Belgian photographic images. Unlike France we do not have many catalog or mail order information for Belgium. We are working almost eclisively with photographic material. We have found one fashion magazine reference. The Belgian woman's magazine Vrouw en Huis in 1952 showed romper suits for 2-3 year olds and halter romper bottoms for 3-4 year olds. The styles depicted were for beachwear. Hopefully we cn construct a more definitive age asessment at our Belgian section expands. We have seen a few boys wearing rompers in first grade at 6 years of age. Some boys might continue to wear rompers after school for a year or so or for dress occasions, but we do not believe that boys commonly wore rompers after age 7. This began to change after the the 1950s when rompers became more commonly worn by even younger boys. A French reader confirms this assessment. He reports, "In Belgium, as in France, rompers were worn by boys 1 tbrough 6 years of age--usually until they began primary school. Sometimes on ceratin occassions boys might wear them until 7 years of age. They were, however, especially popular for 1-4 years olds."

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Belgin pages:
[Return to the Main Belgian romper age page]
[Return to the Main Belgian romper page]
[Belgian catalogs [Belgian choirs] [Belgian movies] [Belgian royals] [Belgian schools] [Belgian youth groups]

Created: 12:38 AM 9/22/2015
Last updated: 12:38 AM 9/22/2015