Figure 3.--A lot of my formal photographs as a baby were taken with me wearing various romper outfits. This was a pair of bib rompers for one of my first portraits in a photograohic studio.

I discovered the article on rompers last time I visited the HBC website, and thought I would tell you a bit about boys' baby clothes in late 1950s England.

A Bit About Me

My name is John and I have already contributed some information about my senior school (The Shrubbery, Cambridge, England). I was born, appropriately, on Mothering Sunday in 1955, when most English baby boys wore rompers. In earlier decades, both sexes commonly wore dresses until between one and two years of age, but this was rarer by the 1950s. This is a brief account of the clothes I wore from birth to 3 years old in the late 1950s.

Rompers

I discovered the article on rompers last time I visited the HBC website, and thought I would tell you a bit about boys' baby clothes in late 1950s England.

Nappies (Diapers)

While nappies are not specific to boys, I think they are worth mentioning from the point of view of national custom and changing trends. For one thing there is the name: the English call them nappies - derived from the word napkin - while Americans call them diapers, which I believe is a name for a diamond patterned cloth. The fabric used also varies from country to country. As far as I know, a 24-inch terry towelling (also called Turkish towelling) square was the standard English nappy during the 1950s. There were various methods of folding, depending on the age/size of the baby, but some form of truncated triangle was the usual folded shape. In the 1960s, shaped nappies were introduced from France and America, and disposables were used by some mothers, but the towelling square reigned supreme until well into the 1970s, when all-in-one disposables started to take over.

Rubber Pants

During the 1950s, protection for outer clothes and bedding was usually provided by rubber pants, although my mother chose the newly introduced plastic pants that became the standard baby pant by the early 1960s.

First Clothes

Most babies, in early 21st cenury England, start their lives wearing a "babygro" style one-piece suit, regardless of sex. In the 1950s, it was usually a full-length loose gown, with long sleeves, and sometimes with a drawstring around the hem to allow the feet to be enclosed for warmth. Underneath, both now and in the 1950s, is a cotton vest, while over top is a woolen cardigan, plus mittens, bootees and a woollen bonnet if necessary for warmth. The only photograph of me in a gown dates from when I was around one month old.

Figure 4.--This was a special one-piece romper set I wore for formal occassions like weddings.

Rompers

Before I tell you about the rompers I wore as a baby and toddler, I would like to suggest a possible explanation of the French name for the garment: barboteuse. Your article mentioned that "barboter" means to paddle or play at the water's edge, and this brought to mind the custom of girls tucking the hem of their skirts into their knicker legs when paddling, to keep them out of the water. As a boy, I thought it made them look as if they were wearing rompers and I now wonder whether the French name for rompers comes from the pants section looking like a skirt that has been tucked up in this fashion when paddling. I may well be wrong, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

The classic baby romper was a one-piece garment, with a button fastening at the back of the neck. The crotch was also fastened with buttons, to allow easy nappy changing. The garment may have either a simple round neck or a collar, and sometimes has raglan sleeves. Most rompers are short-sleeved, but I have seen patterns for long-sleeved versions too. The body of the romper may be gathered or pleated to the yoke (upper body and shoulder section), and will often be decorated with a diamond-pattern smocking stitch. Although a couple of one-piece rompers survive among the baby clothes my mother has kept, the only photographs of me in one are from around the time of my christening, at 6 to 8 weeks of age (Fig. 1).

The style of romper I seem to have worn most is the bib-and-braces type, shown in Fig. 2. I am told I was 21 months old when this picture was taken, in the photographic studio of a local department store. I actually recall the occasion, because I was afraid of the camera, after the first time it flashed, and was given the toy dumper truck I am holding to calm me down. I remember making such a fuss when they tried take it away from me, afterwards, that I was allowed to keep it. My Mother tells me that she went down to the toy department to buy a replacement for the photographer. The picture was taken in December 1956, so my grandparents could be given framed prints for Christmas, and I now have the "proof" prints from which the best were chosen for enlargement. My romper is made from a fairly heavy cotton, possibly because it is a winter outfit, and forms a set with the shirt. This can be seen from the fact the the collar and sleeve cuffs match the romper pants. This style of outfit was my standard dress for all occasions: formal photographs, weddings and seaside trips. The romper set I am wearing in the seaside snap (Fig. 3) appears to be made of a lighter, cooler cotton material.

As you can probably tell from my story of how I kept the toy dumper truck, I am blessed with a very long memory and have many mental "snapshots" from as early as a few months of age. I won't bore you with a catalogue of them, but a few are relevant to this article. One of these memories is from when I was a toddler. I remember sitting on the floor and playing with the buttons that fastened the straps of my romper pants to the bib. The romper material was a red colour that had begun to fade to pink and had a pattern of white dots on it. Looking at Fig. 2, I think this is probably the romper I wore for the studio photograph when it was new.

Footwear

Another memory is of sitting in my pram and removing my shoes and socks. Going by the photographs, and my own recollections, I wore nothing but sandals and white ankle socks as a baby. The ones I am wearing in Fig. 2 are quite fancy, with two straps across the front, but those in the other pictures are of the simpler T-bar type. The ones I remember removing in my pram were of this style, a light blue in colour, and with a button fastening. From some very hazy recollections, I think the ones I wore in the beach snap were red.

Summer Wear

While rompers were my normal dress for going out, at home, in the Summer, a simple T-shirt over nappy and plastic pants was often all I wore. There are photographs of me playing this way in our garden, aged around 15 months (May or June 1956). I have no shoes or socks on, in these pictures, as they were mostly worn when travelling or dressed up for a special occasion. Babies' feet were normally left free, as wearing shoes at too early an age might affect their growth. Also missing, in the Summer photographs, is a sunhat, which most babies wear in these days of skin cancer awareness. I definitely had a sunhat when I was a toddler, but I hated wearing it and pulled it off of my head the moment it was put on me.

Figure 9.--The final picture is of me, aged 3, at my sister's birthday party. This is formal wear for me at the time. Shorts with built-in braces (suspenders to those in the USA), and a short-sleeved white shirt, with ankle socks and sandals again.

Buster Suits

While rompers were a very popular baby garment, other outfits were equally common, and one of these was called a Buster Suit. I have no idea where the name comes from, but the outfit consisted of a front buttoning shirt and loose pants. The one I remember wearing was of a brown gingham material, with short sleeves and a white collar. Unlike the romper outfits, the buster suit had narrow sleeves that were not gathered to the cuff, and the shirt was much closer fitting. It was half way between a baby's outfit and a boy's outfit, I suppose. Although the loose pants of the buster suit were designed to accomodate nappies, I still wore mine as a Summer playsuit after I had been toilet trained. I remember throwing a tantrum the first time my mother tried to dress me in it without nappies, because I thought the pants were girls' knickers. Unfortunately there are no photographs of me in this outfit.

Dungarees

The next step on the way from baby clothes to boy's clothes was dungarees. I wore these from age two-and-a-half until I started nursery school, where elastic-waisted trousers (long for winter, short for Summer) were easier for me to cope with unaided. I have two photographs, one taken in late Summer 1957, the other probably taken the same Autumn, the first of which shows me in a romper, while the second shows me in dungarees - very quick transition from toddler to little boy.

Suspender Shorts

The final picture is of me, aged 3, at my sister's birthday party (figure 4). This is formal wear for me at the time. Shorts with built-in braces (suspenders to those in the USA), and a short-sleeved white shirt, with ankle socks and sandals again. It is difficult to be sure, but the photograph seems to show that the shirt sleeves are slightly "puffed" after the fashion of romper sleeves. This would make it a very fancy style, and it may have been bought with the shorts as a complete outfit. [HBC note: While the British use the term "braces" rather than "suspenders", they do use the term "suspender shorts" for little boys' short trousers with braces.]