Figure 1.--.

I remember Didier, a French boy who came on an exchange visit with my little brother in 1974. He wore very different clothes to ours. I also note they were different to the Cartier-Bresson photos I have seen so I guess there were regional differences in France as there were in England. I had to give my bed up and sleep on the sofa to accommadate Didier. He did not wear shorts, as our French teacher had claimed French boys did (but she was from Marseiiles in the South) nor jeans as many of the boys of his age (13) did round our way. Instedhe wore something something in-between. They were sort of trousers down to the knee, but not in denim. They were some sort of heavy, light green cotton. He also wore very stripy t-shirts-- mainly white with orange or light blue thin stripes and of a sort of "towelling" material that I had never seen in England. He also wore sandals - sort of French style with open toes that looked odd to us, especially on a teenager. know he got a lot of hassle off the kids on our estate--so he must have looked different. Mmost of the younger kids around my way wore brushed-denim or proper denim shorts then with trainers and the older boys jeans. An early form of "trainers" were in style that Summer. "Basketball shoes" were all the rage . Sandals were definately out. I was mostly out early doing my paper round at that time or out with my mates and only saw the boy now and again. I heared other kids on the estate commenting on his clothes. I tried to dissassociate myself from him as much as possible.

I have been reading the HBC catalog pages which I found really interesting as I followed the links. When I originally wrote to you about Didier I was sorry that I had no photos (as I said our family weren't into photos, alas). However your illustration on the “La Redoute” catalogue page (style B) illustrates exactly what I remember him wearing, although his “shorts” were green or grey, not pink like the ones illustrated in the catalog. hese were unkown in London at the time – which is why I noticed them -English boys were wearing either jeans or “proper” - i.e. quite short - shorts, nothing like this “in-between” style. I don't recall Didier wearing anything like the style A “Madras” shorts illustrated here .

The other point that interests me is that around the time Didier (who was from Grenoble) was wearing those knee-length shorts (the 70s) my French teacher (who was from Marseilles in the South of France) had told us that French boys wore shorter shorts than even the English boys did at the time.I wonder if there was a regional difference?.I know there was in England,comparing London to Yorkshire where my cousin who was about my age lived,but this was not so much to do with climate as in France but attitudes generally.I append a page from the textbook we used for French at school in the 70s – although the book was published in 1969 and fashion can change so quickly.

Bill