French Boys Clothes during the 1950s-60s

I was born in 1950 and grew up in a Paris suburb. We boys at the time all used to wear short trousers (culottes courtes).

Rompers

As a small boy, mother often dresses me in rompers for play. They were commonly worn at that time for little boys, until 4 or 5 years of age.

My Short Pants

I wore shorts until I was about 13 years old. Most of my friends did also. We wore them until it got cold each year. Even as younger boys most of us wore longs in the winter.

Material

I wore several different types of shorts. I do not recall any particular kind. Cotton (tergal) was the most common material. I did not wear flanell shorts like the English boys.

Length

Boys clothes in France were different from the U.K. in the sense that our shorts could be rather short. We did not really notice it at the time. I never thought about the length of my shorts. They were quite shorts, but I never asked for longer shorts. The English style of long knee-length shorts and knee socks were not very common. We were just not interested in the length of our shorts. We did not care. I do not rember discussing the topic with my friends.

Suspender shorts

As a younger boy I wore suspender shorts. I believe I wore them until I was about 5-6 years of age.

Suits

I did not have a short pants suiy myself. Some of my friends did though. I looked on shortpants suits as particularly childish.

Socks and Shoes

Knee socks were not nearly as popular in France as in England. They were not considered prettier in France. Even big boys in shorts wore ankle socks. Ankle socks were particularly common in the summer.

I wore sandals when I was younger, but only during the summer.

Smocks

I wore smocks has a younger boy. We call a smock a "blouse" in French. I wore them until 4 or 5 at home and through about age 8 at school. Mothers liked them because they helped to keep your school clothes clean. One particulat problem was that ball-point pens were not yet used. We still had ink pens and ink wells in the desk. I can not tell you the times I came home with ink all over my hands and clothes, especially when I was younger. Smocks thus were very useful in protecting your clothes. Of course this wasn't all that important to us boys, but explains why mothers liked them so much. None of our teachers encouraged us to wear smocks. It was all up to our mothers

We carried our pens and pencils in a trousse in our school bag. This was particularly important when we wore smocks as it was awkward getting to your pockets.

I do not remember having any particular opinion about them my smocks as a younger boy, but by the time I was 8 years old I didn't want to wear them anymore. I do not remember any details of our conversation. I do remember, however, that I told my mother and she did not object. After I stopped wearing school smocks, I no longer wore them at home either. While older boys than me still wore smocks to school, it was not common for these boys to wear smocks at home and for play.

Some note should be made here about the French term for smocks. I would use the word tablier either for babies or for what a woman would wear in the kitchen. A better term for a boy's school smock is blouse.

Color

I do not recall what color my smocks were when I was little. My school smocks were mostly blue and grey.

Buttons

When I was little I had back buttoning smocks, but my school smocks had front buttons. We boys thought that back buttons were only for children before school age. Some boys at school had the back buttoning style, but mostly in the first years of school. We boys definitely preferred the ones with front buttons.

Pockets

My smocks usually had pockets. The normal arrangement was pockets on each side. I would usually carry a hankerchief there or more important for me at the time, sweets! Not the most sanitary arrangement I supose, but you know how boys are.

Belts

Some smocks at the time had belts, but I unfortunately do not recall if my smocks had one.

Collars

Smocks worn at school were more or less standard, plain blue or grey without large collars. We never wore them with bows. This was more common I believe in Italy.

Age

Smocks were for the most part only worn by primary school boys. It was very common during the first few years for boys to wear smocks. After about 8, many boys stopped wearing them, but some boys wore them all through primary school. By the last year there weren't many but there were a few. They were not very popular, I think they wore them because their mothers insisted.

While I never wore smocks after age 8, I recall a few older boys wearing them after primary school, i.e at the lycee. I remember having seen boys as old as 13 wearing smocks in our "3eme", that is approx the 4th year. It was, however, by the early 1960s rather unsual. Only a few boys wore them in their first year of lycee and most of them had stopped by the end of the year. I do not recall any boys wearing them by their second year.

Long Trousers

I do not really remember getting my first pair of long pants. I wore longs at quite an early age during the winter.

Many of my friends began to wear long pants to school when they were about 12. I began to become a little self conscious. I told my mother that I didn't want to wear shorts any more when I was about 12 1/2. She had no problem and bought more longs for me.

My Lycee

In the french school system we leave primary school to attend the "lycee" (similar to a grammar school in Umited Kingdom) at around 11. When I was a boy, many of us continued wearing shorts even after we had begun the lycee. It was quite common the first few years. Commonly boys began switching to long trousers around their third year at Lycee at approximately 13 years of age.

Some boys wore shorts one or two years longer than most of us. This was because their parents insisted that they wear short pants. There was no school requirement as in England. It was just that some parents were stricter and felt short pants were more appropriate for boys. I remember two boys at my school in particular.

One boy still wore shorts in his 5th year--even during the winter. I was not in his class so did not know much about him, even though I was in the 5th form at the same time.

When I was younger, around 13, I remember a big boy of probably 16 if not 17 coming to school in shorts. I remember that he wore especially short shorts. They were corduroy shorts, typically worn by boy scouts. He wore ankle socks with his shorts. He was I think in the 6th form ("premiere in France") one year before the "baccalauréat". That's was unusual. I do not know if his mates was making fun with him, but know that younger boys (in trousers) found it rather funny that this big boy was still wearing short pants! He was surprinsingly wearing knicker-length lederhosen (for us sort of German breeches) coming down just below the knee. While he normally wore ankle socks, he wore kneesocks with his lederhosen during the winter. Very unusual at the time.

We thought these older boys still wearing shorts juvenile and ridiculous. But we did not sepak too much about it. There were a few laughs at the beginning of the year. There wasn't much discussion of it. We were young and being just old enough to be out of shorts our selves, so I think that we did not like to speak about it very much!

Scouts

I was not a Cub or Scout, but some of my friens were. The wore corduroy shorts, blue for youngs and brown/kaki for olders. It is at that period that older ones moved to trousers.






Christopher Wagner

histclo@lycosmail.com


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Created: June 10, 1998
Last updated: September 7, 1998







Last updated: April 10, 1999