Figure 1.--Zola his pictured hear reading to his son Jacques who appears to be giggling in contrast to his rather serious father. The gingham smock is a back buttoning style with a large ruffled collar. It is being worn over his knickers which seem to be worn just below the knee. The photograph was taken during the summer of 1897.

The French look back on the early 20th century with great affection--certinly in comoarison to what followed. The years before World War I (1900-14) are called "La belle époque". We have begun to build some informatiomn on French boys' clothing during this period. We'd be interested in any details visitors to this page may have. Available information suggests that smocks were commonly worn by boys. Images on the Renoir family and Zola family at around the turn of the family show the children commonly wore smocks. Renoir often painted his children in smocks. Zola's son Jacques wore smocks even when he was 8 or 9 years old. It is not clear to me when the boys would wear their smocks nor do I know what they thought about smocks. They seemed to have been commonly worn around the home, but they also appear in outings to the park dressed in smocks. And of course boys wore blue smocks to school. Other popular outfits appear to be sailor suits and above the knee knickers. A well dressed boy appears to have always worn a sailor hat or a variety of stylish caps. A friend tells me that early Life Magazine articles had some interesting images of European children showing period clothes. I think in 1917-1918 they ran a series of articles on French children who had lost their fathers in the War. The magazine I think was asking for donations to help these families. The series contained lots of pictures of these, sadly mostly young, fatherless children. If anyone has access to a good University library, these Life Magazine images should be available. There apparently was a variety of boys clothes pictured. Advertisers in the early 20th century began using images of children and their characteristic dress to market products.

Decades

The first two decades of the 20th century have to be divided into two very different eras. First the era of the full blooming of European culture ('la belle époque') followed in stunning contrast by the tragedy of World War I. The French look back on the early 20th century with great affection--certinly in comoarison to what followed. Turn of the Century France was a very interesting time and place for fashion. Women's fashions of course was the predominate interest. But stylish children's clothes were also developed. There were not a lot of new styles, but many refinements on old styles. The British and Americans began to become increasingly inhibited about fancy clothes for boys. This inhibition was less prevalent in France. Unfortunately we do not have much fashion literatute describing the styles or explaining the developments. We have had to rely basically on available images to describe the styles and try to trace developments. Many of the images come from post cards, which were widely used at the time for greeting cards but often somewhat fanciful. As a result they probably reflect fancier clothes than generally worn at the time, but are a good indication of general styles and how mothers would like to dress their little darlings. Gradually as HBC expnds we have begun to acquire an increasing numberof ctual photographs, both portraits and snapshots that is geling us build a more reasonble view of the era. Available information suggests that it was a very interesting period in the development of children's fashions. Some 19th century fashions remained popular, but new styles were introduced--the nost important being short pants and knee socks. And some of the more adsurd fashions like Fauntkeroy suits du=isappeared.

Garments

Garments appearing in the late 19th century were still commonly worn in the early 20th century. Fancy outfits like Fauntleroy suits still worn. The major development, however, was the appaerance of the new short pants style. Knee pants and knickers were still common, especially with suits, but shorts pants appeared in the 1900s and grew in importance. appeared. The French fashion magazine, Moniteur de la mode published a interesting articles about fancy suits for younger boys during the early 20th century. Moniteur de la mode was the most important French magazine. Smocks were still commonly worn by boys. Images on the Renoir family and Zola family at around the turn of the family show the children commonly wore smocks. Renoir often painted his children in smocks. Zola's son Jacques wore smocks even when he was 8 or 9 years old. It is not clear to me when the boys would wear their smocks nor do I know what they thought about smocks. They seemed to have been commonly worn around the home, but they also appear in outings to the park dressed in smocks. And of course boys wore blue smocks to school. French elementary boys through the 1950s wore smocks to school, almost always black smocks. I'm not sure who issued the requirement, the local schools or national educational authorities. The smock does, however, appear to be very commonly worn by French school children during this period. I know less about what a French boy would do after school. Would he take his school smock off? Change into another smock for play or go without a smock after school? While smocks were commonly worn by French schoolboys in the early 20th Century, but not by all schoolboys. I'm not sure if the French Government changed the regulations, however, clearly some boy were not wearing smocks to school. One interesting account from 1900 describes a French boy who began the lycee wearing a sailor suit and to his embarassment--with the long curls that his mother dearly loved. France also had an important Catholic school system. I'm not sure about the uniform or dress requirements at these schools. I do not know if the Catholic boys were more or less likely to wear smocks. The smock was generally worn with short pants and often a beret. The image of a boy going off to school in a beret, smock, and book satchel on his back is a nostalgic one for many French people. Most boys wearing smocks during this period appear to be wearing kneepants or longish short pants, usually with long, but not kneesocks. Few boys wore knickers or long pants with school smocks. Other popular outfits appear to be sailor suits and above the knee knickers. A well dressed boy appears to have always worn a sailor hat or a variety of stylish caps.

Orphanges

World War I caused mass slaughter on a basi8s never before exoerienced in Europe. The number of father killed in every country is difficult to fathom. The number of orphans sky rocketed. A friend tells me that early Life Magazine articles had some interesting images of European children showing period clothes. I think in 1917-1918 they ran a series of articles on French children who had lost their fathers in the War. The magazine I think was asking for donations to help these families. The series contained lots of pictures of these, sadly mostly young, fatherless children. If anyone has access to a good University library, these Life Magazine images should be available. There apparently was a variety of boys clothes pictured.

Figure 2.--we are not sure what the boys in the center is wearing, we are guessing a smock. He clearly has on an Eton collar. It is not clear, however, if he has ais wearing a smock. Onereader suggested a romper suit.

Advertisements

Advertisers in the early 20th century began using images of children and their characteristic dress to market products. This may have begun in the late 19th century, but so far the only evidence I have comes from the early 20th century. I believe this trend was most pronounced in America--but this also needs to be confirmed. The image shown here features a boy and probably two sisters looking im a store window--saying "Look, he little Gervais cookies".

Costumes

Post cards were extremely popular in France during the early 20th century. Some of the postcards show children in a variety of fancy cotumes. People bought these cards both to use a greeting cards and o sdave in family albumns. Usually the point of the cards is obvious. Sometimes we do not understand the idea behinf the costume. We also note some portrairs of children in costumes. Perhaps they are gong to a fancy costume party or just dressing up for fun. Here of course the fancy costumes were worn by children from well to do families.

Hair Styles

After the turn of the 20th century, long hair declined in popularity. Especially after World War I (1914-18), most boys wore short hair. Some boys, such as the boys in orphanages, might have their heads shaved. Some boys from affluent families might have long hair, especially before they began school or if they were being schooled at home. Some younger boys might begin school with curls. We note personal accounts indicating that some younger boys did wear long hair to school. The general pattern appears to be quite short hair. We believe that these boys usually had them cut within a year if beginning school. We note many school photographs from the early 20 century in which all the boys, including the very young ones had clossed cropped, sometimes shaved heads. To some extent this was a sanitation measure because of the problem of head lice. Popularity

French Trends

Pictured here is a a variety of childrens fashions, showing that many of the styles popular in America and Britain at the time were also popular, at least among the mothers, in France. There were, however, distinct French touches. A 1906 illustration shows three groups of boys and girls. They are, however, almost certainly boys. They would be about 4-6 and 3-5 years of age, perhaps older. We can be sure they are boys because girls would have been wearing proper dresses and these two outfits are Russian blouse tunic with sailor collars. One boys wears a Glengary cap giving his skirted outfit a Scottish touch. A girl would not have worn this style of cap. The other boy's sailor colla r is trimmed in lace and ruffles and he wears a matching sailor cap with knee-length knickers. (The knee length knickers appears to have been a particularlu popular style in Franc at the turn of the century. The third group shows two girls with a boy of about 6-8 years, he is older than the two younger boys as he wears knee pants, but with short white socks and strap shoes. He has most interesting outfit. He wears his hair in long curls, without bangs, and tied with a hair ribbon. From the looks of concern on his sisters' faces, he is obviously the precious baby of the family. His sailor suit appears to have a lace collar and he wears a large sailor hat.

A HBC contributor tells us that early Life Magazine articles had some interesting images of European children showing period clothes. I think in 1917-1918 they ran a series of articles on French children who had lost their fathers in the War. The magazine I think was asking for donations to help these families. The series contained lots of pictures of these, sadly mostly young, fatherless children. If anyone has access to a good University library, these Life Magazine images should be available. There apparently was a variety of boys clothes pictured.

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Created: July 16, 2000
Last updated: 8:30 AM 2/11/2016