Figure 1.--These unidentified German brothers wear matching H-bar rompers with plain white "T"-shirts. The snapshot is unidentified. but looks like the early-1940s to us. Note the rural settings, this suggests that rompers had become a popular stule and not limited to fashionable cities, although most of the romper images we have found do seem to come from city families. The children look about 3-4 years old. We are not sure what the hats are all about. A reader writes, "It looks as though basket weaving might have been the local industry. German cillages often had their own specilties. The headgear appears to be very professionally woven, probably by their mother. The bundles of sticks might well be osier (willow), used in basket weaving."

We also notice different colors and patterns. The black and white photography means that we can not tell what the actual colors were, but we note that light-colors seem to have been preferred. While our archive is limited, we have not yet found many German rompers done in dark colors. The fact that rompers seem to have been largely summerwear which was commonly done in light colors. We also note patterns which of course can be seen in the photographs. We have found the checks also common used in French rompers. Short pants done in patterns were not very common, perhaps somewhat more common for susdpender shorts. This seems more common for rompers.

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Created: 6:44 AM 5/8/2008
Last updated: 9:14 PM 12/6/2009