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Italian boys clothes family families 1930s family families
Italian Families: The 1930s
Figure 1.--This family portrait was taken in Palermo, Sicily during 1935. We do not know the family's name, but they look like a prosperous middle-class family. The older brother wears a jacket. The younger boy a long-sleeved shirt. It is rather unusual to see the elder brother wearing short pants, while his younger brother wears long trousers. Once might expect mother to chose the children's clothing for a formal family portrait like this. Apparently she allowed the boys to choose what they wanted to wear for the portrait. The girls all wear different dresses. Click on the image to sse the rest of the family.
Most Italian boys wore light-weight clothes in the 1930s. We do not see many caps and hats. Headwear was still common in northern Europe. T-shirts and tank top undershorts were very common in the summer. Short pants were very common. Most boys and younger teenagers wore them. But we see some boys wearing long pants. We do not see as many suits as in northern Europe. Climate was a factor, but so was incomr level. Italy continued to be a very poor country. We do not see many boys wearing ties, especially in the south. Boys usually wore their shirts open without buttoning the collar .Long stockings were not very common, especially in the south. We see knee socks a little more commonly, but many boys wore ankle socks or no hosiery at all. Sandals were very common. We see both closed and ipen toe sandals. Open toe sandals were esopecially common.
We note a family from Santa Maria di Leuca, a charming little seaside town located in the far southeast of Italy. The portrait was taken during 1931. It shows Filomena and Vito Borrello and their large family consisting of eight children. They all have different outfits. The older children are (left to right): Pietro Antonio, Angela, Francesco, Rosaria and Tommaso. In front of the parents are the younger children: Vita Lucia, Augusto (wearing a sailor suit) and Alessandro (wearing rompers).
This family portrait was taken in Palermo, Sicily during 1935. We do not know the family's name, but they look like a prosperous middle-class family. The older brother wears a jacket. The younger boy a long-sleeved shirt. It is rather unusual to see the elder brother wore short pants, while his younger brother long trousers. Once might expect mother to chose the children's clothing for a formal family portrait like this. Apparently she allowed the boys to choose what they wanted to wear for the portrait. The girls all wear different dresses.
Here is a photo depicting rhe Cesanueva family in 1935. It was taken in Val Gardena (in German: Gröden; in Ladin: Gherdëina), a valley in South Tyrol where the mother tongue is Ladin. Mby in Siuth Tyrol mspeak German, but not all. South Tyrol was a historically Austrian Province awarded to Italy in the World War I settlement. Italy had fought with the Allies, but had expected greater reards than South Tyrol. Landin is both a lanuage and ethnic group related to Raetic prople in Switzerland. The children look to be about 2013 years old. We notive the boys here wearing what looks like leather smocks. We are not sure how common that was. The boys are both barefoot which was commom in Alpine areas during the summer.
Here we see the family of Maria Velente in 1936. She was a popular Italian circus performer who also appeared in films. She was born in Rome. We are not sure just when she was born, but would guess some time in the 1890s. She was Italian, but as she traveled all over Europe as part of traveling circuses has a pan-European experience. Her father was the master and stage director of Fregoli the famous Italian ventriloquist and transformist. Maria began performing when she was only 3 years old in of all places Kiev, Russia. She performed in many ways, as a horse-back rider, a tightrope walker, and a juggler. This was the normal apprenticeship at the time for a circus kid. She became a talented musician. She played among other instruments the xylophone and various unconventional instruments invented by her creative instruments. She was performing circuses and music halls by the age of 16 years. She was a well known performer in many European countries (such as Belgium, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and other countries by the age of 20 years). Maria married Guiseppe, an Italian accordionist. They had four children, two boys and two girls. They performed as a family with eccentric music -- "Maria Valente et Cie" troupe "Maria Volonte and her children".
This portrait was taken in the Calabria regiomn during the 1930s. Calabria was the region of southern Italy, south of Naples comprising the "toe" of the Italian boot-line peninsula. This was a relatively poor partr of Italy. The portrait shows a mother with her seven children. We are not sure where father is. The children looks to be about 1-12 years of age. They are a good example iof a typical large Italian family at the time. The boys wear short pants with a variety of tops. Nobe of the children wear hosiery, probanly the result of both climare and sociasl class factors. The clothing worn by the boy in the front left looks to be a romper sailor suit.
The photo depicts the Rivoir family in 1937. They were originally from the Aosta Valley. Guido Rivoir was a Waldensian Pastor. The photo was taken in Prarostino a town in the Piedmony near Turin. Father served the local Church. The Waldensians are members of a proto-Protestant church tradition meaning that it predates Protestantism and was an early step toward it. It began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity befor eLuther and the Reformation. It became known at an early stage as the 'Poor men of Lyon' (late-12th century). The Waldensians spread to the Cottian Alps in what are today France and Italy. The family is fashionably dressed. Thdere are five children, who look to range from infabcy to about 10-years of age. Mother seem to believe in briaded hair.The children mostly wear sandals.
The photo was taken in Pofi, a village about 100 km south-east of Rome. It was taken in 1939, probably by an itinerant photographer. The photo shows a mother with her children. The elder boy wears jacket and short pants with close-toe sandals and socks. The girl wears a white dress and close-toe sandals without socks.
