We notice Swedish boys wearing romper shorts for school gym classes. I am not sure when they began wearing them. They presumably were worn in the 1940s, but I am not sure if they were worn earlier. The style reportedly remained cmmon into the 1960s. I'm not sure what the Swedish term was for these shorts. A Swedish reader tells us, "I can’t recall if these rompershorts had any special name in Swedish. It was just ” gymnastikbyxor med resår runt benen” or gymshorts with elasticized legs." Our reader provides us some background information. "I was born in Sweden during the early 1950s and I remember
wearing romper shorts for gym at school or at the gym club. It was quite common that boys and girls and even adult males and females use to wear them. Romper shorts was part of the official gym uniform for boys and young men. The attached photo from the Gymnaestraden Rotterdam was taken in 1953. My older brother who was 16 or 17 is among them the boys pictured for some official gymnastic event. It was a mandatary item at the boy’s gym club where all boys and teenagers worn them includind the gym trainer. At schools gym classes some boys and some girls worn them too as well as I did. I used to wear them even during summer until late 60s or early 70s. The shorts was quite loose fitting and made in cotton. I remember they was very confortable during hot summer days. I suppose they went out
of fashion with the arrival of new materials for gym and sport clothing." We are unsure why the style was primarily a school gym suit style. Romper shorts may have been worn in other European countries, but so far we have only noted in Sweeden. Se also see Swedish children, but mostly girls, aring romper pants in summer camps during the 1950s.
A Swedish reader writes, "I asked my mother about the Swedish name for the romper shorts and she explained to me that she would call it ” rynkbyxor ” (gathered pants). There was some other variations of this garnment that looked like bib rompers for the summer season. It was called ” solbyxor ” (sunpants) or ” ekbyxor ” (playpants) used by younger children up to 8 years old. We were rather poor and she used to sew some of our clothes in aim to save some money. Patterns and material was provided by a consumer association at resonable prices. She thought that these shorts were very practical since we could use them several years at school gym classes or gym club without growing out of it since the breadth of the garnment was adjusted by elastic. She did remark that these pants was rather diffucult to iron!"
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