Figure 1.--This 1909 West End ad offers sailor suits and caps. The two kneepants sailor suits look rather similar. Unfortunately we can't read the ad copy.
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Figure 1.--This 1909 West End ad offers sailor suits and caps. The two kneepants sailor suits look rather similar. Unfortunately we can't read the ad copy. |
French boys commonly wore kneepants suits with three-quarter length socks. We note that sailor suits were quite popular and were worn with both caps and hats. Sailor headwore was not just worn with sailor suits. School smocks were quite common.
Boys wore both sailor hats and caps as well as a range of what looked to us today as rather mature headwear for a boy.
West End offered sailor caps to wear with Winter sailor suits and sailor hats to wear with Summer sailor suits. The color and material of the sailor suits differed seasonally but were styled similarly, the hradwear was quite different.
School smocks were quite common.
We believe that rompers appeared in France during the 1900s, although our information is still scanty.
Sailor suits were one of the most important styles for boys. All of the major stires offered a range of sailor styles.
We note a Paris store which appeared to be called West End. This is not a store we know anything about. The use of an English names presumably indicates a fashionable high-end store. We have an ads from the store offering both Summer sailor suits and Winter sailor suits and different styles of caps and hats. There were both kneepants and long pants suits. West End also offered sailor dresses for girls. The girls' sailor hats look very similar to the boys' hats.
Shoes were mostly still hightops.
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