Figure 1.--This 1909 West End ad offers gurls summer sailor dresses and hats. They were for girls 3-11 years old. Notice the hat tally says "London", obviously a reference to the city where West End gets its name. A French naval vessel would obviously not have that name. |
We note a Paris store which appeared to be called West End. This is not a store we know anything about. Wedo know that it was an extremely large department store located at Rue Caumartin, Rue Auber, and Haussman. There can't have been many stores that were larger. Perhaps our French readers will know about it. The use of an English names presumably indicates a fashionable high-end store. We have an ad from the store offering girls sailor dresses. The two sailor dresses have traditional V-front styling and almost certainly a back flap. The bodice of the dress would have been virually identical to a boy's sailor suit. The sailor hats are also quite similar to boys' sailor hats. These sailor dresses look like summer dresses which is probably why the third dress was put with them on the same page.
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