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A French fashion expert tells us, "Les premiers tabliers sont devenus à la mode après 1925. Ils concernaient les filles, même adultes et tous les garçonnets juqu'à 10 ans. Après 1938 lla mode était aux tabliers confectionnés dans des tissus Vichy imprimé, des tissus Boussac. Ils comportaient un col rond cousu, une ceinture boutonnée au dos pour les garçons, les tabliers se boutonnaient toujours au dos. Après1936 il était de règle d'habiller les enfants en tenue courte et même très courte." That means something along the lines of, "The first school smocks became fashionable after 1925. They were worn by girls, even adults, and all boys up to about 10 years old. After 1938 the fashion was for school smocks made from printed Vichy fabrics and Boussac fabrics. They featured a sewn round collar, a buttoned back belt for boys, and always buttoned at the back. After 1936 it was the rule to dress children in short and even very short outfits. We see in the Au bon Marché catalog page the different terms being used for school smocks, but it is a little confusing which is which. As best we can fifure out, the terms tabliers and blouse are both used fior shool smocks. The difference seems to be that tablier is clearly a school smock. Blouse seems to have more styling like a dress. But tabliers and blouses are worn by both boys and girls. Trench-coat was the term for lab-coat style smocks, but this was not a term as widely used as tablier and blouse and we do not see many boys wearing them in the photographic record. We note four grouops of school smocks on the 1937 Au bon Marché catalog page.
Le Bon Marché .eaning 'the good market or 'the good dea' is a Paris department store. It was founded (1838) making it one of the earliesr department stores. Bothers Paul and Justin Videau created it as a novelty shop selling a wide selection of lace, ribbons, sheets, mattresses, buttons, umbrellas and other varied dry goods. The store began with four departments, twelve employees and a floor space of 300 m2. It steadily expanded from that modest bginning. It was compleletly revamped by Aristide Boucicaut (1852). Boucicaut became a partner and made major changes, especially with the marketing plan. He introduced fixed prices and guarantees. Thstore intriduced exchanges and refunds. He substantially expanded the range of merchandise offered. He also introduced fixed prices which replaced the haggling system which was very commoin in dry goods stores at the time. Boucicaut's new system proved enormously successful and in omly a few years the store's annual income expanded from 0.5 million to 5.0 million francs (1860.) The store built a new building at 24 rue de Sévres in Paris's Rive Gauche (Left Bank) (1969). It was was designed by Louis-Auguste Boileau. Alexandre Laplanche decorated the building with Boileau's ironwork. Boileay's son Louis-Charles continued work on the store (1870s). The store was further expanded, engaging the Gustave Eiffel firm, of course of Eiffel Tower fame.
Here is the first grouping (figurev 1) which for some reason puts a school tablier together with a pre-school barboteuse. We have no idea why they are grouped together. Barboteuses have nothing to do with school smocks. The smock ws available in two different quality of fabric. The ad copy reads, "IR-71620. TABLIERS satinete noire boutonnant sur le côté. Om55 ... 9.50. Plus 1, par 0m05 jusqu'à 0m90. Qualité envers croisé 0m05 ..13.50. Plus 1.50 par 0m05 jusqu'au 0m90." This translates as "IR-71620. Black satin school smock buttoning on the side. Om55...9.50. Plus 1, by 0m05 up to 0m90. Cross back quality. Om05 ..13.50. Plus 1.50 per 0m05 up to 0m90. Thus means a black satin-like smock for a child 0.55m tall priced at Fr9.50 and an additinal 1 Fr for every 0.05m up to 0m90. We are un sure what what 'Cross back quality' means.
The ad copy for the Barboteuse reads, "IR-71657. BARBOTEUSES Vichy écossais, grand teint, le 0m45 ... 10. Plus 1. par 0m05 jusq, 0m60. En Vichy uni, écru ou bleu, le 0m45 ... 6. Plus 1. par 0m05 jusqu'å 0m60." This trnaslates as "R-71657. ROMPERS Scottish gingham, colorfast, 0m45 ... 10. Plus 1. by 0m05 up to 0m60. In plain, ecru or blue ginham, the 0m45 ... 6. Plus 1. by 0m05 up to 0m60."
Blouses as far as we can figure out are school smocks done rather like dresses. Here the model is a girk=l and one of the two optioins is for girls. We also notice a school smock labeled a 'trench coat' done in the abl cait style. The model os a boy, but we note bith boys and girls wwaring them, generally older childre, The sizing here, however does mot seem veery different from the tablier and and blouse smaocks. The base size for these smocks are 0.55-70 meters. The modelm used to dispaly these smocks should not be taken as a statement about exclusive gender conventions. Many if not most of these smock styles could be worn interchangeably by both boys and girls.
The third grouping in the 1937 mail order catalog showed school smocks called tabliers and bloses for porimary school children. We have no idea why two are called tabliers abnd one is a blouse. They look very similar to us. The blouse may look slightly more like a dress, but only slightly so. Perhaps our French readers can tell us what the difference beween a tablier and blouse is. We do not see it. Boys and girls wore both styles. Perhaps more girls wore the blouses, but boys also wore blouses and girls also wore tabliers. The models show a girl wearing atablier and boys wearing a tablier and blouse. But with school smocks the gender of the models does not mean that tyhe smock was only for that hender. there ae some clues in the ad copy. Colors made be a clue. We see some were red. hese may have been for firls. Here we are not sure.
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