French Fashion Publications and Children's Fashions: Femmes d'aujourd'hui


Figure 1.--The suit pictured here from a December 1964 issue was called a "costume baby". Note this suit were very worn by boy 2-4 years old and tends to take the place of the rompers which by the mid-1960s were declining in popularity.

We still have relatively little information on this magazine. The title means Women of Today. We do not know when the magazine began publishing. We do know that they were active in the 1940s-50s. A HBC reader tells us that his mother subscribed to the magazine. She especially liked the patterns that the mazine contained. The pattens were only for sewing garments. For knitting work there were also descriptions in the magazine.

Limited Informaion

We still have relatively little information on this magazine. Thanks to French readers, however, we are gradually acquiring some information on French fashion magazines. The title means Women of Today. A French reader tells us that this was a popular magazine in the 1950s and that it primarily had clothing for girls and women. Another popular mafazine at the time, Petit Echo de la Mode, had more patterns for boys' clothing.

Chronology

We do not know when the magazine began publishing. We do know that they were active in the 1940s-50s. The particular page shown here is from December 3, 1964 and was issue number 1022. We do not know the periodicity of the magazine, but clearly it had been operating for quite an extended period.

Sewing Patterns

A HBC reader tells us that his mother subscribed to the magazine. She especially liked the patterns that the mazine contained. The pattens were only for sewing garments. For knitting work there were also descriptions in the magazine. His mother especially liked the free patterns there were often included in the magazine. She collected quite a huge collection of patterns from the magazine.

Knitting Directions

The pattens concerned only the sewing work . About the knitting work proposed they were always with the description into the magazine.

Outfit

The "costume baby" outfit shown in the image here was from the mid-1960s. This outfit gradually repaced romer outfits for boys diring the 1960s. The short pants worn with this outfit were always very short. There were two styles. One had very short, short pants. The other with a standard very short pants. The other had short pants that were slightly elasticated in the middle of the leg. It was also possible to find a model with croch buttoning for very young boys (1 and 2 years old). This outfit was for every day year, it was not for dressing up. They were commonly sold by the children's chain store " Prénatal ". A French reader tells us, "Little boys were adorably dressed with little white shoes. These outfits were available with short or long sleeves in cotton or wool, depending on the season. The most popular color was sky blue. In the same period, another popular style for very young boys was a very short dress with puffed sleeves that were worn with little bloomer pants. These outfits were commonly adverized in catalogs like La Redoute. HBC has archived a La Redoute 1959 catalog. These outfits were only for boys."

Focus

Thefocus of "Femmes d'Aujourd'hui " was primarily on girls and boys. The magazine commonly presented boys as moredifficult than girls andvery hard on their clothes--often tearing them. It was a markedly differnt focus thn other fashion magazines like LePetit Echo de la Mode. The focus here was similar to that of English boys' magazine. This magazine took a different approach to girls' fashions than many other French mgazines. They advocatd, for example, romper for girls. In France, however, people viewed rompers as a detinctly boys' garment. A French reader writes, "This magazine isuggestd dressing little girls in rompers. That was scandalous for us i the 1950s, we boys had never suggetd wearing our sister's dresses."






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Created: December 13, 2001
Last updated: February 21, 2003