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We note French boys wearing all kinds of different pants to school. Most were their regular pants and not school uniform pants. The diffeent types of pants have included long pants, knee pants, knickers, short pants, and rompers. Long pants were very common in the 19th century. Various type of shortened-length pants appeared at mid-century. We notice knee pants being worn in the late-19th century and they evolved into short pants after the turn-of-the 20th century. We see different kinds of short pants. Boys commonly wore short pants until after World War II. Frenvch boys also wore knickers. They were less common and often worn by teenagers rther thn kickets, at least in the 20th century. Just as long pants were mostly worn to school duting the early-19th century they were also the dominnt ype of pants worn to school in the late-20th century.
We are not entirely sure what kind of pants boys wore in the early 19th century. Presumably as in other countries, long pants were mostly worn. School uniforms were not common. We see some boys wearing military styled uniforms in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, usually with long pants. French boys by the 1970s began to wear mostly long pants. The boys that did wear shorts began wearing mostly longer-cut ones. Since the 60s, French boys have mostly worn long pants to school. And as smocks becme less common, we can see in more detail the styling because smocks sharply declined in popularity after the 50s.
After the mid-19th century we begin to see various types of shortened-length pants. Both knee pants and knickers were worn. Knee pants became increasingly common. Knee pants were widely worn for several decades. They do not seem to have been very common with the uniforms boys wore in the lte-19th and early-20th centuries. As boys began wearing smocks, they were modtly vworn with knee pants. Knede pants were worn with long stockings and three-quarter socks. The socks became more common by the end of the century.
Knickers were one of the shortened-length pants which appeared in the mid-19th cenntury. Knickers like knee pants proved popular for younger French boys, although most boys wore long pants until the late-19th century. This we see boys wearing knickers to school. We believe they were primarily below-the-knee knickers which continued to be the case in the 20th century. We notice a lot of boys wearing knickers with three-quarter socks at the tutn-of-the 20th century. Unlike America, knee pants were not as dominant. But unlike America, knickers became less common in the 1910s. Most boys wore short pants. We see some teenagers beginning to wear knickers as a kind of transition befofe wearing long pants. There also seems to be a seasonal and regional factor. Knickers were especially common during the colder winter months. We think they were also more common in the northern mountaenous areas of France, but here our information is still limited. Younger boys after Worlkd war I rarely wore knickers, but we see some exceptions to this general trend. We do see a few schools where quite a number of boys wore knickers. We believe that here seasonal and/or regionl factors were involved. We note particularly long ski-pants knickers during the 1940s. We see the same style of knickers in Germany, but there they were primarily associated with the winter Hitler Youth uniform. We stull see knickers after the War, but the quickly disppeared by the early-50s.
Short pants appeared after the turn-of-the 20th century evoling from knee pants. Short pants After World War I had mostly replaced knickers, except for older boys. The first shorts were long, like knee pnts but wihout the decreative knee hem buttons. Smocks were very common in the late-19th and early-20th century so it is not always possiblke to see the kinds of mostly short pnts being worn. There were all kind of diffeent short pants. Suspender shorts were very common in France. This was the general case on the Continent. Younger boys might wear bib-front shorts. We see quite a number of school portaits with many boys wearing bib-front shorts. They replaced bib-front rompers when the boys began primary school. They seem to be most common in schools where smocks were not worn. We see some Catholic schools after World war II adopting unifornms with blue cord shorts and white knee socks. Boys in the 20th century mostly wore horts with school smocks. So we can often not tell what kind of pants the boy was Wearing unless he was wearing long pants which was not common until the late-1950s. Boys commonly wore shjorts even in the winter. Kneesocks were common in the colder months. French boys commonly wore short pants through the 1950s and even the early 60s. Younger boys commonly wore suspender shorts and also bib-front shorts. After World War II (1939-45), shorts became shorter and began to be worn mostly by younger boys.
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