Figure 1.--Here we see a rather confident looking boy in Rome wearing a classic Italian school smock, although a lighter blue than had been common. The photograph was taken in 1970 He looksabout 8 years old. Notice the white rather than light-blue bow. We can't see all of the white collar, but suspect it is a Peter Pan collar. Notice te modern dsks, but they seem all jammed together.

Smocks were still common in the 1970s, but were becoming less common, especially for older primary boys in the 1970s. One Italian author associates smocks with dicpline. He writes, "Those were the years of absolute order in the classroom, of the smock and the standing-sitting, of rows for two and authoritarian teachers." Some schools still required smocks with wide wite collars and floppy bows. We believe that tnhis was espcially common at Catholic schools. But fewer schools continued this traditionand more boys came to schools without smocks. A factor here was the rising prosperity in Italy. The whole idea of smocks was to cover up dffereences in the way children were dressed. Until after World War II, many low-income Italians coud not afford nice clothes for their children. We see variation in the colors. The classic darl blue smocks were no longer universal, alhough still common. The style of smocks also began to change in the 70s with front buttoning smocks appearing and becoming increasingly common. Wearing smocks with long pants began to appear in more school potraits in the the 1960s, especially by the late-60s. This continue to increase in ppulariy. increasingly common in the 1970s.

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Created: 12:12 AM 3/5/2025
Last updated: 12:13 AM 3/5/2025