Figure 1.--HBC is not sure at just what kind of school this photograph was taken at, but it looks like a private primary school. They are Italian priary students, mostly girls, but some boys as well. The children wear many different types of smocks. This photograph was taken in the 1930s.

Italian nursery and primary school children once commonly wore school smocks. HBC finds this section difficult tomassess at this time because we have so little information on Italian education. They may have even been required for a time by the government. I'm less sure about secondary school children. I believe that this varied chronologically. Today boys and even girls in secondary schools do not wear school smocks. I think in the 1940s and 50s that younger secondary school boys might have worn smocks. The author during a 1980 visit to Rome did seen a group of what looked like junior high school boys and one was weraing a smock. Presumably it was more common earlier. I'm not sure about how private and state schools varoed as far as smock usage is concerned, but there seems to have been more diversity in the smocks worn at private schools. Today in Italy, smocks seem to be more common at Catholic schools than ordinary state schools.

Created: September 3, 2001
Last updated: September 3, 2001