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Rarely does a popular garment have such radically diiferent gender comventions in different countries. HBC is at this time has only limited information about gender conventions for rompers. We believe that they have varied over time. There were also substantial differences between countries. In some countries like France only boys wore rompers while in other countries such as America rompers werre worn by both boys and girls. Here we have cimpiled considerable information on France, but our information on other countriesc is still quite limited. Unlike other garments where we have reports from readers, many readers do not recall wearing rompers because of their ages. Thus we have fewer first hand accounts. The conventions concerning rompers in each country of course has changed over time thus complicating matters. At this time we have only limited information on these conventions and changes over time.
In America, HBC believes that rompers were initially intended for boys, but came to be worn by both boys and girls. This was especially true for the early rompers worn for play. I'm less sure about the dressier styled rompers. Probably a girl would be nore likely to wear a dress for formal occasions. HBC has, however, very little information on rompers, so this assessment is highly speculative at this stage. We hope to obtain more information from period catalogs. Much later romper suits appeared exclusively for girls. I'm not sure when this began, but I remember seeing these suits in the 1950s. It presumably occurred after romper-like bloomer suits became a standard type of girls' gym uniform. Eventually of course rompers became a style for infants, both boys and girls.
HBC has no information on gender conventions for rompers in Belgium. We believe, however, that they were similar to those in France.
We note a German girl goung to school in Denmark dring the 1930s wearing a rompers-style gym suit. We are not sure how common this was in the rest of Denmark.
We do not yet have much gender information on rompers. English readers have not commented to any extent on the topic. We have no information on the 19th century. We note some English children wearing rompers in the early-20th century. think early rompers in England were worn by both boys and girls. These were mostly pre-school children. We note a girl wearing rompers for paddling on the beach in the inte-War era. Older girls might also wear them. We are not yet sure if romper suits were worn for school gym class in Ebgland, but bloomers certainly were. By the 1960s we see school-age girls wearing rompers. A good example is an unidentified girl with a swim club group. We are not sure if she is wearing her eomper suit as a swimsuit or after swiming, but it seens ti be swimsuit. This was appaently a swimsuit, but would not have been very good for competitive swimming. Hopefully our British readers will be able to throw some light on this topic.
A French reader tells HBC that in France girls did not wear rompers which were exclusively an outfit for little boys. They were normally worn by pre-school boys, but HBC has noted rompers made for boys up to 7 years old. Boys wore both play and dressy styled rompers. Girls even for play would wear little dresses. A French reader tells us that this was the accepted convention for rompers. There was nothing preventing a mother from dressing a pre-school girl in rompers if she wanted to, but it was rarely done. The one exception was that mothers on summer holiday would dress girls in "barboteuse bain de soleil". This was a romper sunsuit commonly worn at the beach. The standard one-piece romper, however, was in France exclusively a boys' garment. This convention continued through the 1960s. Eventually as in America, rompers became a style for infants, both boys and girls.
HBC has noted younger German boys wearing rompers. It appears to have been a style primarily for boys, but we can not definitively state that. We note a German girl goung to school in Denmark during the 1930s. The girls had a romper-style gym uniform. A German reader tells us that this was quite common in Germany at the time.
Rompers in Italy were worn by boys boys and girls. They seem most common in institutional settomgs for both genders. Rompers were a popular style for younger Italian boys beginning after the turn of the 20th century. They initially were a style of play clothes suitable for the nursery or around the house. Rompers were a one piece suit with short legs that blouced up and had elastic leg closings. The original styles were worn like knickers at knee length, but gradually became shorter. We believe that Italy was one of the European countries were the most popular, but we have little information at this time, as we have only limited information on Italian clothes in general at this time. Italian boys wore rompers though the 1950s. There were both play clothes and dressy outfits. We even see some Italian schools with romper uniforms, at least during the summer. Italian girls also wore rompers. They seem even more popular for girls and might be worn by older girls than boys. We see girls wearing rompers are the Fascist Balila summer camps in the 1930s. We do not at this time have full information on Italian girls' rompers. They appear to be schools at residential settings. The dressy styles persisted longer than the play clothes. Generally by the 1950s only younger Italian boys still wore rompers. They continued to be worn until the 1960s when they began to be less common and restricted to mostly infant wear.
HBC has noted Dutch boys wearing rompers. It appears to have been a style primarily for boys, but we can not definitively state that.
No information available at this time.
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