Figure 1.--Berets were never worn commonly worn by American boys. The younger boys that wore them were normally wearing dressy outfits--never casual clothing. Almost always American boys wore white or cream colored berets with dressy clothes. Slightly older boys might wear a peaked cap with dressy outfits. I am not sure why the light-colored berets were preferred, especially as French boys never wore white berets. A French reader writes, "Beautifull look! One could believe that these boys were French, except that French boys did not wear white berets. I find this image rather strange. Sometime the American taste is realy tender, but other times (usually) it seems rather hard."

Some American boys during the late 19th century wore "tams" withs dressy outfits. They were much larger than modern berets and normally worn with dressy outfits. The classic beret was worn by small boys in America during the 1920s-40s as part of a dressy outtfit. The chronology suggests that it was a style which developed as part of the connections with France after World War I. A good example is Harold Mussman in 1937. For some reason, white seems a popular colot for boys' berets. It was less common for girls. Our information is limited at this time because we hsve so few examples in our photographic archive. We are not sure about the social class connotations, but believe it was an upper-class or upper middle-class style. Berets were never worn by American boys as casual clothing a was the case for girls. Berets were occassionaly worn during the 1950s, but not commonly. Almost always American boys wore white or cream colored berets with dressy clothes. Slightly older boys might wear a paeked cap with dressy outfits. I am not sure why the light-colored berets were preferred in America. Notably French boys did not wear white berets. This convention in America was very common for boys who wore them. The beret was little seen in the United States after the 40s as boys' wears, until some Scout groups adopted red berets during the 1960s.

Created: 11:01 PM 12/16/2009
Last edited: 10:42 PM 8/19/2018