German Pinafores: Styles


Figure 1.--This undated German image is an old style snapshot on thick card meaning that it was proablu taken in the early 20th century, perhaps about 1910. The younger boy has patches on the sleeves of his shirt and all their clothing looks worn. The older boy looks to be wearing Wellington boots (Wellies). They look to be wearing butchers' aprons, probably related to the pinafore smock style that many younger German boys wore. I'm not sure what the back was like, but notice the byttons at the shoulder and the waste ties.

HBC has no information at this time about German boys wearing traditionally styled pinafores. After the turn of the 20th centuty, however, we do seem numerous examples of German boys wearing pinafore-type pinafore smocks. This is not a style we have noted in England and France. These simple and inexpensive pinafores generally buttoned at the shoulders and were made in variety of colors. Our chronological information on German pinafores, including pinafore smocks is still quite limited. German boys appear to have worn these pinafore smocks in the early 20th century, before World War I. We note some images show boys wearing long pinafore smocks, more like a butcher's apron. More common were the shorter length, very plain pinafore smock. One style buttoning at the shoulders is seen here which the boys wear over their sailor suits. After World War I these pinafore smocks with a large front pocket became more common, but for pre-school boys.

Traditional Styles

HBC has little information at this time about German boys wearing traditionally styled pinafores. Boys may have worn them in the early and mid-19th century, but we have little information indicating that they were doing so by the late 19th century when the traditional pinafore came to be widely worn by German girls. We have found a few images of younger boys. One oroblem here is that many images are unidentified. As a result, we are not always certain as to the gender of the child. We do note very ypoung German boys wearing pinafores and dresses in the early 20th century. One such uinformation we have noted are boys 1-2 years of age. One such image shows an unidentifed boy with his books and toys.

Butcher Aprons

We note a few images of German boys wearing what look for all intents and purposes a long butcher's apron. We are unsure if this was an anomalyy or actual a more common garment from with the pinafore-smock developed. We do notice that a few of the pinafore smaock garments were fairly lng garments in contrast to the more common shorter version. The imahe we have here is undated, but we would guess that the photograph was taken about 1910.

Pinafore Smocks

After the turn of the 20th centuty, however, we do seem numerous examples of German boys wearing pinafore-type pinafore smocks. This is not a style we have noted in England and France. We are not sure what the anrecedenrs of this style were. Most probably it was an adaption of the common child's pinafore for boys as the traditional pinafofre became a commonly worn garment more assocuated with girls. These simple and inexpensive pinafores generally buttoned at the shoulders and were made in variety of colors. Our chronological information on German pinafores, including pinafore smocks is still quite limited. German boys appear to have worn these pinafore smocks in the early 20th century, before World War I. More common were the shorter length, very plain pinafore smock. One style buttoning at the shoulders is seen here which the boys wear over their sailor suits (figure 1). After World War I these pinafore smocks with a large front pocket became more common, but for pre-school boys.







HBC





Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main German pinafore page]
[Return to the Main pinafore page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Geman glossary] [Satellite sites] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]




Created: August 26, 2002
Last updated: 5:05 PM 12/10/2006