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Children's Clothing

In the fashion world, there was clothing for men, women, and children, and from the early 1800s and 1900s, the fashion industry in clothing has grew more and more. The main category in clothing that will be focused on is what the children wore during these times. Clothing worn by children shared a common feature. For instance, in a book, called Children's Costume: The Complete Historical Sourcebook by John Peacock says," An 8 year old girl in the 1800s would wear a cotton dress that is ankle length, with a low neckline edged and a self- made frill and matching sleeves, and finally a skirt that starts at a high waistline and a bow in the back. An 8 year old boy would wear a double breasted fine wool jacket with a wide revers, high collar and tight sleeves. They also would wear a collarless waistcoat, that would be worn over a cotton shirt with a draped collar in the front." Kids during this time would wear clothes that kept them covered from head to toe with and without layers. However, it made the fashion industry easier because children's clothing really did not have any gender even though they were hand made in different forms. There were also designs in the 1920s that consisted of floral designs and animal motifs that appeared on children's clothing. In the beginning when they started decorated were made for one gender. These designs were dogs, drums, kittens, and flowers. Designs today consisted of animals, flowers, sport designs, cartoons, and more.

Infants

The first thing that will be talked about when it comes to children's clothing is what would be society- acceptable for infants. In an article called Love to Know written by Colleen R. Callahan, also talked about the History of Clothing. The first thing that was said was, " that the way the adult's clothing was made has influenced children's clothing. Colleen also said, that even swaddling has been huge in the modern times, it was very traditional and for many centuries. Another thing that she had said was that, " The tradition of swaddling has helped and also supported the babies bodies, as it does today. In the Eighteenth century medical concerns that swaddling weakened rather than strengthened. Children's limbs merged with new ideas about the nature of children and how they should be raised gradually reduce the use of swaddling.

Another thing about infants is that they were also covered up from head to toe with no skin showing when they wore layettes which was a long dress, numerous undershirts, day and night caps, napkin- like diapers, a coat, and nightgowns with socks. Colleen also said that, even when it came to rompers and gowns, they were still covered up, "When the infants wore gowns, it was worn as a practice of swaddling babies and they was supposed to wear it from when they were born until they were five months old. For the infants who are now at the age where they can crawl and are also toddlers, would wear what they called frocks, but are now the ankle version of a slip dress.

Infants in the nineteenth centuries also wore rompers, which were just a new concepts of emphasizing that the age of the children were huge. Because of this, rompers were started for the infants; So there was a lot of research that were done that reinforced how important the crawling stage was. Rompers were also worn both day and night and became popular in the twentieth century.

Girls' clothing

There really is not much to say about Girl's clothing, but that all they wear during the eighteenth and nineteenth century were dresses until twentieth century. However Colleen said it well, "So little girl's wore outfits throughout their lives from infancy to old age." However, there was a major difference between the girls' and women's dresses which was that the children's dresses were shorter, and hitting the floor by their mid teen years. Some examples of Girls' would be what a six year old girl would wear, compared to what a twelve year old girl would wear . First, we will talk about what a six year old would wear; They would wear a spotted cotton dress with a low neckline that is frill-edged. Having matching hemmed puff sleeves that are short and a ankle lengthened skirt that is high waisted, and finally a ribbon in the hair. Now for a twelve year old girl, they would wear a fine cotton dress with low square neckline with embroidery, she would have matching sleeves, a high waist and paneled skirt that is also ankle length. She will also wear a indoor bonnet with ties, silk stockings and pointed- toed shoes.

Boy's clothing

Next, we will talk about what boys would wear in the early eighteenth and nineteenth century. Skeleton type suits were specifically designed for small boys than age 3-7 years old. What would happen is that they would be tight on the body and it consisted of ankle length trousers, that was buttoned on to a short jacket. So, If it was a six year old boy and a twelve year old boy, they would wear similar but more mature type of clothing. A six year old boy would wear a full breasted wool tailcoat with huge buttons, having tight sleeves and stitched cuffs. This would be worn over a wool waistcoat and a large filled shirt that has a collar. They would also wear ankle- length pantaloons with fall fronts and knitted stockings, and finally slippers. A twelve year old boy would wear a single-breasted wool tailcoat with a huge collar, revers that are wide and tight sleeves with sewn cuffs. A waistcoat with a stand collar, shirt that was worn with matching stocks. Ankle length wool pantaloons with fall fronts, also wore knitted stockings and finally shoes with leather that had ties on them.

Why colors and genders were important

In the 1910s, colors that were used a s a symbol for genders today; were commonly used as blue for male infants and pink for the female infants. In a book called Pink and Blue Telling the Boys from the Girls in America written by Jo B. Paoletti said that, "Gender differences in children's clothing refers to elements that are classified as "masculine," "feminine," or "neutral," almost in a grammatical sense. Gender differences in this particular subject will be about children from about six or seven, living in the United States from 1885 through 2011.

Clothing in the Future

Clothing has definitely changed from the early eighteenth and nineteenth century. Although children has started with clothing that had them covered up, we have now found different ways to find clothing where children are still covered up, but more in a modernized and comfortable ways. Whether it is pants, jeans, joggers, sweats, dresses, skirts, rompers, jumpsuits, onesies, shorts, leggings, cardigans, suits, and more. Children have now become more grown in fashion in society and will still be able to grow in the future.

References

Love to Know by Collen R. Callahan

Children's Costume: The Complete Historical Sourcebook by John Peacock

Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America by Jo B. Paoletti