Gender identity, personal preferences, confidence: these are just a few aspects of your mental makeup that are directly and sometimes indirectly affected by what you wear. Sometimes just a bright, bold t-shirt can put you in a happy mood, while something that doesn’t fit you right may leave you feeling out of your element. For children, what they wear can be of greater importance, especially given that their formative years can have a longstanding impact on their adult life as well. So be it gender-specific colours, silhouettes or accessories, we’ve taken a deep dive into the connection between fashion and its effects on children in today’s world.
Image used for representational purposes only.
History Of Children Wear
It’s impossible to talk about the present and future scenario of children’s wear without understanding how the category evolved into what it is today. In the early eighteenth century, there was a lack of gender-based distinction for kids wear. Infants, both girls and boys were dressed in a similar fashion. Their wardrobe included easy silhouettes like gowns, robes and tunics, with no clear distinction based on colour. It was only in the 1910s that the concept of dividing clothes for girls in pink and that for boys in blue was introduced to shoppers.
Image Source: Lovetoknow.com
It was in the twentieth century that clothes with feminine details like frills, skirts and bows were allocated for girls, while those with masculine details like bow ties, pants and shirts were assigned to the boys’ category.
Gender-Neutral Dressing For Kids
When it comes to children’s wear, gender is often fussed over, making the child’s birth gender the primary focus. However, much like in older times, gender-neutral children’s wear is taking over the category globally. This basically includes clothes that can be worn by children of both genders, without any distinction. Here are some Indian gender-neutral children’s wear brands to check out:
Cuddles For Cubs
Image Source: Instagram/cuddlesforcubs
Cuddles for Cubs focuses on the zero to six age group, with a wide variety of fun and quirky co-ord sets, jogger sets, onesies and a lot more- all made with gender-neutral designs.
Equalitee
Image Source: Instagram/equaliteein
Equalitee’s primary brand focus is gender neutrality. The brand attempts to move beyond the pink and blue norms of kids' wear and is ‘gender-cool’. The brand’s range of t-shirts have been designed to highlight gender equality in fun and easy ways.
Enclothed Cognition
Enclothed Cognition refers to the effect of clothes on the wearer’s personality, psychology and behaviour. The same naturally applies to children as well. At a stage where they are in the process of forming their personalities and inclinations, it’s important they feel themselves and feel happy in what they wear.
Want to learn more about the psychology behind fashion? Here are 4 reasons your clothes may be affecting your mood: Click Here