Overview of Baby Clothing

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Research Background and Problem Statement

The concept of baby clothing generally refers to clothing that is designed for children with the age group of 0 to 36 months. When talking about the earlier days, baby clothing was mainly prepared by the parents by considering all aspect of comfort as well as shape of the clothing that babies used to wear (Riungu, 2009). However, in recent years, the concept of manufacturing baby clothing has become one of the major considerations for many fashion retailers and it also resulted in phenomenal rise regarding the sales volume and the growth of the baby clothing products and the overall sector as well. In this context, continuous changes in lifestyle as well as significant increase in women working population in the fashion industry have been intensifying major consciousness towards properly presenting babies (Pandya, 2016). Simultaneously, continuous pace in product innovation to design new style as well as changing demands and preferences of the customers are become few major key drivers leading to rise paramount growth of global baby clothing market. Nevertheless, the global baby clothing market is also driven by an increasing shift of demand for branded apparel among the range of target population. At the similar viewpoint, increasing income level and changing socio-cultural trend among the population are also key factors that have been strongly influenced towards the growth of the baby clothing business industry (Chen et al., 2004). Hence, the baby clothing has been obtaining major shift of growth in line with the phenomenal growth in the adult fashion industry.

1.2 Research Aim and Objectives

1.2.1 Research Aim

The primary aim of the research is to critically investigate the fashion design evolution of baby clothes and determine how this evolution can be compared equal to the adult fashion industry.

1.2.2 Research Objectives

The objectives of the current study have been constructed based on the primary aim of the research. The objectives through which the research has been conducted have been listed below:

Analysing current trends in baby clothing and determining how the sector has been influencing the preferences and demands of the target population

Critically determining the key drivers of baby clothing market and how they have been influencing the buying patterns as well as socio-cultural behaviour of the customers

Critically comparing the baby clothing sector with adult fashion industry in terms of changing style, trends and preferences of the customers

Examining the role of modern retailers and manufacturers in terms of their contribution towards transforming the baby clothing sector

Critically identifying the key factors that differentiate baby clothing sector to remain dominant in comparison to the adult fashion market

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1.3 Research Question

The research question for this study has been constructed on the basis of the changing trend and characteristics of the baby clothing industry. Moreover, the question also encompasses factors that distinct baby clothing market from adult fashion. The question of the research is “How the baby clothing market has been continuously evolving with a similar intensity as the current adult fashion market growth?”

1.4 Methodological Overview

The current research work has been conducted by applying a contracted qualitative research approach by encompassing all aspect of positivism philosophy. In this research, the requisite data and information have been gathered from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data have been gathered from survey with considering 100 sample size. The respondents that have been selected for the survey are the parents who have baby(s) under the age group of 0 to 36 months. The questionnaire that have set for the survey include close-ended questions in relevance to the primary research aim and objectives of the study. Additionally, the research also includes secondary data that have been gathered from different academic and non-academic publications. In this context, secondary sources such as academic books, peer-reviewed journals along with online articles and credible websites in relevance to the chosen subject area as well as main question of the research.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter presents the review of literature on the evolution of baby clothes and evolution in equality with adult fashion. For the review of literature variety of literatures including books, articles and journals are evaluated carefully.

Evolution of baby clothes

Clothing is an important characteristic of human being. Clothing is ascertained to represent wide ideological meaning and visual culture. It is estimated that human beings are using clothing to cover their body for centuries. In fact, the use of clothing by human beings traced back to 100,000 to 500,000 years ago (Ross, 2008, p.n.d). In addition, the historic data suggests that human beings used textile as the first clothing material and later they began to use leather together with textiles for clothing. Moreover, variety of factors are claimed to have influenced clothing such as geography, climate as well as the ecosystem (Ross, 2008, p.n.d). Even though numerous studies can be found about the history of clothing but very few literatures are found to study the early development of children’s clothes. According to Blanco, Doering, Hunt-Hurst, and Lee (2015, p. 55) it is claimed that in the eighteen century, children usually wore skirted clothes and their garments lacked sex distinction. The origin of this trend evolved from the sixteenth century when men and older boys were seen wearing breeches while women, girls and children of all sexes began wearing skirted clothing. Moreover, it has been ascertained that previously all individuals including both male and female wore some kind of tunic or gown. Since, children were dependent on their mothers or female relatives, similar attire was considered suitable for children. Nonetheless, when the boys were between four to seven years old, they wore breeches garments. Many in the modern world have misconception that boys began to wear breeches when they were toilet trained. However, by the age of two years, majority of boy children were toilet trained but they did not wore breeches. In fact, wearing of breaches is claimed to be symbolic rather than based on the ritual which singled that a boy has completed the journey of childhood and is now moving to manhood (Blanco, Doering, Hunt-Hurst, and Lee, 2005, p. 55).

Baby Clothes and Fashion

According to Condra (2008, p. 155) in the late seventeenth century the custom of swaddling new born babies including both girls and boys emerged. Accordingly to this custom, the newborn infants were dressed in small garments and were wrapped with strip of linen around their body from their neck to toes. Even though swaddling of new born infants were restrictive but was believed to be necessary for the comfort of the babies. Besides, the traditional belief that swaddling would help in straightening baby’s limbs and prevent from bent enormously contributed in the growing trend of swaddling of babies in the late seventeenth century. Accordingly, babies were wrapped in costly fabric and a bib was pinned with the swaddling. According to Blanco, Doering, Hunt-Hurst, and Lee (2005, p. 61), swaddling in the eighteenth century become much controversial and by the second half of the eighteenth century the trend of swaddling of babies declined significantly and was almost ceased that the end of this century. It was replaced by christening robes. Babies of wealthy of wealthy elite began to wear christening robes made from ivory satin and decorated with lace and elbow sleeves were bordered using cuffs. However, such stylish christening robes were largely used by wealthy class of the society but it was difficult for the majority of the families to afford such fancy robes. Notably, they used linen robes and with the growing popularity of the cotton and linen christening robes, the decorations used in the robes began to follow adult styles. The use of adult styles in the children’s garments that began in the late eighteenth century continued in nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well (Blanco, Doering, Hunt-Hurst, and Lee, 2005, p. 65). According to Paoletti (2012, p. n.d) in 1760s, “skeleton suit” was introduced for boys. It usually has jacket that was connected with trousers and were initially worn by boys. However, in the nineteenth century this style of skeleton suit gradually declined and new styles began to merge that distinguished the early boyhood. Moreover, it was in nineteenth century that the prohibition for girls against the use of pants became apparent. Moreover, in 1820s, the clothes used by the children become shorter than the women. Until 1920s, there was significant transition of long clothes to shorter dress for both boys and girls. Boys at the age of three wore wide short trousers that were neither adapted from men or women’s fashion but were uniquely designed for the little boys. Nevertheless, the inspiration of this unique boyish style was drawn from men’s fashion history as well as women’s magazines (Paoletti, 2012, p.n.d.). At the same time by the end of 1930s, the transition from short trousers to long trouser was abandoned. Notably, throughout twentieth century, little boys wore less and less night gowns and until 1960s boys wore pants in some form (Paoletti, 2012, p.n.d.). However, compared to transition in the boys clothing, the transition with respect to girls’ attire were not significant. However, the most noticeable change witnessed in the dress worn by the girls was that the girl clothes in the Nineteenth century more and more short in length than the women. Accordingly, the length of their skirt was related with the age in which the younger girl were more short length skirt than the women (National Museums of Canada, 1985, p. n.d.).

References

Blanco, J. F., Hunt-Hurst, P. K., Lee, H.V. L. and Doering, M., 2015. Clothing and Fashion: American Fashion from Head to Toe [4 volumes]: American Fashion from Head to Toe. ABC-CLIO.

Chen, X., Wai M. A. & Li, K. (2004). Consumption of children's wear in a big city in Central China: Zhengzhou. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 8(2), 154–165

Condra, J., 2008. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History, Volume 2; Volumes 1501-1800. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Pandya, M. (2016). Consumer Buying Behaviour for Children Apparel: A Critical Review. International Journal of Management (IJM), 7(5), 188-199.

Paoletti, J. B., 2012. Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America. Indiana University Press.