The exhibition is about children and clothes. It dives back into the 1950s, 1970s and the latest decade. The historical perspective is fundamental; without the past our current society makes little sense.
The pictures of past childhoods and the key garments we have found, suggest that children in the 1950s were segregated according to gender but seen as asexual. The 1970s were an attempt to degenderize children whereas today, children are again segregated according to gender but an additional aspect has reappeared, we have become far more sex-oriented.
Children clothes fashion and the use of children clothes the past two decades have led to a genderizing of children. Little girls are dressed in pink frilly skirts and dresses, boys in rough outdoorsy clothes in blues, greys and greens and girl babies are wearing bikinis in advertising.
Is this a backlash? It does conflict with the unisex childrens fashion of the 1970s where both sexes wore the same clothes and where women’s liberation led to the attitude that children should be raised the same way irrespective of their sex. Children were seen as children first, then defined in terms of their gender.
The exhibition consists of three parts, it shows pictures of children from the:
- 1950s
- 1970s
- The past decade: 1998-2008
Each of the three exhibition canvases features a first grade primary school picture from 1957, 1978 and 2007. It also shows children playing, children in casual wear and children that are dressed for formal occasions. In addition there are three display cases with key garments from each decade as well as three dresses/girl outfits representing each decade.