BABY CLOTHING

Infant clothing or baby clothing is clothing for infants. Baby fashion is a social-cultural consumerist practice that encodes in children’s fashion the representation of many social features and depicts a system characterized by differences in social class, richness, gender or ethnicity.

Infant and toddler clothing size is typically based on age. These are usually preemie for a preterm birth baby, 0 to 3 months, 3 to 6 months, 6 to 9 months, 9 to 12 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 months, though there is no industry standard definition for those sizes. Most retailers provide sizing charts based on a child’s weight, height, or both, and the child’s weight and height percentile may also be used for properly sizing clothing for the infant.

In the United States, before the 1890s children predominantly wore clothing made by their parents. By 1910, retailers had formed a “publicity structure” toward children for the sale of children’s goods, which resulted in a significant increase in the sale of manufactured children’s clothing, sportswear, candy, and baby clothing. By 1915, baby clothing had become one of the nation’s largest industries.

In an article in the October 1945 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal, B. F. Skinner stated that clothing and bedding “interfere with normal exercise and growth and keep the baby from taking comfortable postures or changing posture during sleep”. An infant may stretch, necessitating clothing that is sufficiently loose to allow movement.

The imitating model has changed over years. In the past nobility owned what was perceived as an ideal style paradigm. While nowadays, the upper-middle class embodies the ideal fashion; especially, in today’s pop culture, this role is covered by celebrities and the so-called V.I.P.