Baby Clothing: Social-Cultural Practice

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.

Children’s clothing is often more casual than adult clothing, fit for play and rest. Hosiery is commonly used. More recently, however, a lot of childrenswear is heavily influenced by trends in adult fashion. Due to the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, celebrities and fashion bloggers have been using their accounts to post pictures of their children wearing luxury “street style” clothing, thus inspiring parents to dress their children as they would dress themselves. Good quality, well designed, garments are now a priority for a growing number of parents and children’s clothing is getting a prime place in top label stores and high-end fashion retail outlets. Dresses are also getting separately designed for boys and girls at a very early age.