The Great Baby Clothes Debate
As Chuck Palahniuk pointed out, every Portlander has three jobs, and I'm no exception. When the wife had our second child, I was thrown into the family business--making ironic baby clothes. Add this to author and parent, and there's my three.
Our baby clothes company, which sells rock baby clothes on black onesies amongst other things, has sparked more cultural debate then anything I've been involved in. On Monday, MSNBC ran an article about us that asked the question: should parents "let kids be kids," or should they dress "how their parents want them to."
The premise kind of cracked me up, because last time I checked, most babies can't really dress themselves. There is a huge difference between a 3 month old and a 2 year old, and while we carry stuff for older kids too, we've always been primarily a baby site.
But let's grant that we do sell some stuff for toddlers. I just don't see why letting kids be kids automatically means they want to dress like giant purple dinosaurs. The amount of marketing effort that goes into hooking kids into Barney, Disney, and the rest of the corporate-sponsored apparel industry is astounding. Kids aren't naturally attracted to purple dinosaurs, they're deviously manipulated into liking them.
Which isn't to say that we've thrown away all our daughter's Snow White costumes--it's just that we want to show her that making our own clothes is cooler, that you don't have to just drive your SUV into Wal-mart and wear what corporate America wants you to wear.
Our baby clothes company, which sells rock baby clothes on black onesies amongst other things, has sparked more cultural debate then anything I've been involved in. On Monday, MSNBC ran an article about us that asked the question: should parents "let kids be kids," or should they dress "how their parents want them to."
The premise kind of cracked me up, because last time I checked, most babies can't really dress themselves. There is a huge difference between a 3 month old and a 2 year old, and while we carry stuff for older kids too, we've always been primarily a baby site.
But let's grant that we do sell some stuff for toddlers. I just don't see why letting kids be kids automatically means they want to dress like giant purple dinosaurs. The amount of marketing effort that goes into hooking kids into Barney, Disney, and the rest of the corporate-sponsored apparel industry is astounding. Kids aren't naturally attracted to purple dinosaurs, they're deviously manipulated into liking them.
Which isn't to say that we've thrown away all our daughter's Snow White costumes--it's just that we want to show her that making our own clothes is cooler, that you don't have to just drive your SUV into Wal-mart and wear what corporate America wants you to wear.
Labels: babies, Lessons taught by 4 year-olds
posted by bigdumbjim at 13:08
4 Comments:
Here here, Jim! Well put!
This reminds me of when I was a tot and I balked at some goofy bell-bottom overalls my Mom was struggling to dress me in. "I'd never dress you in something that made you look funny", she said, 30 years ago, and it still rings in my ears to this day. Since when did kids EVER have a choice of what they wore? I don't think I got to make any completely autonomous decisions regarding my wardrobe until I had a job and was paying for my own clothing.
I bet you'd kill for those goofy bell-bottom overalls now...
It's interesting to me, thinking about this on a cultural level as well. You have to wonder if this sort of thinking, i.e. kids are kids and teens are teens and adults are adults, contributes to the huge generational conflicts we see in America. Is it automatic that children hate their parents--or is it part of a cultural system in which kids and teens are treated as if they were separate species.
Indigenous cultures treat their kids like miniature adults--kids dress like adults, are treated like adults, are even expected to work like adults. This certainly has its downside, but it also fosters a unity between generations.
Oh, hell -- I promised to write something pithy on this topic, and totally forgot. Geez.
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