The history of children’s fashion, which is written by and for adults, hardly ever mentions the interaction between children and their clothes. However, in a retrospective review of the archives of childhood an astute observer can find the ability of the child to appropriate a material culture initially designed for the purpose of education and socialization. Through time, space and social groups, children reveal an ability to divert the material culture conceived and made by adults, both in their free play and in their supervised activities. Analyzing the interactions between children as users, and adults as makers of clothing, and taking an object-based perspective, this interdisciplinary research study will question the ability of children to appropriate their everyday clothes. It will explore the benefits of including children as makers in a creative process handled by adults, with the aim of socializing young adults in the making.
|Translated title of the contribution||Guise and disguise: Children’s clothing behaviour in modern and contemporary France|
|Number of pages||10|
|Journal||Revue des Sciences Sociales|
|Publication status||Published - 30 Nov 2020|