Gender Neutral, Unisex Baby Clothes Are Hard to Find

Gender stereotyping starts even before a child is born. As friends and family buy gifts for an upcoming birth, color choices are often limited to pale green or yellow if the baby's gender is to be a surprise. If the baby's sex is known, or after the child is born, pale pinks and small flowers adorn newborn girls' clothing, while light blue with trucks and sports insignia adorn newborn boys' clothes.

An attempt to find gender neutral clothing, unisex, or bright colored clothes for babies and toddlers can result in frustration. The clothing exists and boutiques do carry them, but the selections are often limited. Children's clothing should represent the spirit of childhood: fun and exciting, colorful and unique. Children's clothing should not begin to stereotype children prior to their ability to determine their own likes and dislikes. This does not mean dressing boys in pink lace and girls in black, it means providing a range of colors and options.

There are some wonderful children's boutique clothing with colorful, unisex designs. It can take some time and perseverance to find these clothes, but there are sources available for busy parents and shoppers.

Finding high quality, gender neutral and unique baby clothes can be a challenge, but hopefully not as difficult as it once was!

Breaking with the current trends, while still being fashionable, Polkadot Patch Boutique opened in April 2006. Online at polkadotpatch.com, parents looking for unique, whimsical and bright colors, as well as fun gender neutral clothing will find a growing selection at one, convenient location. While you will still find pink and blue, black and brown, unless it is bright, whimsical or unique, Polkadot Patch Boutique will not carry it.

For fun bright colored baby clothes see the Cow & Lizard line featuring turtles, fish, and caterpillars. For something a little more funky, take a look at the "Zoot" the Bee or "Algernon" the Fox on the long sleeve shirts, with matching striped pants and hats from Tiny Tyrants.

Marianne Mullen is Co-Owner of Polkadot Patch Boutique , a speciality boutique featuring colorful children's clothing, accessories, and gifts.

Baby and Toddlers Clothes - The Evolution of Children's Clothing

Children's clothing evolved as with all the things that are now present today.

From the beginning, children's' clothing used color to separate the genders. Especially in the olden days where little boys looked like little girls, the distinction can be made by the color of the clothes. Girls wore pink and little boys wore blue, this is as much true today as it is in the era of days gone by.

Because of historical accounts available like painting and photographs, it was not easily distinguished if a child was male or female. Thus, not only do the clothes determined the gender but the general appearance as well. This was manifested by the hair style that they were told to wear. It became a strong convention that little girls wear pretty dresses and their hair long while the little boys were told to wear the pants and sport short hair. However due to the evolution of time, little girls of today have adopted to wearing pants but the day hasn't come yet where the boys adopted the dresses of girls!

In our modern world today, a general convention exists that girls are able to wear the clothes of boys but never the other way around. But that wasn't the case in the 19th century where little girls and boys were dressed alike. Although during that time, girls were not allowed to dress in pants, otherwise, there was not much difference in the way they were dressed.

Up to the time of the second world war, clothes associated with girls were dresses, pantalets, smocks and pinafores.

Dresses

This was the basic clothing of girls up to the second world war since it was not everyday occurrence that girls wore pants or shorts before the war.

Bloomers

This was another staple in the little girls' clothing where it served its purpose of
providing an alternative option to the restrictive and binding fashion sense during the 19th century. This can be attributed to Amelia Bloomer born 1818 - 1894 who was an American reformer espousing this cause. But the bloomer concept must be credited to Elizabeth Smith Miller as she was creator of the bloomers. Although this type of garment did not bloom at all.

Rompers

These were worn both by the girls and boys that were used primarily for play time. By the end of the second world war, rompers were basic staples for little girls wardrobe. They were usually used as costumes or uniforms for gym classes of girls.

Smocks

This is one generic children's clothing of years gone by. As this was so common, different styles, accessories, adornments, and other details filled the repertoire of how a smock can look like. There were smocks of different colors, smocks with different buttoning styles - buttons located at the back, in the front, or on the side. There were also smocks with collars, with trims, with ties, with pockets, with belts, etc. It was usual in the 1950s that smocks of identical cut were bought by mothers for their children.

Pinafores

This was a very essential piece of garment for the girls' wardrobe as they were usually worn by little girls of Europe and America.

Pantalets

These were worn both by boys and girls. Usually, boys wore plain pantalets while girls wore the fancier ones. But there were some boys who like to wear fancy Pantalets too.

Sailor suits

This was basically a boy's garment but it became a unisex garment as girls started to wear sailor suits too.

Mark Dietzel operates Baby-Clothes-Stores.com a website that specializes in Baby Clothes

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Baby Clothes Stores Online

"Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of".

We know it and love it, the classic children's nursery rhyme that was written in the early 1800s and is attributed to an English poet by the name of Robert Southey. And yes, little girls are made of sugar and spice, and should have clothes that reflect this accordingly, that is to say, the baby clothes stores where you shop for your little girl should carry unique, cute and sassy items that are fit for your little princess.

But, you may be wondering, if you go to a traditional store then you run the risk of becoming a carbon copy of your neighbor's little girl, or the little girl at pre-school who always wants to sit with your angel at lunch time.

Never fear, your little darling doesn't have to become the identical clothes twin of every little girl out there if you do your shopping at online baby clothes stores. In today's age of the Internet, the possibilities are endless as far as shopping is concerned.

You can find niche market online boutiques that design and sell handmade one of a kind articles of clothing; these clothes are typically designed with fabrics that have a tendency to shift in color patterns as the lines progress thus ensuring no two articles of clothing are ever identical.

You can also find unique clothing at online baby clothes stores specifically tailored for such and that will, not only provide you with cute and endearing articles of clothing, but will also be versatile and well made, too.

It is important to have versatility in clothing, especially clothing for infants and children because you never know what they are going to get into next; having, say a cute reversible outfit, will be quite the time saver if your little angel just happens to spill something on one side.

Merely flip the dress -- or shirt or pants -- inside out and voila, instant clean clothes that are unique and still full of that sauciness we love and adore in little girls. Just keep in mind when you are browsing any number of the thousands of online shops that cater to little girls, that you want your little girl to be her own person, and giving her unique articles of clothing can help ensure you may never find her dressed like anyone else ever again.

Hi, I'm Anne Softling and I wrote this article. I hope you now have a better understanding of Baby Clothes Stores and how they can help you be a great parent. It is my goal to provide quality information for all Mommies and Daddies today.

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