Yari's Baby Clothes: A Larger Historical Context

Baby clothes illustrate the evolution of a variety of facets of American society. The garments reflect not only the practical needs of an infant, but also the socioeconomic position of the mother, the influence of corporate marketing, and the cultural values associated with children and their rearing.

Baby clothes changed in three basic steps over the course of the 18th century. Initially, babies were dressed in swaddling, keeping the infant warm and essentially immobile. According to a piece published on the Colonial Williamsburg website by curator, Linda Baumgarten, this practice evolved into the use of bodices, which were supposed to strengthen a child's back. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, looser clothes became popular for young children, allowing for greater physical movement.

With regard to the 19th century, "Victorian fashion enthusiast," Kathy Hammel, looks to popular women's magazines and books to understand the ideology behind children's garments in the 1850s. Hammel describes infants wearing "long gowns" that primarily varied only in style. Hammel also, perhaps unintentionally, touches on the tension between ornamenting and protecting a child. She refers to mothers of this decade trussing up their babies in finery, while ignoring the practical needs of the child. Her sources indicate that a child's clothes symbolized the wealth and social status of the mother.

Sociologist, Daniel Thomas Cook, pinpoints 1917 as the year in which "infant's departments" began to become part of the common trade in the United States. These departments, of course, were designed to attract mothers as consumers on behalf of their children.* The one-piece item of baby clothing, known as the romper, began to appear in advertisements in the early 20th century. This is the first hint of the item that would become a "onesie," such as the one owned by Yari.

While the infant bodysuit is commonly known as a "onesie," the word itself is actually a trademark of the Gerber corporation, which produces its own particular line of this type of clothing item. Its competitors are compelled to use other names for the item. While Yari describes her daughter's clothing as a onesie, it is unlikely it was actually produced by Gerber because the "Winnie-the-Pooh" design is not part of Gerber's line of clothing.

Ultimately, Yari's baby clothes enter the greater historical picture at a time when infant clothing reflects several aspects of modern life: technology producing clothes of higher quality and function, endless consumer options, media-enhanced marketing, and new meanings of motherhood.

*Daniel Thomas Cook, "The Mother as Consumer: Insights from the Children's Wear Industry, 1917-1929," The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Summer, 1995), pp. 505-522.