Children’s clothes often convey stereotypes. In the United States, associations are quite serious when it comes to sexist discrimination. An American girl obtained satisfaction against the clothing chain “GAP”: she complained that she only found pink t-shirts with “girly” decorations in the stores of the chain. She would have liked the colours of children’s clothing to be less “sexually oriented” and more neutral. Her protests were considered justified by GAP’s management, who promised to make an effort to fight this type of prejudice.
For this five-year-old girl, the clothes offered by the store were silly, unoriginal, almost ridiculous. By offering only pink clothes with lots of glitter on the shelves reserved for little girls, the store did not give a positive image of the little girl she was and the woman she was to become.
On this occasion, it was pink that was stigmatized, considered as a “marker” of childish femininity and somehow as … sexist .
And yet, this distinction of colours is not very old. Before the 20th century, the most common female colour was light blue or turquoise, the colour of purity of water and sky, the colour of the Virgin Mary’s robe, as represented on Christian churches. The colour reserved for boys was red, symbol of power, blood and strength, but also pink, a milder version of red, which was thought to be more suitable for very young boys.
The chromatic code was reversed at the beginning of the 20th century, when, for reasons we ignore, advertising invaded our lives and imposed pink as the emblematic colour for little girls. Blue, then, became the colour “reserved” for boys. This has been called “gender marketing”.
Nothing is forever and it is very likely that other “chromatic downturns” will occur in the near future, depending on advertising campaigns keeping up with the latest trends. Of course, our children must not be subject to these conditionings. Children’s fashion has already set its marks above and beyond the colour codes imposed by the ready-to-wear clothing industry and department store shelves are increasingly displaying “unisex” clothing in all colours.
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” said the “Queen of feminism”, Simone de Beauvoir. We are convinced that she was right and our wish is not that your Princess should also be a victim of the most common stereotypes. We are opposed to the reproduction of this type of conditioning.
Our wish is that your little girl be allowed to make a choice: some days she will want to dress as “Ladybug” the superhero of her favorite cartoons, some days she will be “Sam the Fireman” to rescue her little friends, some days she will drive a Bat-mobile and one day, too, she will want to dress as a fairy tale princess with a pastel-colored sequined dress.
That day, she will want to wear the most beautiful dress. A dress of the highest quality. A dress that fits her and will only be hers.
It is for her and for all the little girls of today that we continue to produce by hand our Princess dresses.