How Did Children's Clothing Change Throughout The Victorian Era

Victorian clothing changed hand in hand with societies’ development throughout the 19th century. From the moment children were born to the moment they became young adults, there were expectations of how they should look and act. These “limits” and “guidelines” were always changing, and the new shapes and styles of clothing always followed. In the new and improved societies, children’s clothing was a very big part of their everyday life, as it still is now. Children’s clothing truly represented the society as a whole, during the Victorian era. The idea of an always changing and improving society is fully shown in both Victorian boy’s and girl’s fashion. They went from looking like miniature versions of their parents, to children, who could actually play and not be

Despite the fact that boy’s and girl’s fashion was very diverse during the Victorian Era, there was still some similarities. This was mainly present in babies and early toddlers, but there was still a few in the older years. Victorian infants are an example of this. During infancy both boys and girls wore the same outfits, and it was almost impossible to tell their genders apart. They both wore long dresses, undershirts, day/night caps, napkins, which are known as diapers, petticoats, nightgowns, socks, and outside cloaks (Callahan). All aspects of this outfit were white. Babies wore all white outfits because it was easier to wash and clean (5

Another way to make things easier was the invention of rompers, however this was more for the children, rather than the parents. Rompers were created to make crawling, an immensely important part of a child’s life, much easier and much