Kidorama: the history of 200 years of children’s fashion in Brussels (Brussels)
Children’s fashion is more inclusive than ever, but has pink always been a quintessential girl color? And where did the Sunday suit just go? We found the answers to showing Kidorama in the Brussels Fashion & Lace Museum.
Lien Vande Kerkhof
The Fashion & Lace Museum is a six-minute walk from Brussels Central Station. In the historic setting of a group of old town houses, about 15,000 pieces of lace, clothing and accessories are kept, dating from the 16th century to today. This summer, the museum is presenting ‘Kidorama, 200 years of children’s fashion’, an exhibition that examines fashion for children up to 12 years of age through a thematic and chronological route.
“In fashion history, children are seen as miniature adults”, Sylvie Jacobs of the Fashion & Lace Museum, who guides us through the first models. “For example, adults often showed off their flaunted adults through their offspring’s clothing. Under their parents began in the first half of the 19th century starting in the dresses to mid-calf. were also able to play and move effectively.”
Dresses for Boys
It was not until the 1950s that children’s fashion developed into a fully-fledged sector. “An important theme in the exhibition is the emergence of gender awareness and the development of gradual or unisex fashion,” continues Jacobs hiding in front of a display case with baby dresses, a gift from Ms Martine De Meyer-Pire. These early twentieth-century dresses were probably worn by boys. You can see that in details such as buttons on the back, a dropped waist and a square neckline. Until World War II, babies and toddlers often started out indiscriminately in dresses. By the way, did you know that the logic of dressing girls in pink and boys in blue is lost? First seen as a reference to the Virgin Mary, pink was a derivative of red, which for strength. Only in the course of the twentieth century changed date idea. The development of the prenatal ultrasound around ’85 selected for the definitive blue-pink on cleavage.”
Caroline Bosmans. “Even the poorest families used to invest in ‘Sunday clothes’. Those kids go to church and to make a good impression. The term ‘Sunday attire’ is obsolete today, but children have always continued to wear more elegant clothes for special occasions. This taffeta dress comes from the most recent autumn collection by the Limburg designer.”
Kidorama is an interactive exhibition that makes children passionate about fashion and adults question who they have become.
Kidorama, 200 years of children’s fashion. Until 5 March 2023. Fashion & Lace Museum, Violetstraat 12 in Brussels. Entrance: 8 euros for adults, 4 euros for those younger than 18 years.