Children’s Clothes Then And Now

As the father of two young children and as a husband of a wife who loves to shop for childrens clothes, I often find myself comparing the clothes my kids where to the clothes I used to where when I was their age. Growing up in the late 70’s and early 80’s I often find it somewhat comical when I make these comparisons. Style not withstanding, cost and brand themselves are nothing like they once where.

It really wasn’t until our youngest was born a couple of years ago that I began to find myself thinking of what I used to wear, especially since my wife starting digging up old baby pictures of the both of us. I generally find the comparisons humorous especially when dealing with baby clothes but even the normal everyday playwear of children in my day would be considered tacky by the standards of twenty years ago.

When my wife starting bringing home baby clothes for our youngest, I immediately thought of the horrible 70’s onsies my parents put me in. While looking at my own baby pictures I noticed that my parents put me in things that where bright and multi-colored. The onsies in particular where fashioned after the jersey’s that everyone seemed to be wearing in those days. The chest was one color, while the sleeves where another color. To be perfectly honest I didn’t find one picture of myself in anything fashionable even by 70’s standards which continue to reverberate in my mind whenever I look at the children’s clothes we bring home.

With our oldest who is a boy I find myself laughing when I think of how his jeans differ from mine. When I was six years old my jeans where bell bottoms, corduroy, and I wore Toughskins exclusively! In those days nothing beat a good pair of jeans with huge patches over the knees. Every cool kid had a few pairs of Toughskins to sport on the playground. These days my son only wears Levis and pitches quite the fit should we suggest he try and where something different.

I think perhaps the biggest difference in childrens clothes then and now is the shorts. Even adult shorts have changed so much that the shorts of yesteryear have gone far beyond the "tacky" barrier. My son and even my youngest enjoy wearing things like Dickies and what not however in the late 70’s I remember wearing disco shorts to school along with some variant of a multi-colored shirt. Why our shorts where so short I’ll never know but perhaps they where short so that us kids could pull up our stripped socks as high as we could!

I’ve always been a fairly fashion conscience person throughout my whole life and while I know that styles come and go with time it really blows my mind to see just how much things have changed when it comes to baby clothes and even childrens clothes. I once laughed at the clothes my father wore when I was as young as my kids and I’m sure they do the same now though I’m one of the jeans and t-shirt dads. I guess fashion is actually just a sense of age and time.