Fashionable Childhood: Children in Advertising

Description

Fashionable Childhood is the first book to critically examine representations of children and childhood through fashion media. Focussing on themes such as innocence, sexuality, class, and gender, this book provides a detailed and fascinating overview of the topic over the last 40 years. With case studies of advertising campaigns from international fashion brands such as Calvin Klein, Dior, and Ralph Lauren and in-depth research into Italy’s special edition of Vogue dedicated to childrenswear, Vogue Bambini, Fashionable Childhood examines the ways children’s fashion is presented globally. With the market for children’s fashion witnessing rapid growth in recent years, this exciting book will be of particular interest and value to students of fashion marketing, promotion, journalism, history, and theory. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Childhood as Media Spectacle Today’s Looks-Obsessed Children Healthy Mind in a Beautiful Body Vogue Bambini: A Window into Fashionable Childhood Fashion as Idealized Imagery Multiple Meanings of Fashion Learning Visual Literacy 1 Historically Constructed Childhood (Ad)dressing Childhood: New Childhood Studies In the Footsteps of Enlightenment Philosophers: Dressing Modern Childhood Branded Childhood Studying Brand Associations: A Brief History of Representation Authentic and Natural Childhood at the Heart of a Brand Unlocalized Images Glocal or Global Meanings of Fashion and Images? New Tribes and Brand Communities 2 Children through Fashion Fashion as Change The Added Value of Fashion The Individual Clothes of the Modern Child The Fashionable Mini-Me Upper-Class Fantasies of Childhood Fashion as the Language of Childhood Gender-Coded Clothes for Children Children’s Fashion: A Battlefield of Meanings 3 Innocent Children A Brief History of Innocence From Depravity to Innocence Bringing up a Chaste Child Future Hopes From Miniature Adulthood to Innocent Childhood Visual Grammar of the Natural Child Commodified Innocence Pink Innocence Blue for a Bouncing Boy? Gendered Innocence The Attraction of the Fashion Image 4 Eroticized Innocence Clothes as a Revelation of Personality Snow-White Innocence Ambivalence of Innocence and Sensuality Lower-Class Symbols Serious Play Race and Innocence Feminized Asia and Hot Latina Girls Consumption of Otherness 5 Fashion as the Sexualizer of Children? Sexualized Culture? Children’s Clothes as Moral Guardians Fetishized Innocence and Concealed Corporality No Underwear! Obsession for Men! The Child Freed from Innocence Sensual Children in Advertising From Liberation to Seduction Protection or Control? Children’s Fashion: Fantasy or Reality? Looking at Children: The Problem of the Adult Gaze 6 Heterosexual Innocence Fashioning a Heteronormative Childhood Kissing Children Heteronormative Messages of Clothes Learning Heterosexuality Grown-Up Babies 7 Queer Children in Fashion Advertising The Tombstone of Heterosexuality and Gender Nonconformity The Polymorphously Perverse Child Queering Childhood Androgynous Cross-Dressers and Feminine Girl Couples Not for Sissies! Hegemonic Masculinity Homosocial Little Boys Gentlemanly Looks Secret Friendship Fair Sailors Fabulous Gays in Fashion Advertising 8 Sexualization Is the Name of the Game Child Modeling—a Rising Trend Living Dolls Kindergarteners in Vampy Lipstick and Stilettos Evokers of Strong Emotions Les Cadeaux sont un Jeu D’enfants History of the Sexual Child The Immaterial Value of Child Modeling Working for the Affect Economy Epilogue: The Right to One’s Own Style Notes Sources and Bibliography Index