Browsing by Author "Asmala, Laura"

This research focuses on the children's clothing of the 1950's. Especially this research has its focus on the meanings of children's clothes. Children's clothes had not been researched widely before, and there was no research of Finnish children's clothes from the 1950's. The decade was remarkable in the lives of families and children, there was some big changes in society, which had a direct effect on both families and children. Costume research has proven that people use clothes to communicate to one another. This is why it is interesting to research how we can see the changed position of the children in her clothes. I studied 12 clothes from Satakunnan Museo's collections. My aim was to choose clothes that would represent as good as possible the children's fashion of the 1950's. I chose not to research underwear, pyjamas, or accessories like shoes or hats. I created an analyse for this research, where I utilized semiotics, artefacts studies and earlier costume research. Children's position could be seen in many ways in her clothes. Urbanization, school systems generalization, could be seen as formality in the clothes. Also the conservative perspective on families and gender could be seen as differences in the clothes of boys and girls. As medicine and psychology as well as behavioural sciences, developed their theories, started the emphasizing of outdoor activities and playing for children's health. These matters could be seen as loose clothes and material choices. On the other hand no elastic materials were used in the clothes of matter, even though the guide books of raising children up, did recommend elastic materials. This research indicated that the society's and adult's aspects on children, could be seen in her clothes in the 1950's.