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The purpose of this study was to investigate the similarities and differences in single‐ and dual‐parent family households in their selection and acquisition of children's clothing. Respondents included 247 parents of students enrolled in grades K‐12. Significant differences were found in the following items considered. Lack of money was more of a problem for single‐parent families than for dual‐parent families, p = 0.002. Single‐parent families paid for clothing more often by cheque or cash than did dual‐parent families, p=0.009; dual‐parent families used store credit cards more frequently than single‐parent families, p=0.03. No significant differences were found in sources, important purchase factors or satisfaction when selecting and acquiring children's clothing. For all parents, the four most important factors considered when selecting children's clothing were fit, what the parent likes, care required and price. Please note that in the US most children begin school at age 5 in kindergarten (K); ele‐mentary school continues through age 10 at grade 5; middle school encompasses ages 11–13 in grades 6–8; and high school includes ages 14–17 in grades 9–12.

Adjustable children’s clothing is being acknowledged as the best solution worldwide to reduce the unnecessary squandering of money and accumulation of waste materials in landfills because provision for size adjustment helps to increase the lifespan of a garment. There are no studies on the preferences of both children and their parents for adjustable children's clothing, although they are equally involved as consumers in the children’ clothing market. Thus, this paper aims to explore the preferences of children and their parents about adjustable children’s clothing.

Five children’s wear fashion outlets in the Colombo District were studied to explore the types of children’s clothing that are available in the Sri Lankan market. A questionnaire survey was conducted with parents who have children between the ages of 8 and 12 years to determine their perceptions on the use of adjustable children’s clothing. Five children living in the Colombo District were also interviewed.

According to the questionnaire survey results, 53% of the respondents who have children in the age group 8–12 years were unaware of the existence of adjustable children's clothing, whereas 47% had at least some knowledge of them. Interviews with the five children showed that only two children were aware of garments with adjustment features. As it turned out though, four children were indeed wearing them but did not realize those were adjustable garments. It was found that if adjustable children's clothing were freely available in the Sri Lankan market, 79.5% of the respondents would prefer to buy them because they could appreciate the financial and environmental benefits that would result. Clothing made of standard, high quality, durable and comfortable materials were all in demand. In addition, parents expected adjustable children's clothing products to be available at affordable prices.

This study provides important knowledge that can fill the gap in the existing literature on adjustable children’s clothing. The findings will be beneficial for the children’s clothing product designers and developers, as well as academia.

As a significant part of childhood material culture, children's clothes contribute to shaping their social identity and gender, as well as to developing and supporting their interactions with their environment related to their age. The focus on children's education and well-being is essential. Their voices should be emphasised in the interest of promoting an inclusive future in both research on children's material culture and in practice. However, despite the daily nature of children's interaction with clothing, their relationship with clothes is ignored and methods to support an analysis of it are lacking. An investigation of children's clothing behaviour is needed to better understand children's agency, to influence industry experts and to encourage policymakers to engage more sustainably with children's fashion. IN2FROCC (Interdisciplinary and International Network for Research on Children and Clothing) is comprised of historians, anthropologists, sociologists, ethnologists, museum curators, childhood practitioners, designers, industry representatives and children united in an investigation into children's clothes around the globe, historically and in social ecosystems. This network seeks to engage in an innovative, inclusive and organic manner with current research on children's dress codes, fashion and clothes to establish a deeper understanding of children's clothing interactions. This chapter will present the initial reflections and actions of this network, creating impactful methods for participative children's clothing culture and design.

A growing body of sociological literature defines physical appearance as a form of capital, a convertible resource in contemporary societies. The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of consuming on children’s fashion as a part of this appearance-oriented consumer culture. We investigate if the mothers we interviewed see their children as their extended self and actually are negotiating their own aesthetic capital through their children’s clothing.

In this study, we utilise 10 semi-structured themed interviews with Finnish mothers who were recruited from a popular Facebook group, focused on discussing children’s fashion.

Results indicate that women see their children as their extended self, and as such, they can be seen negotiating their own aesthetic capital through consuming practices for their children. Additionally, the investment in the physical appearance of children can be seen as a construction of a contemporary understanding of proper motherhood in the middle-class context.

Although extensive research has been carried out in expenditure on children’s fashion, this research offers a novel approach by combining research on parenting in a consumer culture with the theory of aesthetic capital to explore the materially based construction of parenting in the Finnish context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine mothers’ social media accounts that focus on children’s fashion. The authors probed children’s fashion photo practices as representations of the mothers’ extended self and the kind of childhood representations produced by the social media accounts. They also investigated mothers’ perceptions of children’s privacy when engaging in sharenting – the sharing of information about children or parenting online.

The study is based on 16 semi-structured interviews with Finnish mothers who had Instagram accounts focusing on children’s fashion.

Children’s fashion photos play a diverse role in mothers’ identity work. The photos can be used to express a mother’s taste and aesthetic skills, to express values, to fit into peer groups and to store memories of oneself and the children. Through the photos, representations of the prevailing Finnish childhood ideals, such as authenticity, naturalness and playfulness, are reproduced. The mothers perceived the children as part of their extended self and justified sharenting with mother- and child-centered arguments.

Through shedding light on the practices of social media fashion photography, this paper provides insights into how commercialism and social media shape cultural expectations for both motherhood and childhood. The paper contributes to previous research on sharenting, extending it to the context of fashion photography.

The purpose of this paper is to study clothing and shoes disposal behavior of US consumers in an attempt to understand how to divert more clothing and shoes from the landfill.

A survey was administered to 209 consumers from the general US population. The survey includes questions on demographics, methods of disposal and factors that motivate or prevent consumers from choosing methods other than throwing unwanted clothing in the trash.

Analysis of demographic data from the survey indicates that gender, income, marital status, living arrangement and type of dwelling have an effect on whether consumers recycle textiles. Other survey results indicate that helping factors are more influential in motivating consumers to recycle clothing and shoes than economic factors. The condition of clothes and shoes and lack of awareness are the most prominent reasons preventing consumers from recycling more textiles. The results also show that there are statistically significant differences between households with and without children when it comes to disposing adults’ clothing and shoes.

These results may help policymakers who want to motivate consumers to recycle or develop recycling programs.

While several studies have examined the roles of husbands and wives in making decisions about products, few have examined the impact of children. This article reports the results of a 1985 study of the influence of children on families. The study examines children's influence in each of four stages of the purchase decision, for 25 products, and by age of the children. For child‐centered (e.g., toys, children's clothing, food) and child‐used products or services (e.g., vacations, restaurant choices, outside entertainment), the study shows that children are perceived as influential by most households. Older children are perceived as more influential than younger children for nearly all the products studied. The study concludes that “family” decision making is quite different from “husband‐wife” decision making.

The last few years have seen a transformation in the retail fashion market, with the emergence of a host of new companies aimed at carefully defined market segments. How has this affected the traditional sales of fashion according to retail sector? Roy Holliss examines these changes; one is that some 22 per cent of all clothing is now purchased from the specialist fashion multiples, with a peak of over 30 per cent in the 15–24 age group.

With the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, Mexico entered a bilateral free trade agreement which not only lowered its own tariffs on imports but also lowered tariffs on its exports to the United States. We find that women’s relative wage increased, particularly during the period of liberalization. Both between and within-industry shifts also favored female workers. With regards to between-industry shifts, tariff reductions expanded sectors that were initially female intensive. With regards to within-industry shifts, we find a positive association between reductions in export tariffs (U.S. tariffs on Mexican goods) and hiring of women in skilled blue-collar occupations. Finally, we find suggestive evidence that household bargaining power shifted in favor of women. Expenditures shifted from goods associated with male preference, such as men’s clothing and tobacco and alcohol, to those associated with female preference such as women’s clothing and education.