How we clothe our children began to change in the twentieth century for both baby boy clothes and baby girl clothes. Only at that time did childhood come to be regarded as important in its own right and in turn, baby clothes styles changed too.
Prior to the twentieth century, children were forced to grow up a lot faster. For example, until the last part of the eighteenth century the age of starting a job was as low as five for some unfortunates in the lower classes. Clothing for children was simply a smaller version of adult styles.
These copies of parent's clothes were very restrictive and reflected the fact that childhood was not seen as a special time but a precursor to adulthood. During these eras play was not encouraged as it was seen as a waste of time therefore play clothes were not needed.
For centuries before, the use of swaddling to restrict newborn baby movement and to promote correct posture had been used. Often this was applied for the first year of a baby's life so no other clothes were required. The habit has reduce enormously in Western cultures but it is still practiced extensively in some Eastern societies.
Long gowns began to be used for newborn boys and girls by the end of the eighteenth century, also acting as foot warmers because they were so long. As baby learned to walk the gown reduced to ankle length.
As children grew older and became toddlers, girls and boys alike graduated to clothing that was a copy of their mother's dress. For centuries the coloring of fabrics used for these clothes was dark (green or brown for example) so that dirt wasn't so obvious - the frequency of washing clothes was a lot lower in those days! However, the ruling elite flaunted their position in society by choosing more colorful material and more decorative styles.
By the end of the nineteenth century the fashion of dressing girls and boys alike until the age of four or five was beginning to change and by the end of World War One had virtually disappeared. This was due in a large part to the introduction of the romper suit. This one piece suit was thought to have originated in France and to a large extent revolutionized baby boy clothes.
The romper suit was originally worn by preschool children and is thought to be the first playsuit. This was a dramatic change for baby boys and truly now the sexes could be differentiated. The original romper suits were knee length and had long sleeves. They were worn with long stockings and toddlers would wear boots with them. Although usually one piece, more formal ones were often made in two pieces and from velvet.
Starting with the 1920s the romper suit itself began to evolve with the result that baby boy clothes had more color, variety and decoration than ever before. Romper suit legs reduced in length, short white socks replaced long stockings and more modern shoe styles were introduced instead of boots. Lace collars, smocking, frills and colored fabrics were part of the evolution.
Many years on, we have seen yet another development so that the trend now is to abandon romper suits in favor of miniature versions of adult clothes. For both babies and children, the approach from a century or more ago is alive today and parents dress their offspring in, for example, small khaki pants, polo shirts and so on. Thankfully the use of dull boring colors has not been reintroduced - and even more thankfully we have retained the attitude that childhood is important, especially a time of play to promote development.