Guise et déguisement: L’enfant acteur vestimentaire dans la France moderne et contemporaine

Written by the adults and for the adults, the history of children’s fashion hardly ever mentions the interaction between children and their clothes. However, the restrospective review of the archives of childhood reveals to an aware observer the ability for the child to appropriate a material culture initially designed for a purpose of education and socialisation. Through the time, space and social groups, in their free play and in their supervised activities, children evidence an ability to divert the material culture conceived and made by the adults. Analysing the interactions between children as users and the adults as makers and from an object based perspective, this interdisciplinary research will question the ability for the child to appropriate their everyday clothes. It will explore the benefits of their inclusion as makers in a creative process handled by the adults and aiming to socialise a becoming adult