Baby clothing is more than just quality and aesthetics these days. Parents continue to emphasize practicality and functionality. And buying clothes for baby based on their genders may not sound like a big deal for many.
On the contrary, young generations are now raising their voices against the potential discrimination to impede societal equality by the norm. That’s where non-gender clothes for babies are getting the spotlight and increasing importance.
The article lets you explore all the details associated with non-binary baby clothing. Obviously, there are some contradictions as well as simple benefits in play. It also sheds on potential factors directly related to choosing clothes.
What is Gender-Neutral or Unisex Clothing?
The unisex fashion intends to provide garments for everyone regardless of their gender. It exclusively rejects the traditional ‘pink for girls’ and ‘blue for boys’ concepts. The trend even discards the idea of delicate clothing for girls and rugged wearables for boys.
The ultimate goal to establish and popularize the trend of gender-neutral clothing revolves around freedom. More specifically, it sets the babies free of social expectations based on their genders. Many parents don’t even recognize the power of cultural norms regarding gender can influence the psyche.
Many color gender-driven garments as the first leap towards discrimination. Meantime, most other parents are simply looking for cozy, good-looking, and fitting clothes. It often results in contradictory thinking between open-minded and defensive parents.
No matter what the case, there are understandable reasons to purchase gender-neutral baby clothing. Unisex garments offer more than embodied minimalism, simplistic patterns, and natural colors. And if you’re wondering what might be the benefits, scroll down to discover all the associated advantages.
Why Parents Should Choose Unisex Baby Clothes?
Since parents started to emphasize more on baby clothing, the trend of choosing gender-neutral garments has been on the rise. And the reasons to drive such ever-increasing frenzy would include –
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Less Spending with More Sharing
Genderless baby clothes let you share the no-longer-needed items among family, siblings, and friends. It’s actually one of the foremost and universal advantages of using unisex garments. For future babies, you can simply bag up everything to store them in lofts for years.
It’s an easy bet to say that used baby clothes come in two conditions – completely stained/torn or still looking new. Any clothes to escape from stains are ready to go for long-term storage. Just dish out the wearables, and you’ve saved hundreds/thousands of money.
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High Practicality with Greater Flexibility
It’s not always possible to attend to every clothing detail for your baby to ensure maximum comfort. And the concern isn’t limited to breathable and soft fabric only. Defining the level of comfort with a cloth also features adaptiveness, flexibility, and practicality.
Every wearable should allow free movement of legs and hands unless intentionally restricted. Almost any parent can know the baby’s mood by seeing the moves. Gender-neutral garments emphasize practicality, allowing flexible movements for the little ones.
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Better Physical and Psychological Growth
An infant’s color perception is limited to black-and-white shades for up to 4 months of age. Then, they start to enjoy the broad spectrum of glorious colors. According to studies, this change in perception has a physical and psychological impact.
An alteration in heartbeats and respiration can occur to distort the baby’s emotional state. Wrapping the babies in swampy colors can possibly exert more than just an impact. Neutral clothes expose all colors equally to the baby to reduce such risks.
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No Stereotypes Regarding Gender Gap
Despite all the modern technologies and continuous advancement, the clothing concept based on gender remains more or less the same. Baby girl clothes, overwhelmed with pink, still contain unicorns, cute animals, and/or rainbows. Meanwhile, it’s all about cars, sports items, robots with baby boy clothes. A wide array of backgrounds or solid colors instead of blue seems like the only bright side here.
All these predetermined practices drive the psych growth to the idea that girls are meant to be loving and gentle. For boys, they are meant to explore the world by being practical, smart, and diligent. But a gender-neutral from the earliest stage can help avoid having such discriminating thoughts.
Another indirect positive lies with environmental concerns. More sharing of unisex clothes means less throwaway. It affects energy consumption, pollution due to exposure, and carbon footprint.
Setting a Gender-Neutral Wardrobe for Your Baby
As a parent to focuses on unisex baby garments, you can take it to a new level with a neutral wardrobe. The perfect blend of wearables should provide endless styling possibilities with superb longevity.
What you’ll need to create a gender-neutral wardrobe for your baby –
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Emphasize the Neutral Colors
The foundation of building a neutral wardrobe starts with proper color choices. Pick from the topmost classic shades (like navy blue, mint green, shadow gray, etc.). They’re simple to mix and match, being universally suitable for all babies.
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Choose Bold but Unique Prints
Prioritize specific prints and patterns with no gender-driven themes. Some common unisex patterns are – stars, polka dots, and stripes. These captivating designs also inject personality while inducing creative fun into the little one’s wardrobe.
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Look for Versatility and Classics
Skip fancy styles that make no sense to babies. Instead, you should look into the most-valued timeless staples (jumpsuits, rompers, sweaters, jackets, dresses, or T-shirts). You can layer the clothes and also, style them for special occasions.
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Incorporate Quality Fabrics
Always invest in high-quality clothing fabric with satisfying comfort, durability, breathability, and fit. Cotton is the ultimate fabric but there are polyester and/or spandex clothes as well. It’s a must for you to ensure the baby’s ultimate well-being.
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Embrace Playful Accessories
Enhancing gender-neutral baby outfits with some fun accessories has become a trend. These practical gears can range from bandana bibs to socks and hats. But you must remain careful of matching the designs, patterns, and colors.
How to Identify Unisex Baby Clothes from Colors?
No strict rules exist to draw the boundary lines between gender-driven and gender-neutral colors. Bold and bright colors, especially blue and pink, are widely considered gender-driven.
Minimalistic colors with a muted vibe are highly considered gender-neutral, like –
- Beige
- Black
- Brown
- Gray
- Green
- Orange
- Muted Reds
- Muted Purple
- Midnight Blue
- Rainbow
- White
- Yellow
Many preestablished stereotypical styles continue to denote pink as girly and blue as manly. You can also recognize these two colors from a baby’s gender reveal party during pregnancy.
Prints to Define Gender-Neutral Clothing for Babies
Designs as well as patterns are also important manly clothes rarely feature frilly, lacy, flowers, or pink. Similarly, you don’t see girl clothes with imprinted cars, tools, sports items, or other masculine patterns.
Let’s take a look at the clothing prints considered as gender-neutral for babies –
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Animal Prints
Clothing imprints to depict household or non-violent animals (deer, cat, zebra) are commonly unisex. No such animal is treated based on gender, making them a great clothing design.
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Insect Prints
Insects don’t usually make it to baby clothes, except for butterflies. But butterflies are often treated as feminine. Instead, choosing a dragonfly seems more like a gender-neutral option.
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Sea-Life Prints
Depicting sea life is easily gender-neutral, except for too cute or excessively dangerous ones. Given the abundance of possible views, its fashion rarely consists of gender-typical styles.
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Ice Cream Prints
The motif, matching with the color scheme, derives a recognizable unisex pattern. An ice cream imprint works pretty well for anyone. It’s because all babies are highly fond of ice creams.
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Vegetable/Fruit Prints
Many people see fruits and/or vegetables as gender-neutral. The prints are notably versatile to induce some diversion. Still, babies of both genders can easily wear clothing with such prints.
Please note that even the fonts are distinctive to indicate the clothing type. Fonts on girl wearables are cursive, decorative, and thin. But clothes for baby boys have sharper and more straight-lined fonts.
Should You Choose Unisex Baby Clothes?
Many parents don’t even think of gender-driven distinctions of clothes for their babies. It’s obviously necessary, given that unisex baby clothes aren’t always the right choice.
Choose gender-neutral clothes for your little ones when you confront either of the conditions –
- You’re having twins of both genders (a boy and a girl).
- You’ve plans to have more kids in the near/distant future.
- You’ve decided to keep your baby’s gender a secret.
- You’re fond of different patterns, colors, and imprints.
- You’ll let the baby decide on their preferred colors soon.
- You’re minimalistic to have too many baby wearables.
- You’re looking for garments suitable for every season.
- You’ll sell or donate all the invalid or tight garments.
There’s no need to put anything feminine or masculine on your baby right away. You may think of getting some blue or pink dresses for special occasions for sure. But the decision remains entirely up to you.
Wrapping Up
The fashion of putting gender-free wearables on your baby surely promotes a free, trendy, and smart lifestyle. However, you must avoid choosing it as a strict or mandatory decision the little ones. It’s because the conclusive point is associated with self-expression with no imposed limit/rule.
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