Despite the abundance of children's clothes in the collections of European Museums, children's fashion remains marginal. Mostly considered as a pale and insignificant reflection of adult's fashion, children's clothes have hardly been subjects of consistent collection and documentation. Indeed, instead of systematically reflecting the evolution of children's dress from all levels of society, the collecting of children's fashion is generally based on random family donations. These collections do not reflect the reality of everyday garments worn by multiple users and mended until they become rags at all levels of society. Due to the disappearance of this material, museums overlook children's clothing practices. Consequently, research on children's clothing has to be based on polarised sources: commercial archives of producers and personal memories of wearers. Through case studies from French and British Museums, this paper analyses the disinterest in children's material culture and its effect on our understanding children’s culture and socialisation. It explores the benefits of a strategic approach to the collection of children's material culture, moving away from a solely adult focus to enhance children's interactions with and learning from historic objects.

• https://doi.org/10.4000/insitu.40250