Strenae No 28, special issue

Editors: Dr Aude Campbell Le Guennec (The Glasgow School of Art) & Anne-Charlotte Hartmann-Bragard (Studio Abi)

The socialisation of the child aims to imbue them with the principles that underpin our social identities and conventions (Quentel, 1997). At birth the child is wrapped in clothes and experiences their first sensory contact with the world and culture. Textiles are introduced into the child’s environment in multiple forms, as useful materials that are easy to access, manipulate and are polymorphous. Exploring the textures of textiles forms part of children’s sensory education, through touch, sounds and unexpected tastes, and the development of their fine motor skills. Playing with the forms of textiles encourages children to invent, create and innovate as part of their acculturation.

Thus, textiles occupy a central place in the processes of socialising the child (Winnicott, 1971). Textiles made by adults, such as clothes and linen, toys and books are all objects that share a socializing function, be it educational or playful. As the child makes sense of the world, invoking their capacities to act and interact (Qvortrup, 2005), they use these materials to transform their environment in often spontaneous and novel ways: sheets are used for dress-up, for den-making, they can become toys, inspire stories or be used in pretend games. Understanding these interactions gives us direct access to the mechanisms of acculturation, and offers a perspective on children’s interpretation of the society In history, as well as today around the globe, sparse but significant occurrences demonstrate how adults can be inspired by this child-led approach to the world to create a nurturing, as well as educational environment for the child (Le Guennec, 2020).

This special issue seeks to explore the diversity of uses and the rich socialising as well as creative potential of textiles in childhood, and to draw connections between the different components of a delineated material culture of childhood (Arleo & Delalande, 2004) in which textiles are omnipresent. We are looking for articles that use inter- and trans-disciplinary research methods, and practice-led research based on direct engagement with children, in order to shed new light on children’s interactions with the material culture created for them by adults, such as clothes, household linen, toys and books. Analysing the ways children appropriate and reinvent these objects will reveal the benefits that using textiles can bring to a material environment, guided by specific educational and sociological principals.

This call is open to all practitioners in the field of the material culture of childhood (scholars of childhood studies, children’s literature and media, designers, artists, early childhood specialists, educators), museum and cultural heritage professionals, and scholars from any discipline or research area, where their research or practice looks at textiles and takes into consideration the child’s point of view - their desires and their questions. We are particularly interested in research which analyses children’s direct interactions with their material culture, whether clothing or objects made out of textiles.

The articles may explore, without being limited to, the following themes:

- Textiles and clothes in childhood and children’s material culture;
- Children’s spontaneous interactions with their clothes, at school or in the home (eg. experimenting with ways of wearing clothes, or with dressing up);
- Creative and educational practices at school and in the home using textiles and garments;
- Making clothes: crafts and DIY in childhood: history and practice;
- Children, their clothes and their imaginary: history and practice;
- Textiles in children’s books;
- The creative practices of textile designers working with children;
- The place and role of children in collecting and interpreting textile and clothing heritage collections.