Fundamentally, we may say dress is more or less a question of climate.
Pure utility would be satisfied if the warmth is fairly distributed, and the action of the body and limbs is free. The child with a loose tunic, leaving arms and legs bare and free, still represents primitive and classic man; and he also often satisfies the artist.
But the child is free to grow, to get as much joy out of life as it can. It does not feel under the necessity of pleasing Mrs. Grundy, except perhaps when mud-pies are “off.”
· TYPES OF CHILDREN’S DRESS ·
· UTILITY ·
· SIMPLICITY ·
· PICTURESQUENESS ·
Primitive, again, and picturesque is the dress of the labourer, ploughman, fisherman, navvy; though purely adapted to use and service. Concessions to aestheticism, if any, only come in by way of a coloured neckerchief, the broidery of a smock frock, or the pattern of knitted jersey.
Yet each and all are constant and favourite subjects of the modern painter. Why?