For many years it has been assumed that pink is for girls and blue is for boys. This wasn’t always the case. It used to be practical to dress both genders of babies in white dresses. White could be bleached, the outfits could be used for either gender allowing one to reuse all of the baby’s clothing.
In the early 1900’s pink was chosen for boys since it’s a stronger color and blue was for girls because it was more delicate. People couldn’t seem to agree on this concept and preferences went back and forth until the mid 1980’s when we finally settled on the pink=girl, blue=boy thing. Something had to be chosen for mass marketing reasons and pink was the chosen color for girls in France which often dictates fashion. So, there you have it.
If you want to know more about color trends, symbolism, and the emotional characteristics of color I will be teaching at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival in March. Hope to see you there!
Oh, and if you want to know who’s in the photo, go to the Smithsonian magazine online