Animals in Fashion: Portrayal of Animal Biodiversity on Children’s Clothing

While cultural products such as clothes are usually not designed with an educational goal in mind, they may still raise biodiversity awareness. This study explored the portrayal of animal biodiversity on children’s clothing marketed by three major clothing retailers in the Netherlands. Findings showed that although nonhuman animals were a common theme, diversity was quite low. The portrayal was centered on mammals, in particular exotic and domestic species, and a gender binary was uncovered, restricting animals such as dinosaurs to boys’ clothes and butterflies to girls’ clothes. Moreover, portrayals were often highly simplified and anthropomorphic, which reduced recognizability. The results show that children’s clothes currently do not offer the balanced and iconic depiction of animal biodiversity needed for broadening people’s perceptions. To achieve a more extensive representation that can help connect people with biodiversity, a shift in ideas will be required of what animals are suitable to portray.

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