Suiting Children for Institutions: The Development, Calibration and Stabilization of the One-piece Snowsuit

Design Theory

17 Jan

This article presents a study of the design history of the snowsuit as a product type and explores the constitutive factors in its development. To shed light on the snowsuit as a designed object, the study draws on Actor Network Theory (ANT), particularly work linking ANT to design.

In order to do this, the study focuses on the Finnish company Reima, which has been a leading producer of children’s wear in the Nordic region since the 1960s. The article traces the development of the one-piece snowsuit from a marginal product type, whose use was advised against because it was seen as hindering children’s freedom of movement, to the ubiquitous position it holds in Nordic pre-school children’s wardrobe today.

Innovations in textile technology play a prominent role in this development, as does the emergence of a new configuration of use, characterized by working mothers and institutionalized children, which has increased the demand for garments that are practical, robust and easy-care.

The article argues that the snowsuit is essentially a technique for making children more ‘suitable’ for institutions and links the snowsuit to a broader movement towards the rationalisation of family life in the welfare state

Trine Brun Petersen

Trine Brun Petersen is Associate Professor at the Department of Design and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, where she teaches Design and Fashion Culture. She obtained her Ph.D. from Design School Kolding/Aarhus School of Architecture on prison design and how design might be used to orchestrate behavior.

Her recent research interest centers on clothing and fashion in everyday settings with a particular focus on how clothing constructs and disciplines users. This has been explored in relation to ‘textile systems’, such as uniform programs, as well as in relation to the development of new business models in the fashion industry.

Her current research project focuses on the material culture of childhood with a particular interest in children’s clothing as a commercial and cultural phenomenon. She has published articles on fashion and dress in international journals and anthologies and is currently co-editing a book on Green Design Culture with Rosita Satell and Tau Ulv Lenskjold.