Designer Defends Nipple Tassels on Tot T-Shirt
Categories: Babies, Toddlers, In The News, Weird But True, Extreme Childhood, Fashion & Clothing
Would you buy this tee for your tot? Credit: Twistedtwee.co.uk
It's not a wardrobe malfunction.
Suzi Warren intentionally put nipple tassels on shirts for infants and preschool girls.
Warren is the owner and designer of Twisted Twee, a London clothing company some people find twisted indeed. The tasseled top has been causing a controversial buzz on the blogosphere.
Twisted Twee also offers clothes for babies and preschoolers that proclaim, "I've done f--k all day" (minus the dashes). Then there are alphabet shirts that announce that B is for Beer, C is for Condom and X is apparently for a pig having sexual relations with a duck.
Warren talked to ParentDish exclusively last night, via email, from her vacation in Spain, to explain her design:
"The Nipple Tassel t-shirt was designed as a response to my own distaste at seeing mini versions of sexy clothes on young children," she wrote. "Five-year-olds wearing slashed mini skirts and boob tubes, little thumb-sucking Britneys.
"There is nothing very sexy about a baggy, lap neck, long sleeved t- shirt for a 6-month-old. So by embellishing this style of garment with printed nipple tassels, the result is not that the baby becomes sexualized by the tassels, but that the tassels are made benign and silly by the baby. In fact the more inert, innocent and unaware the infant is, the more ludicrous the contrast becomes."
Tasseled tots might fall under what University of Iowa journalism professor Meenakshi Gigi Durham calls "The Lolita Effect" in her book of the same name, which examines the pressure on increasingly younger girls to be presented as objects of sexual desire.
Durham said a survey last year by Girlguiding, a British Girl Scout organization, concluded that girls as young as 10 feel intense pressure to conform to social pressure to look and behave seductively.
We asked Warren to respond:
"I totally agree with critics who feel that young girls are put under
enormous pressure by the media, the fashion industry and the content
of many TV programs, to be aware of their appearance, and then
dissatisfied with it," she added. "The trap set to ensnare girls into a life-time
of preoccupation with their looks is a subtle one.
"My garments are not part of this trap because they are about a subtle as a blinking brick and are aimed at parents of children too young to read or speak.
"If you are wondering who would be heartless enough to put their tiny
daughters in Nipple Tassel t-shirts, it is often their grandparents
who think the design 'cheerful.' Or the parents of boys who think the
whole gender bender things a bit of a hoot.
"Most of Twisted Twee's t-shirt designs are a response to some baffling
thing or other our daughter Betty has done, and celebrate the
befuddlement of parenthood and the idiocy of life. We call the things
we make pieces of Object D'aft. That is what the Nipple Tassel t-shirt
is. A bit of lunacy."
Okay, our final question to Warren: Say I bought one for my six-month-old baby, and I had a 10-year-old child as well. What message do you think it would send to that older child?
"I guess my answer would simply be if you have doubts about it, don't buy it," she wrote. "Your daughter is probably smart enough, self confident enough and relaxed enough to share the irony, but maybe she'd hate it and become very angry about it and that's probably not a bad thing either. Dressing a baby probably shouldn't be laden with social significance."
Now that she explained it, would you buy this t-shirt for your daughter?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Trigeia Twins 8-17-2009 @ 5:07PM
This is amazing! Can not believe this, well I guess we can considering that this designer is now all over the blogosphere. Not a bad marketing move =) We all now know who this designer is.
Thats not as bad as a Dad arrested for throwing a pizza at his daughter.
Reply
lovepowered 8-18-2009 @ 6:41PM
YES IT IS! ARE YOU EVEN A PARENT?
PinkThenRed 8-18-2009 @ 4:47PM
Ugly and tacky shirt. I once was at a social gathering for families and this couple thought their son's tank top made out of men's underwear was amusing. Nobody else thought it was cool except for them.
Sunny Dawson 8-18-2009 @ 5:27PM
I have always been able to cut the crap and get right to the point. This designer is out to make money period. Some dum dum will pay money because they think this shirt is making a big statement about the sexualization of children. But never would they admit that the same statement could be made about women or the fact they wouldn't be caught dead wearing a similar top. Why? Because of the implied assumptions they would get from other people. But it's OK to do it to a child. This "designer" does not fool me one bit. Cuss words can be written on a bathroom wall, nothing creative about it and people will pay for dirt.
kera 8-18-2009 @ 5:40PM
this is awesome ..not only has everyone made a ordeal over this ..aol has managed to "plug" these folks just in time for early holiday shopping! lol You can bet this designer will be quite pleased..ha!
Peanut Gallery 8-19-2009 @ 1:03AM
perfect for the prostitot in your family...
Jen 8-25-2009 @ 8:13PM
Ummm... this is absolutely INAPPROPRIATE!!!
I swear, people will make and sell anything for a buck. It's ludacris!
mary lujan 9-02-2009 @ 2:30PM
when my daughter was two - three yrs old i wore a tee on her that read itty -bitty-titty-committee,that was in the 80s so i see nothing wrong with these tees
mommiedear 8-25-2009 @ 11:56AM
UBELIEVABLE! If this is what it takes t sell tots shirts then we have a problem. I think this designer just got shoved into a kids clothing line when he or she really wanted to be making show girl costumes! It never ceases to amaze me how little common sense some people use when it comes to the simplest of things! Like on www.truuconfessions.com there are so many real moms who talk of this subject.
Reply
Wendell 8-18-2009 @ 2:07PM
As long as society allows it, there is no limit to the vulgarity or stupidity humans are capable of.
Reply
pderoo1 8-18-2009 @ 3:01PM
What I don't understand is, when did it become okay that young girls dress like hookers and act like strippers? I mean, I'm no prude by any means, but c'mon...
Lisa 8-18-2009 @ 4:58PM
It's ok to let your kids wear Juicy across their as* or any word for that matter drawing attention to their little butts but this shirt is wrong? Double standard people.
ThinkLisaThink 8-18-2009 @ 6:02PM
Lisa how can you call it a double standard when you do not even know what our opinion is about the Juicy brand logo being plastered on a kid's behind?
Dane 8-18-2009 @ 6:41PM
Society has nothing to do with it. If you wish to live in a "free" society you must allow people to be as stupid and greedy as they want. It's your responsibility as a consumer to purchase only what approve of not ANYTHING that's out there. So simply don't buy one of these shirts, I know I won't for my granddaughter. If everyone simply shook their heads and refused to by this crap for kids then the designers and the producers would lose money on their investments and this kind of crap would stop being produced.
Duh 8-18-2009 @ 7:43PM
Society has nothing to do with it. If you wish to live in a "free" society you must allow people to be as stupid and greedy as they want.>>>>>>>>>>>>Huh? We put people in prison all of the time due to their stupid actions and greed.
Tami 8-27-2009 @ 10:09AM
Because MEN like the idea of the younger the better.
SB 8-18-2009 @ 2:12PM
Wendell: I agree. This just shows once again that the pecentage of people that voted they would buy the shirt should have filled out an application prior to procreating.
Reply
Herlihy 8-18-2009 @ 2:18PM
Did you people not read the article in how quick you were to condemn others? The t-shirt is meant to be satirical. When we're used to Wal-Mart selling kiddie thongs and Abercrombie & Fitch selling preteen tees reading "Who needs brains when you have these," this item is meant to challenge appropriateness. Hence the dynamic between racy imagery and wholesome cotton garments. That being said, I wouldn't buy it for the social commentary either, but you people don't know what you're talking about.
Glorious 8-18-2009 @ 2:42PM
Herhily must live in Sweden where pedophiles run rampant. You talk about "condemning others" and then turn right around and condemn those who post comments you agree with. They don't think like you so they "don't know what they're talking about."
Nice.
Tassels on any shirt for any child are completely wrong. Tassels have a long history of being twirled about, attached to very large exposed breasts, on a stage, for money and everybody knows it.
buggzmum 8-18-2009 @ 2:52PM
Herlihy, there ain't no way, no how, someone is going to think that stupid shirt is satirical. You only say that because you have read the article or your mind is twisted. I also don't think babies or toddlers should be going around with the "f**k" word written on the front of them.
This is nothing but poor taste. No one who buys the clothes is going to say, "Oh, I agree with the designer. No one should be putting sexy clothing on children, it makes them look ridiculous, so I am going to buy this shirt and put it on my kid because I agree with her." She know people will buy the stuff, so she makes money. Period.