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Under the influence of more fashion-savvy consumers and new platforms for showcasing and promoting innovative kids' photography, brands are starting to embrace a more sophisticated esthetic.
Kids' photography in the U.S. has been stuck in a time warp. While European photographers, magazines, and clients have been pushing the creative boundaries of the genre for more than a decade, clients in the U.S. have mostly held fast to a tradition of primary colors, commercial lighting and effusive happiness.
But European influences are finally creeping in. Stylists, art directors and photographers who cut their teeth in women's and men's fashion work-here and in Europe-are bringing a more grown-up sensibility to kids' photography in the U.S. Forward-thinking kids' style magazines are taking hold, showcasing kids' fashion and product photography with more of an edge. Ever so cautiously, clients are responding.
"They are wanting to push the envelope a little more. It's baby steps, but there are steps," says Michel Onofrio, a stylist who switched from men's and women's fashion to kids' fashion six years ago. More brands are asking for an editorial approach, she explains. "I interpret that as more fashionforward, cool, hip. When I started in the kids' market, you never heard that."
"There is a more creative approach in the U.S. now," says Linda McLean, fashion editor at UK-based Family Traveller magazine and founder of Smudgetikka, one of the most respected kids' fashion and lifestyle blogs.
Among the signs of change is Meiko Takechi Arquillos's work for a recent Barbie campaign. In one image-a cinemagraph-a Barbie doll sits trapped in a cage on a stairway, while a second Barbie swings by one leg from a bungee cord tied to the bannister. Though there are no kids shown in the image, it defies the idealized sugar-and-spice of so much Barbie advertising and kids' advertising in general.
Arquillos says the assignment, from BBDO, was to illustrate how kids actually play with Barbie dolls, while leveraging the "girl power" trend in kids' advertising. BBDO got ideas for the campaign from the #youcanbeanything Instagram feed, where Barbie fans upload pictures of their dolls. "The point of the campaign was to focus less on the glamor side of Barbie and more on kids' imagination," Arquillos says.
She also recently shot...