It's hard walking down the Barbie isle at the toy store. There is just so much PINK! And even though I'm totally tired of pink, it is the color that sells and so I often make girl's costumes in that color.
For example, a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” Other sources said blue was flattering for blonds, pink for brunettes; or blue was for blue-eyed babies, pink for brown-eyed babies, according to Paoletti.
Paoletti is a historian at the University of Maryland and author of Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America
This girls in pink/boys in blue thing didn't start until the 1940's. But then the Women's Movement in the 70's brought about the idea of gender neutral again ... for a while. Check out this Lego ad from 1981.
When will the pendulum swing the other way? I wonder?