According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the retailer's latest line for kid's home goods, Pillowfort, will largely forgo traditional gender archetypes.
This is yet another move to solidify the retailer's reputation as a progressive company that doesn't subscribe to gender norms. This summer, the retailer stopped labeling toys by gender.
Pillowfort, which launches on February 21, takes the new strategy one step further.
The home decor line for kids, while not entirely devoid of traditional gender color schemes, does not declare its bedding to be for girls or for boys. It features patterns and designs such as astronauts, whales, stripes, and dinosaurs.
Target's website is currently showcasing a preview of the line. (Some of the room models, like "Sprinkle Suite," "Floral Field," do look traditionally 'female,' but the retailer isn't heavy handed about it. Designs with names like "Discovery Den," "Ocean Oasis" and "Camp Kiddo" prove that the retailer isn't selling to genders, just kids.)
This line marks a huge change for Target, as its kids' home decor section used to be fairly traditional.
"It was an aisle of pink, fairy princesses, ponies and flowers," Target's Senior Vice President of design and product development, Julie Guggemos, said to the Star-Tribune. "And for the boys it was rockets and dinosaurs. Well, you know what? Girls like rockets and basketball. And boys like ponies."
"Who are we to say what a child's individual expression is? We really wanted to develop a collection that would be universal," she said to the Star-Tribune.
"It gets back to listening to mom, understanding what she's looking for from Target and making sure we're delivering the products and the content that's going to be right," Target's CEO Brian Cornell said to the Star-Tribune.
However, this change isn't necessarily about eliminating 'girly' colors and designs from consumers' vocabularies.
"It's not about rejecting pink. It's saying 'Does everything I own have to be pink or purple?'" University of Kentucky psychology professor Christia Spears Brown said to the Star-Tribune.
Further, it's proof that kids might not fit into boxes prescribed to them by society. Target, like apparel companies that have been offering gender neutral clothing, seems to embracing that notion. The retailer is thereby encouraging kids to be whoever are they, no matter if that means decorating their rooms, blue, pink, green, brown or in dinosaurs, princesses, or a bears.
