Researching Children and Fashion

Child-centred research methods present a range of opportunities for the researcher to gather rich and detailed data on many aspects of the lives of children. This article examines the experience of using such methods in the context of a study of children as consumers of clothing and fashion. Its principal concern is with the application of an embodied reflexivity to the experience of fieldwork with an 8-year-old girl in intimate settings. The article argues that the current climate of concern about child abuse and paedophilia may be at odds with research approaches that necessitate an intimacy between child and researcher.