I came across this post on Tumblr explaining how baby clothes were originally gender neutral, but corporations specifically gendered them in order to maintain their profits in a society where families were having fewer children. The rationale is that parents wouldn't be able to hand down clothes from, say, a sister to her younger brother.

Is there any evidence that this happened? It feels like there are a few separate things at play: the transition to gendered clothing, the transition from homemade to store-bought clothing, the transition from local retailers to national retailers, etc. Do we know how this trend got started and how it spread?