Spark

Through our observations of the children in nursery and communication with families we knew that they all had a deep interest in costume and dressing-up. Boys and girls equally enjoyed visiting the dressing up selection in the home corner, experimenting with the variety of colourful, sparkly fabrics, outfits and accessories there to express themselves. We also noticed that many children brought costumes in from home to wear and share during the day. These costumes often led to and extended the children’s imaginative play, but more pertinently seemed to provide children with a new confidence and sense of self-expression, giving them opportunity to play with who they wanted to be that day.

Provocation

Initially we started adding a variety of open-ended fabrics to the home corner to encourage the children to create their own outfits and costumes, which they responded to with enthusiasm. However, we noticed that after a while the children were using the same simple tying techniques to create mainly simple strapless dresses and skirts.

We chose to introduce the story Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love, in which the main character creates his own mermaid costume using items he finds around the home. It was important to us that the story celebrates a genderless approach to dress up, and the way that clothing and costume can empower people to feel themselves and find community. I read the story, performing it to the children with props and sharing a video of the real Coney Island Mermaid Parade which inspired the story.

Response

The children were entranced by the story and video and many immediately responded by making their own headdresses using strips of paper and collage materials (pompoms, buttons, sparkly strands, tissue paper). They used measuring tape to measure their heads and ensure that their headdresses would be the correct size. This interest in measuring and techniques led me to get in touch with the City and Islington College fashion department about visiting their students and studios. Mita Pandya (Executive Head of Nursery) also reached out to a local tailor. At C&I the children were given a tour of the end of year fashion exhibition by a lecturer and a student. They learned about the variety of techniques you can use to make clothing, and how you can turn inspiration (such as graffiti) into a garment. At the tailor, the children learned about the amazing techniques and equipment you can use to edit and create your own clothing.

In response to this we purchased a tailor’s mannequin which the children started to use with the fabric we had previously provided in the home corner. They created amazing transient pieces, experimenting with overlapping, wrapping, pegging, tying and twisting.

We also visited the Victoria and Albert Museum to observe the beautiful jewellery and fashion collections there. The children were able to explore pieces from around the world, throughout history. They observed with great interest how men’s and women’s fashion changes across time and were amazed by the richness of much of the clothing and jewellery.

Final outcome

Each child was given a pillowcase as a blank slate for them to create their own design. They started off by cutting their neck and armholes into whichever shapes they preferred, before painting them with their chosen design and pattern. One child was inspired by her recent family trip to Rome and decided to use this in her design, cutting and twisting the fabric into a toga shape. Finally they embellished them with fabric, making further edits to the shape, style and design. Throughout the process we encouraged the children to think ahead about their intention with their design, drawing the inspiration we have seen in, whilst also encouraging them to reflect on how things worked out.