A school of fish: Clothing and Identity; Costume Design

Throughout this unit, we talked a lot about clothing and identity: what clothing says about a person, what clothing doesn't say about a person, etc. That was one of the main things we wanted to convey to the children: that their clothing choices matter, but that dressing to fit in can also have drawbacks. And that wearing something that fits well and says what you want it to say—and wearing whatever you wear with confidence—is a lot more important than fitting in to someone else's arbitrary definition of "stylish." Sam and I felt like we would have been so much more empowered had we had that kind of perspective when we were young!

Sam taught a day on Costume Design, stressing how for costume designers, every clothing choice must reveal something about the character. We learn a lot more than we realize just by looking at how a character (or any person) is dressed!

Nutmeg was very happy while Sam was teaching. He kept hopping in circles around Sam's legs.

Finally Sam had to pet him.

Sam drew two character outlines and had the children draw in costumes to fit a specific character profile which he gave them. They had to justify how their clothing choices showed various aspects of that character's personality. It was fun to see what they came up with!