dressing up - what do your children like?

[misshardbroom]

In your child's preschool, what dressing up stuff do they have?

What's the most / least used? What don't you have but wish you did?

Any strong feelings about what should / shouldn't be available for dressing up, or about the gender coding of dressing up clothes?

I need to buy some new stuff and would welcome some outside opinions.

My DD would (& frequently does) dress up as a fairy / princess all day. I'm not a girly girl by any stretch of the imagination but this is what she likes (she is 3.7 btw).

Wouldn't worry about the gender coding of dressing up clothes, there are 2 boys at DD's pre-school who are frequently dressed as princesses, and nobody bats en eyelid.

Most popular are donated bridesmaid dresses (or from charity shop) and fairy wings and tiaras for girls. Also cat ears and tails. For boys, sparkly waistcoats and fireman/policeman tabards with matching helmets. Adult hats are popular as well like flat caps, top hats and wide-brimmed ribboned hats.

well...years ago we bought a cape in a charity shop, sort of zorro....and all we needed was eyepatch ,gun, black clothing, black material for bandanna...kids love it....
ys loves sportacus, so, got him the costume....ill fitting and on the small side, he still loves it though...

king costume possibly the least liked one in my house....

I used to dress up in a fancy pettycoat/undergarment...not ure what it would be caled, and pretend I was a princess...a beautyfull one...lol

Princess is favourite here from both girls, ss used to like knights, one of dd1's boy mates, likes knights too.

My DD (at home though, not pre-school) loves a fluffy older girls' waistcoaty thing, and a pirate hat best

Also the most used dress-up item with all my DDs has been large headscarves (multi-purpose for blankets, cloaks, scarves, headgear, shawls, slings, etc).

Don't forget to look in the charity shops - and wash hats if nothing else.

DD (3) is completely princess/fairy and ballet - you will not get her to wear anything else. However she does combine it with a doctors kit and will happily diagnose any condition dressed as a princess .
I did just buy my friend who's a childminder some fab tabards from tjhughes - they were a £1 each - there was a shopkeeper, a fireman, an astronaut and a nurse - they came with a storybook as well.

sadly, we don't have TJ Hughes

Hadn't thought about charity shops though, good plan!

the most popular in our pre-school is the cat costume and the fairy costume with both girls and boys
I find that the chidlren enjoy 'real' clothes too, instead of the actual dressing up costumes
they like bits of material which they use to make costumes to act out stories, e.g The Gruffalo, Red Riding Hood and Chicken Licken.
They also love adult shoes and bags of all description
I did have to remove the power ranger type costumes as I found that the play was very violent and all about 'getting' each other.