Children’s dress-up is one of the most important sectors within the party industry, with role play activities, fancy dress birthday parties and popping to the shops as a superhero all part and parcel of daily life with a young child. Amscan’s marketing executive Charlotte Cox took an overview of the sector which covers everything from Book Week and beyond.
How has the children’s dress-up sector performed over the last 12 months?
“As a business the children’s dress up category has grown year-on-year and is our strongest performing costume age group category. This is influenced by events such as Book Week and school curriculum historical dress-up days such as Victorians and Romans.”
Why is children’s dress-up so popular with non-party specialist retailers?
“Dress-up items make fantastic gifts particularly for birthdays and seasonal events such as Christmas, providing a great opportunity to maximise basket spend for these special occasions.”
How does dress-up reflect current trends and fashions?
“Popular themes such as mythical creatures including unicorns and mermaids have definitely made an impact on dress up styles. For instance we have launched a new Mystical Pony jumpsuit in line with the hugely popular unicorn trend. Animal themed costumes are proving a top choice and are perfectly suited to the pre-school market.”
How important is licensed product to this sector?
“Licensed options are particularly popular for the preschool sector and can often be the parent’s choice of preferred property. This is especially evident with evergreen brands such as Disney Princess, Minnie and Mickey Mouse and Toy Story which feature in our Disney Baby collection. We also recently welcomed internationally admired children’s book brands; The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Elmer the Patchwork Elephant to our portfolio. Following this we are expanding our licensed offering for 2018 and beyond to include Dr Seuss among other exciting brands.”
What’s new for the children’s dress-up market in 2018?
“With the highly anticipated movie release of Incredibles 2 in UK cinemas from 13 July, we are excited to have launched an adorable Jack Jack cotton hooded romper suit available for ages 0-3 months up to 9-12 months. Our everyday collection also has some fantastic new additions including a Wee Whiskers dress with hood and cute Little Wabbit jumpsuits in blue and pink colour options. The Dress up by Design range also has some wonderful new Ride-On Light and Sound styles for 2018, featuring key themes; unicorn, train and dinosaur.”
What is your hero dress-up product or range for 2018? What is so special about it?
“This would have to be our range of PJ Masks licensed costumes and cape accessories, featuring key characters Catboy, Owlette and Gekko. For 2019 we are delighted to be adding new PJ Masks Cute Villain options to the collection to continue the success of this popular preschool franchise.”
