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. Angels Fancy Dress director Emma Angel 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?
“Children’s dress-up is always a best seller for us, with our InCharacter babies range being very popular with customers. Our Halloween range sells especially well, such as Pumpkin Patch, Count Cutie and Baby Bat. Parents even bought costumes for their babies around World Book Day, even though those little ones wouldn’t be participating.”
Why is children’s dress-up so popular with non-party retailers?
“It’s another way for children to really get involved in the games they’re playing, and to become a certain character. Our fun range of InCharacter costumes such as Wee Wrangler, Cap’n Stinker and Time Out mean that toddlers can play at being a certain character and really feel like they’re a cowboy or a pirate!”
How does dress-up reflect current trends and fashions?
“At Angels we’ve found that animals are always very popular with customers, such as Tiger Tot, Lovable Lion and Pink Elephant. Soft materials are very popular, as they’re more comfortable for babies and children to wear. Bright colours are also a favourite of babies or toddlers, such as costumes Pink Monster and Goofy Gator.”
How important is licensed product to this sector?
“For such small children we’ve found that having licensed costumes aren’t that important. As long as the costume is fun, comfortable and brightly coloured, small children seem to be very happy with dressing up as a more generic character. Especially at Halloween there’s no need for children to be a specific licensed character, as witches and monsters are always relevant and popular, for example Witch and Famous and Monster-Boo.”
What’s new for the children’s dress-up market in 2018?
“This year we’ve expanded our range of children’s costumes from InCharacter to include Funny Fox, Toxic Dump, Caveman Cutie and Pint-Sized Pope. These adorable new editions are really fun, high quality and come in sizes from 0-6 months to 18-24 months, meaning that babies of all ages can enjoy them. Caveman Cutie comes complete with a stuffed bone toy and Toxic Dump even has the message Caution Hazardous Waste on the back.”
