Fashion / children's fashion
Warmth in the junkyard
Outside play – perhaps in a junkyard of sorts, or on the street – is great regardless of season; stay warm
‘Their most treasured memory is one day last summer when all the children created a water slide coming off the roof of the office with mattresses at the bottom.’ How to react to that sentence – heart racing a tad (plenty), but onboard with the free spirits. I enjoyed this article on a playground made from junk, in the Guardian. It’s about outside play without fences and instead, with fires, saws, baths and sofas. Admittedly, some of it isn’t for those of cotton wool wrapping tendencies to say the least, but don’t you remember some slightly dubious safety moments growing up in leafy childhood land? I do. Risk assessment, learning, growing and exploring, as well as not being judged or monitored, are all benefits from free play.
Along these lines is one of the best things to happen to streets in Bristol; the Playing Out:Temporary Play Street Order (TPS). It’s not perhaps as extensive as Copenhagen’s original skrammellegepladsen, which translates as “junk playground” and first opened in 1943 after children started to play on bombsites. Or Camberwell’s, which opened in 1948. But it means that streets can shut regularly and kids can go out and play outside in real life, making up imaginary worlds until it’s time for tea. The modern version of this, the aforementioned Guardian’s profile on ‘The Land. A Space Full of Possibilities,’ in North Wales with the fire and all that jazz, is definitely something to think about. Getting outside we all know, is good for our health and I bet those children in Wales feel fantastic as the ‘masters’ of their own adventure playground.
Rather than get further into play politics, I think it’s time to check out some warm clothes for kids. As the rain pelts down outside, it’s on my mind. There’s no reason to catch a cold.
L-R; Uniqlo £19.90, Boden dungarees £24, M&S wellies £12, Zara shearling coat £22.99, JoJo Maman Bébéduffle coat £35, Aigle wellies at John Lewis £37, Togz all-in-one at Born £30
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