It's Carnival/Mardi Gras and, if you have children/nephews/nieces/grandchildren, you've probably bought (or made) them a costume. Sure, it doesn't have to be Carnival to wear a costume and maybe you're planning to buy them a costume to go to a fancy dress party or for the next Halloween, but the point is, have you ever wondered what's in a kid's costume? To answer this question, let's analyse two children's fancy dress costumes - one from the early 1980s, another bought in 2010 - and see how they aged and deteriorated, to ponder a bit about materials.
Exhibit A: Renaissance dame Carnival costume, Made in Italy, 1980, size: 4-5 years old
Description: A young girl's costume inspired by the Renaissance, divided in two parts and with two accessories. The full-skirt in a synthetic gold fabric presents turquoise floral lace inserts representing primulas and daisy lace appliqued along the hem of the skirt; the garment doesn't have any structure or crinoline underneath.
The top, in the same colour combination of the skirt, integrates instead sections of turquoise floral lace representing roses. The same lace is used for the bouffant sleeves.
The use of three different lace floral motifs is remarkable in the costume and creates subtle variations. There are no zips or plastic buttons in the skirt or the top, only automatic metal buttons. None of them shows any sign of rust.
The costume includes two accessories: a veil with a ruched element with a silvery detail around the head plus a bejeweled button acting as a forehead pendant (the veil could be secured around the neck with an elastic); the second accessory is an intricate black beaded collar made with a thick nylon thread and glass beads. The beaded collar is large enough for a grown up to wear.
History: This was my own costume. I wore it as a child only once for Carnival in 1980 in Italy. It was supposed to be a costume for Juliet, from William Shakespeare' Romeo and Juliet. Now you're probably wondering: "Why did you want to dress like Juliet as a child?" I know that sounds a bit extreme and tragic, but I remember going to buy it with my mum at a kids' clothes shop owned by a lady my family knew and picking it not because I knew who Juliet was, but because I was mesmerized by the intricate beaded collar.
It looked like something a grown up may wear and I thought that was unique (as a child I was obsessed with beads...). I wanted to wear it every day and not just on Carnival. In fact, I admit I'm still wearing it (apologies for the very personal note, but this adds further information about the condition of the ensemble).
Materials: There is no label inside the dress indicating the exact composition of the fabric, but you can tell it is a synthetic material; the lace is also rather stiff (the one around the hem of the dress is softer instead).
Labels/Warnings/Washing instructions: There is just one rather anonymous label inside the dress with a mask indicating this is a Carnival costume and the size (I). Please note that at the time it wasn't compulsory to include a detailed label with material composition/washing instructions inside garments. Some may wonder now how do I know that it was made in Italy then. Well, at the time most clothes and accessories were made in Italy. Offshoring developed around the end of the '80s and became a practice in the '90s, so when this costume was bought most garments were still made in Italy.
Deterioration/Damages: the dress does not present huge damages/stains. There is a minor damage in the top around one section of the seams between the bust and the arm, but there are no parts missing even though the elastic used to tie the veil is a bit crumpled.
I remember that I didn't particularly like the fabric of the dress since it wasn't very soft; I also remember wearing the costume with a crinoline underneath, but I don't have that anymore. Otherwise the dress is in pristine conditions and there are no other missing parts.
Storage: The costume was washed after I used it and was kept in a wardrobe folded between linen towels. A child could still wear it because it is in very good conditions.
Forty-three years have gone since that Carnival, but I still wear the beaded collar. My mum and I both used it on multiple occasions, as an everyday accessory or as a reliable piece that could spark up a dress for a special event.
Exhibit 2: A Buzz Lightyear costume, Original Disney costume from Disney Paris Resort,
Made in Vietnam, 2010, size: 3-4 years old
Description: A Buzz Lightyear Costume. Divided in two parts, it includes a top with partially detachable wings and a pair of trousers with shoe covers. The top is padded to reproduce the character's spacesuit, the wings are partially padded and so are the shoe covers.
The top also integrates a battery unit: when you press the red circle on the front of the costume, lights behind three iridescent fabric inserts light up reproducing the voice of Buzz Lightyear saying three different sentences. The costume is made of synthetic white materials with parts in black and lilac nylon. There are also large green and silver sections on the top and shoe covers and green/red and white striped sections on the wings - all these parts are covered in a polyurethane coating.
History: This costume was used by one of my nephews. It was used a couple of times.
Materials: 85% Polyester and 15% Polyurethane
Labels/Warnings/Washing instructions: The label indicates it shouldn't be washed but only cleaned with a sponge. It also warns that it should be kept away from fire and that it is unsuitable for children under 36 months. Besides, the label indicates the batteries needed for the costume (2 AA batteries).
Deterioration/Damages: Washing instructions were followed, but the white padded sections on the top and on the shoe covers turned yellow. The most unsettling thing about this costume is that the coating on all the green / silver / red and white striped parts melted and these parts are now very sticky. In some cases the colours looked as if they were scratched away.
Polyurethane coatings on clothes tend to peel away or crack, but in this case they melted producing a sticky paste that leaves gluey traces on your fingers and residues of colours on the surfaces they get in contact with (from the top of the trousers of the costume to the wall on which I photographed the garments).
If you fold two parts of the green fabric one on top of the other, they stick together, as if you had put glue on them. Touching the costume, you get easily very dirty and the traces of materials on your fingers can be removed by washing your hands or using wipes for waxing aftercare.
The red and white striped areas have also melted, leaving marks on the back of the costume. The battery unit is empty and clean, and the light/audio effects are still working.
Storage: The costume was kept in a transparent plastic cover in a trunk for the last 13 years. Considering the damages and materials that have melted, the costume is not suitable to be used again.
Materials like these ones can indeed break off from the products to which they're applied, move through the air and be breathed, ingested or absorbed through the skin.
Being unwearable, the costume could be kept like a memento like I did with mine (but it would keep on deteriorating further, so it would have to be kept away from other items...) or should be just disposed of. Yet doing so poses a health risk: the costume would end up in a landfill and the coated parts would melt further generating more pollution; the battery unit would also have to be disposed of separately.
It wouldn't be wrong to say that this costume constitutes a health hazard: if you just threw it out, it would decompose and release toxic materials in a landfill; at the same, it would not be safe to wear it as the sections that are deteriorating may be releasing toxic materials that a child would breathe or ingest. You could still recycle some sections of the costume, but you'd still have to dispose of the badly damaged/sticky parts. So what's for sure about this costume is that it won't definitely go "To infinity and beyond," as Buzz would say.
Conclusions
Being made entirely of synthetic but relatively good quality fabrics, the costume from the early '80s remained intact. It presented great attention to details and, even though it was just a Carnival costume and therefore made with average fabrics and not luxurious materials, it hasn't aged badly. Besides, the collar remained an asset and can still be used by a grown up.
The Buzz Lightyear costume by Disney is not just falling into pieces, it also turned into something completely unwearable, maybe even toxic (please note that this is not a statement made to discriminate against the place where this costume was produced compared to the previous one; it is a statement made after considering the quality and materials of both the costumes).
The Buzz Lightyear costume is definitely not environmentally friendly and, while you may argue that neither Juliet's dress is, and if I had thrown it out, it would still be decomposing in a landfill, at the same time time, the dress from the '80s may still be worn by another child, or it could still be remodeled into something else as its fabrics could still be reused.
While not all of us have the skills/time to make a kid's costume, we can still get more informed and become aware of the materials employed in fancy dress costumes and pick ones made with sensible materials or reusable ones (after all, kids grow up fast) or at least opt for costumes that do not integrate parts and elements made with materials that may badly deteriorate. Sure, you want your children to have fun and have an extraordinary and unique costume, but you also want to make sure they are safe.
This post is not intended to provide a representative sample of children's textiles, but to wonder if environmental health research groups should maybe carry out more in-depth researches on fancy dress costumes, and produce a study that may provide consumers with better information about the chemicals used in these products.
Last May there was a study about PFAS substances - also known as "forever chemicals" (as they do not naturally break down, but persist in the environment and accumulate in humans causing cancer, birth defects, liver disease, thyroid disease, decreased immunity, hormone disruption and other serious health issues) - that is, per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of more than 9,000 compounds typically used in a wide range of industries to make products water-, stain- or heat-resistant. The study found that they are contained in products destined to children such as clothing, pillow protectors, bedding and furniture or even in products labeled as "environmentally friendly". So, it would be very useful to know if even fancy dress costumes may contain such harmful materials and substances.
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