Playsacks
Paper Dress Set
1967 (manufactured)
1967 (manufactured)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
These simple, sack-like fancy dress costumes are each printed with an abstracted animal faces. They were intended to accommodate a broad range of ages and sizes, and their spontaneity and flexibility allowed them to become one of Fredun Shapur's most celebrated and successful designs. Shapur was inspired to design the Playsack when his children were in need of a last minute costume for a school event. He took a large paper sack intended for kitchen waste and decorated it with a bold, simple design. As well as the owl, pig, lion, fox, toad and rabbit in this set, also available was a bear, zebra, leopard, monkey and tiger.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 9 parts.
|
| Title | Playsacks (manufacturer's title) |
| Materials and techniques | paper, printed |
| Brief description | Set of Playsacks, packaging and advertising poster; Fredun Shapur for Trendon Ltd., 1967 |
| Physical description | Set of six sack-like fancy dress costumes made from thick fire resistant paper, printed on their fronts with an abstract face and body of an animal, with small pieces cut out for the child's eyes and holes on either side for their arms. There is an owl, which is purple, green and cream. There are two pigs which are pink, cream, orange and purple pigs. There is a lion which is yellow, orange and brown. A toad which is green, yellow and cream. A rabbit which is pink, brown and cream. The Playsacks are packaged in two large envelopes with 'Playsack' printed along the top. One envelope contains the owl, the other is labelled 'fox' and contains the remaining sacks. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Production type | Mass produced |
| Gallery label | Stylish sack
Fancy dress doesn’t have to be fancy.
Fredun Shapur got the idea for the Playsack after making his children fancy dress outfits from big paper bags.
[Young V&A, Imagine Gallery short object label] (2023) |
| Credit line | Given by Fredun Shapur |
| Object history | Given to the Museum in 1988 by Fredun Shapur [88/1015] |
| Historical context | The photograph for the packaging was taken in Epping Forest. It includes Shapur's children as two of the models as well as Shapur himself, wearing the lion costume. |
| Production | Initially developed for Trendon Ltd, Playsacks were also sold by US company Creative Playthings from 1969. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | These simple, sack-like fancy dress costumes are each printed with an abstracted animal faces. They were intended to accommodate a broad range of ages and sizes, and their spontaneity and flexibility allowed them to become one of Fredun Shapur's most celebrated and successful designs. Shapur was inspired to design the Playsack when his children were in need of a last minute costume for a school event. He took a large paper sack intended for kitchen waste and decorated it with a bold, simple design. As well as the owl, pig, lion, fox, toad and rabbit in this set, also available was a bear, zebra, leopard, monkey and tiger. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | MISC.254-1988 |
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| Record created | July 1, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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