A Palate for Imagination

"If you are a parent or just spend time around kids, you have probably noticed how children’s games evolve as they play freely. One minute, they will be playing King and Queen, and marching in knitted crowns. In the next, they are wild animals digging up the ground to make a nest. Then they become astronauts exploring the moon. Their play continuously flows with bursts of imaginations!" According to Fiber Craft Artist and Otto Specht parent Nao Motomatsu, the environment and materials children are provided with in the Waldorf Early Childhood and younger grades invite all the possibilities of a child’s imagination. "This is one of the reasons Waldorf dolls do not have facial features,” she explains. "A doll with a fixed, usually smiling face may take away an opportunity for a child to imagine a play of minding and taking care of an unhappy, hungry baby, and the subsequent feeling of confidence when the baby is soothed." An expressionless doll, on the other hand, Nao says, "can be sleeping, smiling, or crying depending on their play. Similarly, in the Waldorf Early Childhood and Younger Grades, it is often requested that families avoid characters on clothing that may distract or inhibit one’s own imaginations."

Delving into this principle, Nao created a palate for imagination in curating and creating her child’s wardrobe. “Simply finding a wardrobe that is all natural and chemical-free, without cartoons or logos emblazoned across them might seem close to impossible in today’s world, but an outfit or two is where it starts,” Nao says, noting that there are many mainstream brands that have started to sell organic and/or Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified environmentally friendly clothes which tend to be simple in color and design. Beginning with these basics, Nao engages her child in the addition of natural, creative clothing alterations such as plant dying. “Onion skins can be used for yellows and oranges. Avocado pits and skins create light earthy pinks. It can be more challenging, but if you can get a hold of or grow fresh indigo, you can even achieve emerald and aqua greens.” 

The natural dyes used are not just valued for their beautiful colors, but for their healing and cleansing properties. “In the West, the most familiar way to take a medicine is orally,” Nao says, “but in our culture in Japan, people used to apply medicines through fabrics that had direct contact with our skin, including clothing.” The process, she says, is a wonderful way to introduce to children how colors can come from nature, and experiment with tie dyes and other dyeing techniques. For older children, the process can be a scientific experiment; adjust the pH level of a dye bath and rinsing water to achieve different warmth and tones.

For Nao, the art of children’s clothing is not just about the aesthetic. It is functional and reflects, for her family, a way of life. Just as we may choose decor to create the mood of a room, clothing can be chosen or created to encourage learning, promote health, and allow children to live freely into their imaginative play.