COSTUMES
Victor loved dressing up when he was little, and I, who have always loved sewing, threw myself into making all kinds of costumes for him. Having lived through many Carnival seasons in Brazil I have learnt there is a freedom in putting elements together to form a visual whole. The quality of the stitches is not so important, what matters is the sparkling creativity. For his fourth birthday, which had a Peter Pan theme, his costume consisted simply of torn pieces of green cloth held together with an old belt of mine and a little hat made from the same fabric decorated with a feather I found somewhere. Green sweatpants completed the outfit. He was thrilled to be in character and instructed me to sprinkle him with ‘pixie dust’. He was very put out when he couldn’t fly. All little kids like capes, and Victor had many – amongst them a heroic blue prince cape and a vampire’s black cape dramatically lined with red ‘silk’ and in a later period of monsters and beasts I repurposed an old len...