Photograph: Barnard, Pip/Victoria & Albert Museum, Lond
An elaborate fried breakfast dress worn by Dame Edna Everage is to take centre stage this week as part of a V&A initiative to encourage future generations of designers.
The museum has announced plans to make every lockdown Wednesday a design day for children and will offer fun activities and challenges inspired by objects in the collection.
It begins this week with fashion and will include a “bingo jacket” designed by Jim O’Connor and Everage’s breakfast dress, a wildly over-the-top creation featuring sausages, bacon, fried egg, baked beans and tomato ketchup.
The dress was designed by Stephen Adnitt and was worn by Everage on a 1997 television show called Dame Edna’s Work Experience. It involved her being driven up the M6 in a Rolls-Royce by Madge, her bridesmaid, for a performance at a baked beans factory.
She entered, wearing the dress, on a forklift truck. “Hello Wigan, hello world,” she says. “Oh, aren’t I a dish tonight, I feel like a transport caff on legs, I feel like a trucker’s breakfast … ”
The dress is in the V&A’s permanent collection and it is hoped it will spark children’s imaginations. “We’re saying let’s make something to wear that makes cooking or eating more fun,” said Elizabeth Galvin, the head of learning and digital programmes at the V&A.
“With the bingo jacket, we’re saying let’s make something to wear that keeps you entertained. It could be trainers, a hat or something completely new … there are no wrong answers.”
The activities will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and the V&A’s blog with the hashtag #LetsMakeWednesdays. They are aimed at seven- to 11-year-olds and future weeks will feature design challenges themed around subjects including theatre and recycling
“You don’t need any specialised equipment,” said Galvin. “You can use pens, paper, cardboard boxes and things from the recycling bin to solve a design problem or come up with new ideas.”
The V&A initiative is one of many online learning projects launched by UK museums, galleries and organisations during the lockdown. English Heritage on Monday announced a new addition to its online History at Home hub of videos, podcasts, articles and activity sheets.
On Wednesday it will release a video history lesson on prehistory and Stonehenge, the first in a planned weekly series. Subsequent episodes will include Hadrian’s Wall and the Romans, castles, 1066 and Dover Castle in the second world war.
