{"id":368093,"date":"2026-10-08T18:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T18:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368093\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T18:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T18:52:12","slug":"for-these-stylish-brooklyn-preschool-teachers-fashion-is-part-of-the-pedagogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368093\/","title":{"rendered":"For These Stylish Brooklyn Preschool Teachers, Fashion Is Part of the Pedagogy"},"content":{"rendered":"

But for those who thought Ms. Lam staffers can write off designer clothing as a work expense, think again. \u201cOf course price is a huge concern, but [Issey Miyake] is also a little too fashionable for what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d Woo says. \u201cWe work with children every day, so we\u2019re looking for something that\u2019s the right silhouette\u2014not something that flows around a lot\u2014the right length, the right fit. We actually find that this brand works way better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than outfitting all of her staffers in Pleats Please as the internet had hoped, Woo returns from her trips to Taiwan with a haul of Yamasaki Takashi<\/a>, a Harajuku brand founded on bringing origami principles to clothing. The Yamasaki Takashi pieces are especially well-suited to working with toddlers (Woo notes that only staffers who wear a uniform are those who work with children under six). \u201cIt washes really, really well,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can wash it 365 times and it comes out looking the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Stephanie Woo, head of Ms. Lam Montessori School, dressed in Yamasaki Takashi.<\/p>\n

There is a pedagogical explanation for the stylish uniforms, though. \u201cBetween zero and six, children have what we call the absorbent mind, where they\u2019re just effortlessly absorbing everything in the environment,\u201d Woo explains. \u201cChildren love beautiful things just like adults do. So because we know that children naturally love beautiful things, we actually create an environment that is very uplifting, very comfortable, very beautiful\u2014lots of wood, lots of greenery\u2014because children love that and we want to nurture that in them. They can grow up in a beautiful place and know that those things are important. It just becomes a part of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woo\u2019s mother, Ms. Lam, introduced the uniforms to her schools in Taiwan 12 years ago. \u201cIn Taiwan, we actually have a very systematic way of doing it. Our lead teachers wear a certain uniform, our assistant teachers wear a different uniform, our front desk admin wear something else,\u201d she explains. Woo brought the practice to the Brooklyn schools eight years ago, where she noticed that teachers weren\u2019t as keen to restrict their wardrobe to one single color. \u201cI know that nobody wants to wear a uniform. I mean, we\u2019re New Yorkers,\u201d she says. Instead, Woo lets her staffers pick from a wide variety. \u201cI gave a lot more room to choose because I know our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But for those who thought Ms. Lam staffers can write off designer clothing as a work expense, think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,36006,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-368093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-issey-miyake","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}