Fashion storytelling through Dress and Lego Mini-Figures: Mary, Queen of Scots

Glover, Catherine (2023) Fashion storytelling through Dress and Lego Mini-Figures: Mary, Queen of Scots. In: Fashion Heritage: Narrative and knowledge creation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 25-53. ISBN 9783031068850, 9783031068867

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Abstract

Falkland Palace in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace built in the early sixteenth century. The Palace was the country residence of the Stuart king and queens and due to a recent restoration, the Palace’s historic royal arms, centuries-old paintings, and reproductions of period costumes can now be seen by the public. Yet between the meticulously curated dresses, materials, and legacy of Royals past are hidden more modern props—Lego mini-figures. Curated as a Lego trail, it is aimed at engaging and teaching young children in the story of Mary and her forebears and the hunt for these small miniatures takes visitors through the full range of public, leisure, and private areas of the Palace. What narrative constituents are coming into play here, to work in synergistic union between environmental context (Palace) and material (Lego and textile/dress) content? What value is there in using miniatures as playful story props, to support the telling and retelling of historic legacies? This chapter explores how these Lego figures act as fashionable and transformative symbolic and aesthetic thirds, energising storied characters, events, and plots for contemporary visitors, and dynamically prompting active storytelling in the present.

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