But for those who thought Ms. Lam staffers can write off designer clothing as a work expense, think again. “Of course price is a huge concern, but [Issey Miyake] is also a little too fashionable for what we’re trying to do,” Woo says. “We work with children every day, so we’re looking for something that’s the right silhouette—not something that flows around a lot—the right length, the right fit. We actually find that this brand works way better.”
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 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). “It washes really, really well,” she says. “You can wash it 365 times and it comes out looking the same.”
Stephanie Woo, head of Ms. Lam Montessori School, dressed in Yamasaki Takashi.
There is a pedagogical explanation for the stylish uniforms, though. “Between zero and six, children have what we call the absorbent mind, where they’re just effortlessly absorbing everything in the environment,” Woo explains. “Children 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—lots of wood, lots of greenery—because 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.”
Woo’s mother, Ms. Lam, introduced the uniforms to her schools in Taiwan 12 years ago. “In 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,” she explains. Woo brought the practice to the Brooklyn schools eight years ago, where she noticed that teachers weren’t as keen to restrict their wardrobe to one single color. “I know that nobody wants to wear a uniform. I mean, we’re New Yorkers,” she says. Instead, Woo lets her staffers pick from a wide variety. “I gave a lot more room to choose because I know our culture.”
