Brits—what is a dressing-up box?
I’ve tried to google it, & both that & Wiki drew a blank.
What is it?
The article said it was “vaguely sinister”. Huh? 
Help, please?
Well, I don’t know about the “vaguely sinister” part, but a dressing up box is basically a box full of old clothes, halloween costumes etc that kids use for costumes/props when playing. Don’t they have anything like that on your side of the pond?
Um…no.
Okay, that seems rather strange, and, for some reason, kind of sad. You could get hours of free, frequently rather random, fun out of those things.
Maybe he’s just not seen them. I’ve see ones in Christmas catalogs, but I think most people make their own. I’m not sure there is a set name here for the costumes themselves.
Um, yes. I grew up in Indiana and we had a trunk full of wigs and costumes for Halloween. We didn’t call it a dressing-up-box (we called it “The Trunk”), but they certainly do exist in America.
Aussies have dressing up boxes too. I loved mine as a child
Haven’t spent much time around kids 3-6 have you? They play dress up in the US too; hell, it’s so common even part of the Sims 3, a US-created game. I’ve most commonly heard the container called a “costume trunk.”
We just called it the “dress up clothes” and they lived in a trunk. They were for everyday play, rather than reserved for Halloween. US - New York State.
Kiwis too. I’ve even heard of a kids’ show on NZ television called “The Dress-up Box”.
I remember my sister and I used to play dress-up as children (1970s, southern NJ), and the dress-up clothes were kept in a box, but I don’t think we ever called it “the dress-up box”.
Maybe we Americans need to borrow this term from our Commonwealth cousins just to have something to call the damn box.
I grew up in southeastern Ohio and we called it a “dress-up box.” I knew exactly what the OP was asking about.
Canada too - We even had a TV-show; I loved Mr Dressup! He got his costumes out of the Tickle Trunk.
We didn’t call it a “dressing-up box”, but I knew that’s what they meant. Our were stored in a laundry basket in the closet and we called it the “dress-up clothes” basket. Ours were for everyday-type play, but did often include old Halloween costumes, fancy dresses from my mom or aunts, etc. (N. California)
I’m a 22-year old American and I’ve never heard of such a thing.
They have one in a cocktail bar in London - I can confirm adults seem to enjoy it too if they’ve been drinking.
I’m a 54 year old American. Our family had a box of stuff that we played dress-up with. I’m not sure that it ever had a name, but I know that my friends’ families had similar boxes or chests of things. Usually the stuff in these boxes was old adult clothes and accessories that had either been outgrown or were out of style or were just too worn out for regular street wear. Sometimes, there were a few articles of kids’ clothing that was specifically meant for dress up play, I remember that one of my friends had a pair of high heels in a kids’ size. When I had a daughter who liked to do this, I made sure that she had some jewelry in the box, too, stuff like bracelets and anklets that I’d crocheted with jingle bells in them, so she could dance and jingle as she danced. In many cases, this is where the little girls’ makeup sets lived, too. Little girls’ makeup (back then, anyway) was generally stuff that was non-toxic and was easily removed.
So, yeah, we have, or have had, this sort of thing in the US. I suspect that it’s more common with girls than with boys, though some of my male childhood friends had things like cowboy hats or Native American headdresses that they liked to pull out and use as accessories.
May I suggest google images!
http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?subject=vfr&subcat=vfr&id=4198
http://www.dk.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,9781405319409,00.html?/My_Dressing-up_Box_Deborah_Lock
Obviously your question’s been answered already, but I’m still wondering where the “vaguely sinister” bit came from?
What is this article you refer to? You linked no article in your OP. That may be part of the confusion by the responders to your adamant denials.
Playing dressup and getting those clothes out of a box specifically for them are two different things.