Fashion Design for Girls!

One thing I love about childhood is the never-ending supply of creativity. As you get older you start to let the obstacles of the world effect your hopes and dreams. You second guess your “grand ideas” and start listening too influentially to the people who tell you that you can’t do this and you can’t do that. But childhood imagination in it’s purest form is limitless! I don’t know a girl who doesn’t enjoy picking out her clothes in the morning, and in fact I remember picking out at least 2 options for what to wear when I was younger, depending on what I felt like. In fact, I still do that now! So when I was approached by FashionPlaytes and asked to test out their site that allows young girls to design their own clothes – I knew immediately I wanted to be involved! I called up my step-daughter’s mom and we set a date for me to pick her up! I brought Faith to my house and we went to their website and got started. I told Faith we had a budget of $30 and that she was gonna design her own custom clothes. She was so excited! We had lots to choose from: shirts, leggings, dresses, belts, skirts, headbands, and even doll clothes! The first thing she had to do was pick what type of garment we were gonna make. Faith opted to create a shirt, so once that was decided she just needed to pick the style of shirt she wanted. There were lots of options – it was hard to decide! However, Faith decided she wanted to do a t-shirt and, if the budget allowed, she wanted to make a matching dress for one of her dolls too! So we choose a t-shirt in her size and then went on to the next step. Once we chose the style, the next step asked us to pick the color of the shirt. The site had several options of shirt colors – maybe even too many options! It was hard to decide on just one. Faith asked me what my favorite color was and I told her blue. She said she was trying to decide between a light pink or blue, and I told her she could pick whatever she wanted because it was her custom design! She finally decided on blue 🙂 The basic t-shirt she choose in blue was $12.00. After choosing the color, the next step was to start choosing trims and details we wanted to add to the shirt. Each additional embellishment you add-on to the shirt increases the price. The first add-on she picked was a a blue polka-dot under layer that complimented the blue color in Faith’s shirt. Our options were to add the under layer to the bottom hem of the shirt and to the hem of both the sleeves. It was so cute we couldn’t help but choose both! The other options included ribbons, ruffles, rhinestones, appliques, rosettes and graphics. All of which were super cute, but at this point Faith’s shirt had already reached $20.50, and we still needed to design her doll’s shirt, so we moved on. One of the last steps in your creation is adding a label and they have an option where you can add the child’s name to the label! Faith was super stoked about this and just “had” to have it! She chose the background image that would be behind her name, a flower, and then typed her name and chose the curly-cue font because she liked it best. After that we saved the creation and put it in our virtual shopping cart. Then we chose the dress for her doll (it was one size fits all and only one style) and we chose one in the same blue (Moon Blue) as her t-shirt so they could match. She’s so cute! Then she added the same under layer in blue polka dots so they could be coordinated and we added it to the cart! By the time we were done with the designs and added shipping and handling to the order, we went over budget by about $12. But Faith had such a fun time doing it we decided we’d go ahead and keep what we had created and complete the order. It was so much fun designing a shirt with her, and the best part was the site was VERY easy to use! In fact, Faith sat at the keyboard the whole time while I snapped pictures and watched! Once we ordered her creation she and I talked about what she liked about the site and if she’d change/add anything. She said she loved it, wanted to do it again and the only thing she’d like to see added was an option to put text on your shirt because she would have loved to add her name to her custom creation – she was so proud of it! Faith and I think these would make great gifts for any girls you know and the best part is that you (or your child) can design them and give the girl a one-of-a-kind creation that no one else will have! It would also be fun to make a outfits for special occasions like birthdays, holidays or even for her first day back to school. Furthermore, what a great (and inexpensive) way to let your child explore their creativity and take pride in their unique fashion sense. The site allows the girls to save all their creations in a section called “My Collection” (whether or not they purchase them) which is a great way for your child to explore several design options. In that section, your child can “collect” all the designs they have come up with over time, and then later they can look back on what they have made and see how they have stayed true to one style, or maybe how they have branched out and taken fashion risks. So give it a try and let your little fashionista start designing her future wardrobe now!