Fashion Playtes

My daughter definitely has her own sense of style, and ever since she attended a Fashion Design camp this summer, she's been itching to sew her own outfits. Her sewing ability is not quite up to the level where she actually wear one of her creations in public, so for now she has to be content with blinging up existing clothing with fabric paint, ribbons, rhinestones and such. To her great delight, there's an online site that lets girls do exactly that -- design their own clothing by starting with an existing item (a shirt, a tank top, a dress, etc...) and adding graphics, ribbons, lace, bows, buttons, you name it! It's called Fashion Playtes, and it's a great way to let your daughter exercise her creative urges.

About Fashion Playtes
FashionPlaytes is an online fashion community for girls who love to design their own clothes and accessories. The best part is that you can actually order your designs online and have your custom clothes and accessories shipped right to you! As a FashionPlaytes designer, you can create your own personal brand and fashion collection. We want to give you everything you need to become the ultimate designer, so we have tons of embellishments and a tool that lets you customize your own label!

I've been following Fashion Playtes for quite some time now, because I knew it was exactly the kind of thing The Pea would love, so I was overjoyed when I saw Fashion Playtes at the MomSelect Swag Suite at BlogHer 2011. They gave everyone who dropped by a gift certificate to Fashion Playtes so we could try it out ourselves!

The Bongga
Creating your own fashions with Fashion Playtes couldn't be easier. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Choose your clothing item
Choose the item you want to design. Fashion Playtes has lots of different styles of tops, bottoms, dresses, outerwear, loungewear, beachwear, and accessories, even doll clothes! Each item has a base cost, and the final cost goes up depending on what you add to it.

Step 2: Choose your size
Fashion Playtes clothing comes in five girls' sizes, from 8 to 14.

Step 3: Choose a color
Each clothing item comes in a variety of bright colors that girls love, like lime green, hot pink and lemon yellow, as well as a tie dyes and prints (the available selection varies with the clothing item).

Step 4: Choose a design
This is the fun part! You can add graphics, embroidered appliques, rhinestones, letters, or numbers to the front of your clothing item. You can add trim -- lace, ribbons, ruffles, rhinestones, you name it -- to the necklines and hems of shirts, to skirt bottoms. You can add a lace collar or a rosette. The possibilities are endless. You can even add a custom label to your item! Each element you select adds to the total cost of the garment; you can keep track of what you're adding via the onscreen garment icon, which changes as you add elements, as well as a running price total.

You can design as many virtual outfits as you like, and if you create a Fashion Playtes account, you can save your creations and model them on an avatar. Best of all, you can purchase the outfits you designed!



Here's one of the outfits The Pea designed for herself: a summer pajama set.



Here's what the outfit looks like on her Fashion Playtes avatar.



And here's what the outfit looks like on her! She loves this PJ set. The material is really nice and soft, and after multiple washings the fabric is just as smooth as ever, no pilling. The graphic is really high quality, and has not cracked or faded from the dryer.



Here's another Fashion Playtes item she ordered, a cute blue tank top with a surfer girl graphic. Love it!

The Blah
The final price for these outfits are definitely higher than what you'd pay to get a printed tank top or pj set, but you're paying for the ability to create an original design, exactly the way you want it, down to the last rhinestone and lace frill. They do hold occasional sales, so if you wait for them you'll be able to get a discount -- just make sure you get on their email list!


The Bottom Line
Fashion Playtes are so much fun for girls because they get to design and wear their very own outfits. Their gift certificates make wonderful presents because girls end up with exactly what they want!

Disclosure:. I received a complimentary gift certificate to Fashion Playtes so my daughter could design her own outfit. Product information is provided by Fashion Playtes and is indicated in italics. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.