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Tween fashion site takes girls’ designs into the real world
true spirit of fashion, design website
FashionPlaytes.com is carving out its own trend that
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incorporates elements of gaming, fashion content
and e-commerce. The Massachusetts-based website is putting
a consumer products spin on online fashion play by allowing
young girls to partake in personalized, social dress-up that
materializes into purchasable, wearable clothing items. And
after securing another round of Series A funding to the tune of
US$4 million, the eight-person startup is counting on additional
social networking functions to create a whole new multilayered
online experience.
Founder Sarah McIlroy pieced the concept together from her
previous gaming experience at Hasbro and Atari and her desire to
give young girls like her daughter a means of self-expression. The
website launched in November 2009 against a backdrop of popular
girls fashion-oriented virtual worlds like Stardoll.com and a US
online retail market that generates US$152 billion annually. “We’re
unique because the girls can actually buy the clothes they are designing,”
says Val Fox, VP of marketing. “We’re the first to connect the
virtual and physical worlds of design for a young audience.”
This young demo of five- to 12-year-olds uses the Fashion
Playtes interface to become the creative directors of personalized
fashion labels. Users select base items like hoodies, pants
and t-shirts and sift through a selection of five million possible
style options to customize and embellish the clothing according
to sleeve hems and ribbon rations. Girls can also draw inspiration
from on-hand Look Books that feature seasonal templates curated
by Fashion Playtes staff members. Items are bought using gift certificates
or are saved and ordered by parents for between roughly
US$40 and US$50 apiece.
“There’s a heightened desire for this when so many teen idols
and celebrities are launching their own fashion and product lines,”
says Fox. Substantiating her belief are the 200,000 unique garments
that have been created to date, tens of thousands of which have
shipped globally.
Within its first year, the site has garnered a 30% customer return
rate, which Fox attributes to the products’ appeal to the growing
trend of customization. Also, given the higher price-points, an
entire Fashion Playtes wardrobe isn’t the expectation. “It’s not an
everyday product like clothes from The Gap. Ours is more of an
experience-based product, so we’re not trying to compete with the
volume shop,” says Fox.
That doesn’t mean establishing a real-world retail presence is out
of the picture. This past summer, Fashion Playtes paired with house
of Hello Kitty, Sanrio, to offer a series of branded kiosks in the company’s
retail locations across the US. It’s also in talks with a number
of brands and media properties that are interested in increasing
mindshare with tween girls using Fashion Playtes’ program interface.
This spring, Fox and her team will be rolling out a finely tuned
community-enabled website design that will include more gaming
and user-to-user sharing components. In taking on more social
networking traits, users will be recognized via avatars, partake
in fashion-oriented games, message one another and earn points
based on their fashion designs.
The tools are there, Fox contends, to tap into an already vibrant
conversation taking place among young girls. “As we’ve learned,
girls have very distinct styles and develop their own unique voice
when it comes to fashion at a very young age,” she says.
Of course, behind the conversation is an e-commerce business
that relies heavily on parental buy-in—and that fact is driving
Fashion Playtes’ marketing efforts. Along with bolstering its product
offerings and customer base, a portion of the recent round of funding
is earmarked for marketing to the parents who pay for the clothing.
This holiday season, for instance, the company made a large push for
parents to purchase Fashion Playtes gift certificates on behalf of their
kids that can be redeemed for a customized item or outfit.
“Dress-up has long been a pastime of girls,” says Fox. “This is
just a natural progression with
digital and e-commerce letting it
take a new shape.” WGG
LINKS
Fashion Playtes > www.fashionplaytes.com
JANUARY 2011 29