Disclosure: This is not a compensated or sponsored post. I was provided the product for review purposes only. All opinions expressed here are my own.
This is a fashion design kit for aspiring young artists to create unique fashions on paper and digitally via the Fashion Superstar app. The kit comes with a 62-page design book that has the look and feel of a designer’s sketch book, 24 Crayola colored pencils and 18 supertip markers to use for detailing and adding pops of colors to your designs, a case to carry your work sealed with a magnetic lid, and a free-to-download app compatible on iOS and Android devices.
You can get started one of two ways. First, simply grab your design booklet and start coloring in the different styles of apparel that fill the pages. In the design book, each page features a different fashion style to color and customize, ranging from tops to bottoms to one-pieces and dresses to layers for all seasons. Or start within the app. In the app, you become part of a storyline in which you are attending fashion school and, as an aspiring young designer, are tasked with creating different projects to meet clients’ needs. This will be found under your Appointments section of the app. To create these designs, you can either go back to your physical design booklet to create custom looks or pull pieces from your existing closet of virtual designs and play with the colors and saturation to change them up digitally. Each design you create within your design book can easily be scanned into the app to become a virtual piece you can play with in your look book. Within the app, you can also pair more than 1,000 combinations of apparel, walk the runway, save looks to your portfolio, unlock new levels as a designer, and earn rewards and likes from other designers via the faux message boards.
We like that it brings in components of modern tech and allows kids to create digital portfolios via the app, while still getting the hands-on fun of designing with the design book. The cool part of this design kit, especially for young fashionistas, is the interactions you have between your physical design book creations and the app. You are essentially using the same types of tools as real-world designers sketching out their ideas then editing them through digital programs to turn them into real-world fashions. There is also a satisfaction that goes along with creating your own designs.
The Fashion Superstar kit is from Crayola and it’s for ages 8 and up. It will appeal to kids that like fashion play, art, design, as well as toys that merge digital and physical play.
There are a few things to be aware of when using the app. The app works as a guide to direct kids through the activities, and, while there is free play built-in, one aspect we found frustrating was when, for example, it directs you to work on an assignment for a client. Once this happens it’s very difficult to move around within the app and restricts you to the activity and answering prompts until it’s complete.