Fashion Blogs

design (1144)

Flower Power Colors

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 24, 2009 at 8:30am

When I did my first manufacturing run for Pixyworld last year, I tried to choose colors that would appeal not just to me personally, but to a wide range of customer tastes.

For example, I had learned, through selling custom outfits on eBay, that in toddler girls' clothes, pink just sells. As an Autumn, I can't wear pink at all, so it's not a color I naturally gravitate to. (Though it looks gorgeous on my little Summery 4-year-old!)

At any rate, I had to let myself go on just one collection. For F

Cluttered Studio, Cluttered Mind??

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 27, 2009 at 10:46am

The classic retort to the aphorism "Cluttered desk, cluttered mind" is, "Well, then what about an empty desk??"

I might say the same for my design studio, the wellspring of Pixyworld children's fashion, should it ever be accused of being... shall we say, less than tidy? I had to admit to finding a large piece of unused marker paper the other day, after having made do without any (thinking I'd run out) for several days of pattern making.

But I like to class myself as "artistic" (as if that somehow

Images on Clothing: Embroidery vs. Applique

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 9, 2009 at 10:30am

The ability to put images on clothing has opened up new vistas of fun and personal expression, both for adults and children. Printed fabrics and printed tee-shirts are so ubiquitous now that we take them for granted. But my favorites, especially for children's clothing, are embroidery and applique -- two methods that give an image a special texture and style that really makes it pop.

Embroidery Library has great examples of both. With embroidery, there is the possibility for almost limitless deta

A New Look at Wholesale

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 26, 2009 at 8:43am

It seems that with the advent of e-commerce, the rigid dividing lines between apparel wholesalers and retailers is softening, and Pixyworld is ready to step into a newer hybrid role. We have always been open, in theory, to wholesaling, but we seemed to have readier access to the retail market. Not to mention profit margin -- which is miniscule for our wholesale sales at present.

However, we've been getting more and more wholesale inquiries, and it's caused us to take another look at the potential

Project Runway move Final

Posted by Raven on April 2, 2009 at 2:55pm

he lawsuit that has kept Bravo original show Project Runway off thetelly and out of our minds has finallyRead more: Fashion Avenue Glammie! on PNN

Colors in Fashion Design

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 4, 2009 at 11:01am

As cheesy as the title has come to sound, Color Me Beautiful, by Carole Jackson, has been a milestone in fashion history. Take a look on Amazon at how many titles and products use it as a springboard. And for me, it was the beginning of the love affair with color that eventually led me to a career in children's fashion.

Jackson's color theory forms a foundation for color selection in fashion design. It reminds the designer to select colors from all four seasons, so that her line can have the broa

Skinny Jeans: What's the Skinny?

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 23, 2009 at 9:57am

When Pixyworld puts out our next jeans collection, what cut will make the cut?? According to MiniHipster.com, the skinny jean is here to stay. I have to say, when a company like BabyGap is selling them at full price, the prognosis does look good.

The tricky part is that right now we seem to be between trends, as evidenced by the plethora of choices available there. There's wide leg, straight, & boot cut; embroidered, whiskered, and appliqued.

Or, one could interpret it differently: perhaps we are

Confessions of a Linkoholic

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 20, 2009 at 10:19am

OK, so I may be just a little bit obsessed with Page Rank -- not that I use checkpagerank.net to check my google page rank, link popularity, and those of all the stores around me on every google search. I mean, just some searches -- the important ones!

Pixyworld doesn't exactly have a huge advertising budget these days. It's basically sweat-it-out, knock on zillions of e-doors, and hope somebody puts up my link somewhere.

I do have a very nice reciprocal link directory, by the way, in case you're

Sublimating the Shopping Urge

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 2, 2009 at 1:00pm

When a girl needs to shop, she's going to shop. I've accepted that about myself.

The question is, how to direct the shopping impulse toward something easy on -- or not too catastrophic to -- the credit card balance! And that's where it comes in so handy being a clothing designer.

When I need to shop, I can browse fabrics for my next Pixyworld collection. And if the urge is strong upon me, I can even request swatches.

Swatches are one of life's few free pleasures. When they arrive in the mail, it's

DIY Webmastering

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 29, 2009 at 8:30pm

So, I find myself a webmaster (webmistress?? that sounds scandalous -- how about web queen?) by necessity, for my toddler girls' clothing site. Not because I love computers -- on the contrary!! But, because no other volunteers seemed to be materializing.

I've picked up a smattering of HTML along the way, thanks to some great online tutorials, including htmlcodetutorial.com. (Who writes these things, anyway??) And I've also had to enter the mysterious world of Reciprocal Linking and Top Sites List

Spec Sheets, Schmeck Sheets.

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 7, 2009 at 8:41am

As much as I love Mary Gelhar's The Fashion Designer Survival Guide, there is one area in which it hasn't tallied with my experience.

Tech sheets. Spec sheets. Whatever you want to call them. The fact of the matter is, I have rarely ever been able to get a manufacturing quote for my little girls' clothing line with one.

When I first started looking for a factory, I made beautiful tech sheets. By the book. One production manager even went out of her way to compliment my flats. But the response I in

It's In the Fit (that's where it is...)

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 28, 2009 at 11:19am

There are so many thing that have to go right in garment production, to make a pleasing product. It's no wonder I find myself returning half the clothes I buy from Chadwick's, my cheap online clothing source.

But if I had to pick one detail that is make or break, it's fit. And I'd say that with the childrens' clothes I design, sizing is even more challenging, but just as important.

It's more challenging because children vary tremendously in both height and weight, whereas in standard adult women's

I see London, I See France...

Posted by Melody Wilson on April 3, 2009 at 10:07am

I volunteer occasionally to work in the preschool class at church, and as much as I love the age, being a preschool girl does come with its fashion dilemmas.

In fact, I began designing children's clothes with just these dilemmas in mind. These little girlies are at the prime dress-wearing age, and they look as pretty as posies in their twirly dresses and piggy-tales.

But, they do tend to expose themselves for all the world to see. Parents tend to either ignore this problem -- fair enough, I guess

Eye4style.com

Posted by Mimi Joe on March 28, 2009 at 4:44am

I really enjoy this fashion blog. The editor of this blog regularly posts the latest fashion styles, trends, and accessories. The best part is the update on sample sales! Check out the site: http://www.eye4style.com/Also, here's a recent post of a great jewelry designer that I like very much:

Puppy Love

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 30, 2009 at 8:35am

My little girls have never been super into dolls, but they LOVE stuffed animals. (They love real animals too, only we can't have cats or dogs because of allergies.) So it seemed natural to do a Pixyworld collection with a pet animal theme, which I had to call Puppy Love.

The color combination really pops on this one. I did a design with these colors when I was selling customs on eBay, after a customer asked me to do something with puppies and kittens. I got a lot of enthusiastic comments on the c

Little Kid/Big Kid -- and in beTween

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 25, 2009 at 8:17am

If I've heard it once, I've heard it 100 times -- Pixyworld needs to add bigger sizes. Moms want it, girls want it. So this season we're adding sizes 6 and 7.

There is an age, though, where kids stop wearing matched sets. Not that all kids wore them before that age -- but they definitely go from cool to uncool somewhere around age 7. Funny, isn't it?

My two boys, 9 and 7, have made the transition. Now they don't just not match -- they usually clash. Boys' athletic clothes are sold as separates, fo

Overseas Manufacturing: Pros and Cons

Posted by Melody Wilson on March 19, 2009 at 8:26am

Pixyworld is dipping its toes into the deep waters of overseas manufacturing. We're starting with one collection, as an experiment, this season. Amazingly enough, we found a factory that is willing to come low on minimums and even make one fabric in an extremely small quantity.

But there's more to overcome than high minimums. How about shipping cost -- not just shipping for the product, but back and forth for sample fabric, patterns, samples, & counter-samples!! Using a courrier service like FedE

Marc Jacobs to Wed!!

Posted by Raven on March 20, 2009 at 8:25pm

That's right! Fashion icon Marc Jacobs is engaged to his boyfriend of a year LorenzGet more, Get Glam at:

CFDA announces Nominees

Posted by Raven on March 17, 2009 at 11:30am

Today the CFDA has released its list of nominees for its annual design awards. They are:Women's Wear:Get more Get Glam at

Galliano Serves up Sexy Slav

Posted by Raven on March 16, 2009 at 11:44pm

Do you want some sexy with that Slav? If you do John Galliano served it up, and supersized it! From billowing skirts and romantic...Get more Get Glam at:

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