FashInvest Exclusive: Take a Look at FashionPlaytes with Founder and CEO Sarah Mcllroy

                            Catering to”Generation Z”

In today’s world, technology is paving the ways for so many industries, especially fashion. Technology has not only allowed consumers to buy clothing and accessories online, but customize them as well. Customization has been successful for adult consumers and the tween market with FashionPlaytes!

FashionPlaytes.com invites girls to design and wear their own dresses, hoodies, jackets, tees, and more. Girls pick out the style and color, and then add their own flair with fun embellishments, including their own brand label. As reported last week there is great potential in this market, which led to FashionPlaytes closing a round of funding (FashionPlaytes Raises $5M in Series B  Funding).

Recently I had the pleasure of taking a deeper look at FashionPlaytes and the tween market with founder and CEO Sarah Mcllroy. Sarah is a mother of three children; she has 10 years of experience in the gaming industry and prior experience in product design and development.

When asked about the inspiration behind FashionPlaytes Sarah stated the following: “My daughter came to me with lots of sketches and wanted to design her own clothes, like many girls her age want to. After listening to my daughter, I wanted to turn this into a reality.”

The new funding that FashionPlaytes received will be used to fuel further marketing strategies, expand staff and to build a great experience for girls.

FashionPlaytes not only allows girls to design their own clothing, but include their own labels as well! The site has over 500,000 users and over 6 million designs created. The average time spent on the site is one hour, with two visits per week. FashionPlaytes has also just released a sketchbook concept and is working on jewelry.

Twenty million strong nationwide, tweens( kids ages 8 to 14), who are often called “Generation Z” or “digital natives”  now flex $43 billion worth of annual spending power, according to Larissa Faw, editor at Youth Markets Alert, a trade newsletter based in New York City.

When asked about the future of FashionPlaytes Sarah stated the following:  “In the future, girls will have the opportunity to design silhouettes. We also want to take the experience offline by leveraging birthday parties and other social events. We are excited about new partnerships in the works and to be building a community for girls. We’re also excited to take the business to the next level; our Series B funding has given us the tools to do so.”

By Lolita A. Alford