Sara and Rachel Noel can whip out a custom prom dress, ball gown or fairy costume at a moment’s notice.
At age 10, the Woods Cross twins haven’t settled on a career, in fashion or elsewhere, but neighbor Kari Kawa, 34, already is winning design awards for Shailie, the fashion toy that allows the young sisters to live out their fabric fantasies.
Kawa, a former schoolteacher and a mother of sons age 8 and 2, and a daughter, 6, has earned an Oppenheim Gold Seal Best Toy Awards for Shailie, a system of dress parts that can be put together in different combinations to make countless fashion “looks.”
The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio is an independent consumer organization that rates toys on its Web site www.toyportfolio.com.
Shailie’s starter kit comes with:
• A torso-shaped dress form on a stand
• A base outfit of white fabric, affixed with strips of hook-and-loop fasteners
• Colorful fabric “dress pieces” edged with strips of the hook-and-loop fasteners, and a storage case for the pieces.
To design dresses, the fabric dress pieces are pressed onto the skirt and top to create the look of skirts, tops, sashes, belts and capes. “Jewels” press on to add an extra flourish.
The completed dress is a girl’s size medium, and can be worn, or displayed and then disassembled for play another day.
“My oldest son started building things at age 2, and was into train sets, Tinker Toys and Legos,” said Kawa, of Woods Cross. “My daughter, two years younger, wanted to build things, too, but she wasn’t interested in the same kinds of things. I bought her bead sets and she made necklaces, and the fun was over.”
So Kawa thought about what daughter Paige, 4, and the other neighborhood girls might enjoy. Fashion was at the top of their list.
“I thought, ‘What if girls could design their own dresses, (which) would come in pieces?” she said. “I called my mom, and she came onboard that day.”
A new business was born in that moment, in fall of 2007, although research and development lay ahead, as did a real-world education in marketing and in running a global business.
Partners in fashion
Connie Cook said she was blown away by her daughter’s idea.
“We were both just so excited about it,” said Cook, 56, of Centerville. “I trusted Kari’s vision. There was nothing else like this on the market.
“We both got right into designing it. We came up with a lot of prototypes, including easy-on, easy-off pieces and wrap-arounds. We started buying different fabrics, designing patterns for pieces that were not too long, not too short, that would work for older girls and younger girls. We thought, ‘Well, if it doesn’t work out, we’ve got a fun toy for Paige and the other grandkids.’ ”
Kawa and Cook held open houses in summer 2008 to share their creation with neighborhood friends. Orders came in, and Kawa and Cook had to hit their sewing machines.
“We worked eight hours a day to make 100 dresses (kits),” Cook said. “After that, we realized we needed help.” They found a source in China that could supply the dress-form stands. The sewing contract went to a factory in Guatemala.
After considering costs and the market, the women set their prices at $249 for the starter kit, for dress pieces, the dress form, jewel accessories, and the base top and skirt, and a storage bag. Additional kits, with dress parts and ornaments only, are $50 to $75, and come in themes (such as princess, prom and fairy).
The big reveal
“We launched at Toy Fair, in February of 2009, in New York City,” Kawa said. “FAO Schwarz found us, and was really excited about the Shailie. They put us in their 2009 Christmas catalog.”
The product also has been mentioned in various toy blogs, and orders have come in from across America and from England, Canada and Spain. The company’s early success has been impressive, and Kawa and Cook have high hopes for Christmas 2010.
Still, the largest concentration of Shailie owners is in one neighborhood in Woods Cross.
“My girls fell in love with it,” said Hilary Noel of Woods Cross, mother of the twins. “It’s something they can share and play with together. The possibilities for dresses are endless. They can entertain themselves for hours. They love to design a dress, and take a picture, then change it and take another picture.”
Noel said what she likes best about the Shailie is that it sparks her girls’ creativity.
“This is a great toy,” Noel said. “My kids can use their mind, manipulate fabric, and try something else if their ideas don’t work. I love to see them working to solve problems, and I love to see what they come up with.”
Kawa said she’s had mothers thank her for not only the toy, but for helping children “contain” their creativity. The toy comes with a storage bag.
“One mom told me her daughters were buying clothes from thrift stores to cut up and put back together,” she said.
“She had scraps everywhere. She was grateful to get her house back.”
Of course, Paige Kawa is the Shailie’s biggest fan.
“I like to wear the dresses,” she said, striking a pose in a newly designed fairy ensemble, with plastic jewels and airy “petals” of sheer peach and beige fabric circling her neck and waist.
Where would she wear such a design? She thought for a moment.
“Anywhere.”
The Web site for the Shailie is www.stylepaige.com.
