LEGO x Fashion – a theme in the making?

We’ve seen so much creativity in how minifigs can be customized, from creative use of existing parts, to custom printed minifig torsos, to third-party cloth accessories, to hand-crocheted minifig coats! But for fashionistas, there’s only so much that can be done at minifig scale. Recent buildable figure sets for Wednesday and Wicked offer a new template for creative accessorizing, as seen in this custom couture from Maachi.

The Japanese builder draws on the “Gothic Lolita” style that gained popularity in the Harajuku fashion scene in the ’90s and endures to this day. Think doll-style clothes, petticoats, bows, and lace, with lots of black. Maachi uses slopes and tiles to build out a busy bell-shaped dress, which she pairs  with platform shoes and a suitably goth parasol.

Here is the original LEGO model, a fairly simple design that invites customization.

Elsewhere in the LEGO catalog, we have these stand-alone dresses for Disney Villains (they make princess dresses too, but who wants that when Villain is an option?). Compare the dalmatian skirt with Wednesday’s dress – it’s effectively the same technique and scale.  LEGO has yet to suggest mixing and matching buildable doll fashions across sets, but the potential is certainly there.

Is LEGO is testing the waters for a bigger push for buildable doll fashion sets? Perhaps LEGO is cautious about fashion dolls after efforts to move away from a past where Scala and Belville put dolls above building. As current sets seem focused on display appeal for Disney adults, perhaps a focus on fashion as a creative act would be a better match for LEGO’s values. Perhaps LEGO might inspire kids to explore fashion as an artform as it did Satu Aaltonen, whose Snow Queen dress is currently on display in LEGO House.

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