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WASHINGTON — Two Washington mothers, frustrated by the limited options of gender specific girls' clothing, created a clothing line that will allow a “princess” to wear a dress with dinosaurs.
In 2013, Rebecca Melsky was buying pajamas for her daughter in a mainstream store and became aware of the “thematic divide between girls' and boys' clothes,” according to the Kickstarter page. Melksy teamed up with her friend, Eva St. Clair, and the two launched the Princess Awesome clothing line.
Princess Awesome creates dresses that allow girls to be a princess while also including elements often found on boys' apparel — like dinosaurs and pirates. In the fall of 2013, the women created the first test batch of dresses in St. Clair’s basement using a 1948 Singer sewing machine, the Kickstarter page said.
“Lots of little girls love dresses and rainbows and flowers and pink,” the website said. “And lots of those same little girls love cars and robots and pirates and dinosaurs. We believe that if a girl likes purple and also likes trucks, she should be able to wear a purple truck dress. And if a girl likes princesses and also aliens, then an alien princess skirt is for her.”
A 2004 study from Arizona State University says children are “gender detectives” who take cues from their social worlds to form gender stereotypes. Even subtle messaging from media, society and clothing about the roles of boys and girls can affect the way kids see themselves, according to the study.
With dresses that break the traditional norms of pink and glitter and instead include the Pi symbol and trains, the Princess Awesome clothing hopes to allow “girls to be able to express themselves through their clothing.”
The Kickstarter campaign launched Feb. 3, and within three days, became the highest-funded children’s clothing project on Kickstarter, according to the Huffington Post. The campaign had raised more than $78,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
