The Favorite Little Girls Play Dress Up Clothes All Collections Should Have
So your little girl is turning 2 or 3 soon, and you want to start
introducing to her the wonderful world of dress up? Christmas is coming, and you want to add some awesome pieces of little girls play dress up clothes to a little girls dress up trunk? Halloween is approaching, and you need some fresh ideas for costumes that will last past the one time use? You’ve come to the right place! Kidslovedressup.com will do our best to help you out with some great ideas!
Of course each little girl is different, but there are some over-arching dress up “themes” that will help you figure out what to select for her. Let’s look at a few and pick out some favorite little girls play dress up clothes in each one.
All Things Princess
All Things PrincessIf you’ve stepped into any department store lately, you’ll be familiar with the Princess craze. Does your little girl have a favorite princess already? My daughter is 3, and we haven’t gotten too much into that world yet (maybe I’m wrong, but I think most of the movies have a scene or two that are a bit scary yet for her). Even so, she KNOWS who Anna and Elsa are. They are the princesses on her cute little underwear. 😉 And they are the princesses that she colors on her big coloring pad. She sees them everywhere. And already loves them… and would LOVE to have their costumes or Frozen dress up shoes to play in.
Your daughter probably has a Princess Favorite already too… or at least a Princess Most Familiar. And that beautiful princess is already someone she is utterly entranced by! Make her day by adding a new character-specific costume to that little girls play dress up clothes box. (Click here to see some fun generic princess costume ideas.)
Playing Grown-Up
Playing Grown-UpAs a mother myself, I really like this particular dress up theme. I LOVE that my little girl likes to pretend that she’s a firefighter, a doctor, or a mommy (sometimes a daddy ;)). I love that she is stretching herself to role-play and imagine a world outside of her own child-hood view. I love watching her imitate adults… you see how she has been really observing the world around her!
See: Little Girls Dress Up Clothes: Inspiring “When I Grow Up” Ideas
Playing Superhero!
I suppose the correct term is Superheroine, isn’t it? Either way, it’s no longer just the boys who are playing Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the like! Many girls are fighting crime and ridding the world of bad guys… and having a blast doing it!
A simple cape and mask is a great way to start off the Superheroine play costume collection, but if you know your little girl has a fascination already with one of the more familiar comic book characters, check out these super awesome Superhero Costumes for Girls for some dress up ideas… get her saving the world – in style!
Items That Should Be In Every Dress Up Collection!
Some of the little girls play dress up clothes and accessories that I’d recommend to everyone to have in a dress up collection are:
- doctor’s coat and check-up kit
- a collection of “adult” accessories (old cell-phone, old frame of eye-glasses, beaded necklaces, floppy hat, belts, sashes/scarves, fancy shoes and gloves, an old purse)
- Child sized wigs! Helps kids really get into character role playing!
- a re-purposed bridesmaid dress that you can somehow adjust (tie, clip, sew if you are handy) to “fit”
- a variety of dress up hats for kids (such as fire chief hat, crown/tiara, etc.)
- a kitchen apron (for playing house, Cinderella, etc.) — by the way, if you can find an old nail apron with pockets in the garage, you’ve scored… those work GREAT!
doctor’s coat and check-up kit
The Animal Kingdom
Any little girls dress up clothes collection wouldn’t be complete without a few animal costumes. There are some animals that speak more to little girls, so go in that direction. Basically, think “cute and cuddly” instead of “mean and scary”. In gen
eral, a girl will pick out a kitten costume over a dinosaur, if you get what I mean.
Often shortly after Halloween you’ll find a slew of full body toddler animal costumes for sale in thrift or used kids clothing stores… be sure to take a peek for some good deals! If the full costume feels a bit out of price range though, think DIY for some! A kids hair band with some felt bunny ears glued on, a small belt with a felt tail… you can be pretty creative! 🙂
Sometimes what becomes favorite little girls play dress up clothes will take you by surprise. A pair of your old fancy shoes that you yourself donated to the dress up trunk suddenly become “real magic shoes, Mommy!!”… and they never come off. And THOSE surprises are so much fun.
Let me know what you’d say are “must-haves” in your dress up collection in the comments below! I’d love for you to chime in on this fun topic!
Wishing you some wonderful finds, and some wonderful dress up fun with your little girl!
Marlaine
All little girls and some boys love dress up. I was lucky here because I run a dance school so I have quite an extensive wardrobe. My daughter just loves going in there and trying on all the costumes. When she is done we just pack it up for another day. We are always adding to the wardrobe so luckily it never gets boring for her.
Whoa… that would have been a dream-come-true for me as a little girl! I can still remember the HUGE thrill of wearing a ballerina costume for the first time. A whole wardrobe full would have been awesome! 🙂 Thanks for dropping in! 🙂
It’s amazing how children’s imaginations run wild. When I viewed your site, It made me think of my own children when they were very young, especially my youngest daughter, who is 34 now. (…so it was way back in the day.)
As a young child, we would have loved this site for her. Dressing up was her thing! A child’s fantasy was born.
Putting on her mother’s over-sized shoes and large dress was adorable to see.
Children who likes dressing up let their imagination run will. Then the pretending factor kicks in. All of a sudden, they’re mother’s themselves pushing a toy stroller with a make believe or baby doll inside.
Or maybe they become doctors, policemen, firemen or just a grocery shopper. You name it, they’ll imitate it through dressup.
Your site demonstrate to us that as parents with young children, there’s nothing our little angels mind can’t capture in the world of make believe.
Thanks for dropping in and saying hi, Ronald! So glad you enjoyed your visit to kidslovedressup.com! Dressing up is so much fun… my daughter definitely loves wearing MY over-sized dress and shoes too! Have a lovely day!
As as child I remember sneaking into mum’s wardrobe and finding her platform shoes, they were beautiful. Recently it was my turn to watch my daughters get excited over dressing up. They even took an opportunity to steal my lipstick and smear it all over themselves. Watching them both giggle as they lost their balance in my high heels and trip over the long dress they had on. A dress up box full of different outfits is so much fun to play with. Your article has bought back some many memories and I really look forward to reading your next. Cheers 🙂
Thanks for dropping by, Tracy! 🙂 I haven’t been QUITE so brave as to let my little girl have at my lipstick yet LOL! I think it’s so funny watching her totter in heels though!
Hi, its nice to see little girls around in dressing in beautiful and innovative styles. Actually I have a boy who does not like to dress differently. lol. But I have 2 nieces who crazy for dressing with different accessories.
Thanks for providing great ideas on your site. I must going to send the bookmark to my sister as well it must going to be helpful for me to choose gifts for them.
Hi Sangeeta, Thanks for dropping in! Glad you enjoyed visiting Kidslovedressup.com – I hope your sister likes it too… thanks for sharing the bookmark with her! Have a good day. 🙂
Pretty Cool! I can relate in so many ways. I have a almost 3 and1/2 and an almost 5. They thrive on playing dress up. As with the princess motif they actually saw frozen for the first time last week and princesses are their favorites, although we try to limit actually movies considering how young they are. You offer some really good insight into this area. The superheroines and Halloween regiment have not been started on my families end but I hope to help them pick out something not scary as you said. I like what you said about playing mommy and daddy because that is just about the only other niche my girls have besides the random blend of costumes that make them look more like circus divas.
Hi Wale, thanks for commenting! I had to laugh at your “circus divas” comment – I know what you mean! They think they look so fancy, while actually looking rather funny with their selections, don’t they? 🙂
I find dress up sort of evolves on its own. Sometimes it just takes one addition to the dress up box for the imaginative world to take off and suddenly your children just love it!
I’m with you on being really careful about which princess movies to let young kids watch – even reading a short version of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” story has my daughter waking up in the night, worried about Ursula… oops! Guess we’ll wait with that movie! Oddly enough though, right now, dressing up as Ariel, the Mermaid princess, is her favorite!
Have a great day!