Background to the Product: A top fashion designer from London College of Fashion has taken on her most bizarre project yet – creating a range of Lady Gaga inspired outfits, including the infamous meat dress, for toy mannequins aimed at young girls.

The unique collection exclusively designed for Harumika, a fashion design activity range, features miniature replicas of Lady Gaga’s top outfits including the red lace dress and crown from the MTV Video Music Awards, her American flag two-piece that starred in the Telephone video, and the orbit dress from the Grammy’s. Other outfits in this capsule collection include the see-through plastic dress and Lobster hat Lady Gaga wore in London after the final date of her Monster Tour and her bubble dress as modelled on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The dolls premiered at London Toy Fair.

The meat dress took fashion designer Anna Chong, 23, two weeks to create as she tested numerous outfits made from salami, honey roasted ham and raw beef strips before settling on a number made using the finest quality Parma ham. Step-by-step “get the look” tutorials have been filmed and posted on YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/BandaiUK) enabling fans to recreate the outfits for themselves.

The Harumika dress forms, on sale from £6.99, which allow children to get creative and design their own outfits, are already a hit in the UK winning a number of toy awards and being sold through major retail outlets, but are tipped to be a must-have toy in 2011 as experts predict a return to traditional, value-for-money, craft-making toys that encourage children to use their imagination.

Anna Chong from London College of Fashion comments:
“Lady Gaga is a true trend-setter with her unconventional outfits causing a major stir in the fashion world. I am hoping the mini-collection, which takes a fraction of the time and cost to replicate, will send the toy world Gaga – and advise supermarkets to stock up on their supplies of Parma ham!”

Vicki Elmer, girls’ product manager for Bandai, the toy company that makes Harumika, comments:
“Harumika is a great product for encouraging children’s creativity as it allows girls to imagine and craft their own fashion designs with ease. With the Harumika Gaga-inspired dolls we have shown that you really can make any outfit imaginable, using any materials available, and we are looking forward to seeing the Harumika designs that girls around the world come up with.”

About Harumika:
Style your imagination with Harumika – the fashion design activity range for girls allowing them to create and recreate endless outfits. Harumika allows children to design their own fashion creations on mini mannequins with no need for scissors, glue or sewing. It works by layering, folding and customising fabrics using the silicone strip at the back of the model. Harumika sets include Style Accents, Super Style Accents, Style Starter Sets, Designer Dress Form Sets, Party Dress Sets, Style Studio Portfolio, Runway Showstopper and the new Lucia Mannequin. Harumika starts at £6.99 -£34.99 and is available now from Argos, Toys R Us, The Entertainer, Smyths, Toymaster, John Lewis, Amazon and other good toy stores.

Hot Brands Cool Places Verdict
This is great fun! Perfect for anyone who has an inner desire to be a fashion designer, the delight on the faces of our junior reviewers when first seeing the product was priceless; their response after playing with it was equally positive,

‘It’s absolutely brilliant!’ said Charlotte, ‘I love the way you can dress a model, then take it apart and change the designs.’

‘I love it, please may we have some more?’ said Annabelle.

I think we can safely say that it was a huge success. Apart from the simplicity of the concept, no sewing, no scissors or glue required, it really does inspire creativity, and as shown by the designs created by the fashion designer from the London College of Fashion, it really is suitable for all ages. We absolutely loved it, an inspired concept. Highly Recommended!