DIY Fashion ... Without All the Work

3 Companies Let You Design What You Buy

Ah, to be an artist of fashion - a true fashionista, able to do everything from imagine a one-of-a-kind design to whipping it up in no time at all. Who wouldn't like to be able to design their own handbags or lingerie? To show off their unique style - and to be able to do it without any of the labor involved.

Three companies are aiming to allow customers to do just that: You design your own handbags, dresses, or lingerie and all the hard work is done for you. Sound cool? Keep reading.

Elemental Threads: Handbags Made to Order

Elemental Threads (or eThreads) launched in Connecticut earlier this year and boasts of more than 60,000 ways to design your own custom-made handbag. Every fabric offered is limited in quantity, so you get not just the style that's all your own but in a material that very few people will ever have seen. Talk about unique.

Creating your own handbag is a matter of ease that a child could do. You begin by visiting the website - www.elementalthreads.com - and click the Start Designing button. What you're presented with are a series of bag styles all in tempting blank white canvases, ready for your imagination to run wild with. There are totes, pouches, ring bags, and clutches to choose from ranging from $16 - $75.

After choosing the style of bag you like, you get to pick the fabric and hardware. Everything is done with point-and-click ease; just hovering over a fabric swatch shows you how the bag will look in that material. The fabrics themselves are full of options - choose from canvas, cotton, organic cotton, bamboo, or a specialty palette and you have even more delicious choices. Everything from what snaps, zippers, and lining can be customized - and you can choose different fabrics for the upper and lower portions of clutches or the body and handles of totes.

Coming soon to eThreads are wristlets, necklaces, belts and notebooks. Be uniquely styled in a full array and you can say ... "I designed this!"

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