By Susan Purcell

There are so many well-known names in the fashion world, that making an impact as a new business can be an uphill struggle. One way of standing out is through your name -- make it catchy and original and you will attract the public's attention.

Sources of ideas

Finding the right name for your business takes time. First you need to make a long list of possible words you can include in your name. Start by thinking of a few words that relate to fashion, such as trend, clothes, style, designer and the word fashion itself and look them up in a thesaurus. Jot down any synonyms or related words that appeal to you (vogue, mode, elegance, taste, elegance, dapper, snazzy etc). A Roget-type thesaurus is best for this task as words are grouped by theme rather than in alphabetical order, which means that there are more cross-references for you to follow up.

Research the names of rival fashion businesses, whether they be online sites or high-street stores -- not to copy the names, but to identify any words and phrases that you like, as well as words that appear too often (it will be best to avoid these words in your name, otherwise your business will be seen as unoriginal and lacking in creativity).

Look beyond the fashion world for ideas. You'll find plenty of suitable words to add to your list from reference books relating to other fields. Try books on these subjects:

Music (pop music if you're targeting young people, or classical music if you sell classic clothes)

Mythology

Art

Craft

Food

Health and fitness (particularly if you will be specializing in sportswear)

Now look up the words you've written down in a dictionary and a book of idioms to find related expressions and phrases. Phrases and idioms relating to 'dress', for instance, include dressed to kill, dressed to the nines, dress rehearsal, all dressed up, dress sense, fancy dress, dress circle, dressing room, window dressing and French dressing. Most obvious phrases will already have been taken by another fashion business, but you can play with these phrases, using rhyme, different forms of the verb, changing word order or combining words to find a unique phrase eg Dressed to Thrill, Dress Room, Dressing Vroom, Dressing Window. I am not suggesting that these are good names, but they do show just how much you can do with your list of words.

Points to bear in mind

Now go through the list and eliminate anything unsuitable, remembering what it is you are selling. Having Elegance in your name will not appeal to trendy youngsters, and calling yourself Celtic Myth will appeal to hippies, so is inappropriate if you're selling business suits. Words evoke different responses in people and conjure up different images. Which words conjure up the image you are aiming at? 'Hot' and 'covetable' both mean 'highly desirable' but people will respond to each word very differently, depending on their age, sex and interests.

Upmarket fashion houses are very particular about who they will allow to stock their ranges. They do not want their brands to be associated with a store with the wrong image. Names based on slang, abbreviations or numbers, such as Roxy's Rags or Fashion-4-U, sound downmarket and more suited to a market stall, and are unlikely to impress the likes of Hackett or Brooks Brothers.

When you've got a shortlist of possibilities ask as many people as possible for feedback. Changing a name if you decide later you don't like it is a time-consuming and expensive business; it makes sense to spend plenty of time thinking up a good one to start with.

By JanMarie Sands

There are a huge number of games and activities online that we love. But easily one of the best of these are the dress up girls. A digital form of Barbie dolls, the dress up girls are fashionable and fun to play, but that is not the only reason we love them so.

Dress Up Girls Are Creative

There are only so many activities online that you can legitimately claim as creative. Dress up girls fall into this category easily. To play the games you will select a doll base that often looks a great deal like a Barbie doll and then start selecting fashions for her online. This gives you endless choices and variety about how to piece together her different looks. The fun never ends because there are truly no limits to how many different outfits you can create. Piece one together and save it. Then pull another one together and send it to a friend. Endless. Really.

Dress Up Girls Make For Good Conversation

If you and your friends are looking for something to work on together, dress up games are exactly what you need. To play together, you can actually sit down together at a computer and dress a doll or you can be at different corners of the world ready to challenge each other to a design contest. To make the dolls, you can choose a certain game and both "players" make a particular sort of outfit or design. After a set time limit, share your creation with the friend and enjoy the experience. You might discover the secret or talent of your friend in designing things like this. It is definitely an adventure.

Dress Up Girls Have Plenty of Variety

If there was ever a game with variety, dress up girls are it. The games range from dressing up babies and little girls to dressing up celebrities with literally everything in between. In a single afternoon, you can dress up elves, you can dress up fairies, you can dress up pixies, dwarfs, witches, princesses and fairy godmothers. You can also have a typical looking girl where you can practice fashion ideas that might actually work on your own clothing style and body type.

Dress Up Girls Help You Be Fashionable

The nicest thing about dress up girls is how much you can benefit from playing them in a fashion sense. To a certain extent, you can plan your wardrobe and even plan your fashions for the next seasons by playing the games. Pick a doll that looks a lot like you. Then look through all of the current, fashionable items that you can use to create a new look. Pull together outfits that you really like and you will be pleasantly surprised at how much you can do and plan and see working in this way in regard to finding out what really works for you and what does not.

By Erin Petersson

Dress up games are one of the favorite activities of girls online. This is not accidental. Girls especially love dress up games for several reasons - some of which you might not immediately consider when thinking of playing various fashion games online. Creativity, community and fashion are the central reasons girls love these games, but it goes far beyond pretty colors and design.

Creativity and Dress Up Games

There are not many games online that allow total creativity on the part of the player. Designing something is one of the most entertaining ways to spend time online and it is one of the most creative. When you follow the steps or path designed for you by the game's designer, you are missing out on an opportunity to chart your own course. This is exactly what you are able to do by playing dress up games.

When you play the games, you have the option to choose a doll base and then dress her according to your whims and desires. The final product is a fashion plate to be proud of, but that is not all that happens. Behind the scenes, your brain is working overtime creating a background for each doll that you make. Each tends to have a purpose and a design and finding the right elements for the doll lets your mind work in ways it might not get to very often.

Playing the dress up games often includes an additional written component. More often than not, the girl who designed a full story for the character she was designing goes ahead and writes down the story to share the story with others.

Community and Dress Up Games

There is a strong community among those who love fashion games. Some websites feature not only large numbers of games for members or visitors to try, they also include forums and messages to share ideas and thoughts with other members. Being able to share ideas and commentary on designs, stories and just the news as it relates to the young ladies is huge.

Communication is always important for young women, and online the same is true. Finding opportunities to share with friends online lets girls expand their horizons and learn to function within a community setting. These computer and internet social skills will serve them well into the future as well.

Fashion and Dress Up Games

Dress up games take fashion a step further. Normally you can read about fashion and see what others have pulled together in fashion magazines or fashion sites, but being able to create your own fashion, especially on celebrities included in many of the games, is a welcome treat for those who much prefer doing to simply seeing.

Playing with fashion has the added benefit of learning some basics of art including colors, style and patterns simply though practice. With a reduced emphasis on the arts in the classroom, this is a welcome change for most young girls.

By Erin Petersson

There are certainly terrific dress up games online, but easily the most fun you can have with dress up games is to play them at home. One of the easiest ways to have fun with the games at home is to build a dress up box over time. The dress up box houses all of the clothing you can use to pull looks together for fun.

Collecting Clothing for Dress Up Games

You might collect the old work clothes from your parents and especially any old formal gowns of your mothers. Then, once you have a basis for the games, continue to add to the collection over time. Having fun with the clothing is as simple as grabbing your little sister or inviting over a friend to get dressed up with you. Each of you can create some sort of outlandish outfit using only items in the box. Have a fashion show, change looks and enjoy the fashion fun of it all.

Putting On a Fashion Show

A fully-stocked dress up box is required for fashion shows. Easily one of the best features of dress up games at home, the fashion show requires all parties have at least two different outfits to wear. Plan out the event down to the last detail. You will need to find a stage for the event. You might bring in extra lamps to make it extra bright and fun. Arrange music to walk to as you perform your fashion show and do a test run to be sure everything is working smoothly.

Now, set up a camera on a tripod and get ready to rock and roll. Put on your first crazy outfit and head out onto the catwalk. As you finish your turn, your friend or sister heads out in her crazy outfit and you pass each other with a slinky walk. Quickly change clothes and try to get back out there without missing too much of the music.

When the fashion show is complete, you have it all recorded thanks to your video tape. Pull on some comfortable dress up clothes and sit back on the couch to enjoy the fun all over again. You might decide, after watching the video, that there is a lot more fun still in that dress up games box. Do not be surprised if you decide that maybe you need to do another round of fashion shows just to suit your inner diva one more time.

Continuing Dress Up Games at Home

The best part about keeping your dress up games in a dress up box is that you can always add to it. If you like consignment shops and flea markets, pick up some great buys simply to add to the box. Encourage gifts and hand-me-downs from aunts and grandmothers who likely have some really fun things. Even your older cousins might have a few items you would love to have in the box to enjoy in the future.

By Simon Ekizian

If you are interested in fashion and still have not figured out a way to understand and follow men's fashion then you should probably pay more attention in general. Men's fashion can be tricky to fathom as the basics hardly ever change unlike women's fashion. What changes are the colors, fabrics and cuts. But the basics of men's fashion are quite steadfast.

Look into magazines that advertise men's fashion. Follow fashion shows on TV to find out about the latest trends. Observe your male friends, especially those who don't dress well. You can learn more about men's fashion from the mistakes made by other men when indulging in it.

Here are some integral parts of a man's wardrobe that will make things simpler for you to understand men's fashion:

Suits
Suits have been part of men's fashion since time immemorial. Even when fashion in general was being experimental back in the 60's and the 70's the classic dinner suit with a tie or a bow tie and well fitted bottoms were popular among men.

While buying suits one needs to be sure of two main things:

o What is the suit for?

o How many suits does he already possess?

Suits are not only for formal occasions. They can be used as daily wear in the office for those who prefer to dress it up. Especially when one's life revolves around attending meetings and socializing with the creme de la creme of the corporate world it is doubly important to be well dressed.

However, it is important to differentiate the colors and accessories (if any) when it comes to suits for different occasions. For office wear one does not require a tie pin or a chest pocket handkerchief. But for a wedding reception in the evening at the Ritz you may need to dress it up a little. The colors of the day and the night are totally different. It is never a good idea to turn out in light colors at formal dinners. Dark colors with crisp shirts can never go wrong.

Dress Shirts
If you don't want to wear the full fledged three piece tuxedo for the dinner or you don't have your favorite suit ready for the meeting regarding your promotion then you need to compensate your outfit somehow to make it look less trivial. Dress shirts are ideal for such occasions. Although most people consider dress shirts as tacky, ill fitted and monotonously designed, if you look carefully at the motifs and colors you will find a wide variety of the garment to choose from. A well chosen dress shirt can make the shabbiest of jeans look cool and compliment the outfit greatly.

Since dress shirts are so popular you will always find one in your size. Choose the fabric and colors carefully as there are quite a few that may make you look like a peacock!

Buy different styles of dress shirts to add variety to your wardrobe. Experiment with the collar, the sleeves' length or the cuffs to make your outfit interesting.

By Adrianne Leneige

You might go for an eccentric snob if you dress up your beloved pet in some of the funkiest animal outfits! Why should you care about the agitation you seem to stir when you take a walk in the park with your fashionable quadruped? Be different, stick up to your oddities and have some more fashion animal tips playing the new animal dress up games online.

They are incredibly adorable! Their cute little faces could melt even an iceberg! Yes, I am talking about hamsters! Do you have one yourself? Great! Have you ever thought that besides carrots, clean wood wool and a funny decorated cage you could show your affection putting together some fancy outfits for him? Well, than let me tell you that playing the hamster dress up game you can choose the most suitable costume for your tiny friend. A ballerina costume or a super hamster one, combined with the perfect matching accessories would definitely highlight his natural cuteness. Don't wait any longer, help your hamster come out of the anonymity!

Don't these rodent cuties look adorable! If we are to set up a hierarchy, rabbits come right after hamsters when it comes to loveliness! They are also top shelf pets when it comes to their fashion style. If you're a little bit skeptic about this, just start playing the cute rabbit dress up game! Just imagine your tiny long eared friend wearing some of those pretty dresses and small, chic earrings. A funky pair of sunglasses would upgrade his outfit to the level of the most fashionable one by the standards of the high animal fashion. If you want to go really professional, you could show your mastery in combining clothes and accessories in a really stylish outfit, choosing the perfect hat for the bunny you have there. Your long eared buddy will be so proud showing off in his new little costumes!

Now, I don't dare asking you whether you have a giraffe as a pet (rather as your imaginary pet), but I dare asking you: are you a real animal lover and a good fashion consumer? Well, the challenge of dressing up a cute giraffe with some of the trendiest outfits will be piece of cake for you. Get her ready for a walk in the desert playing the cute giraffe dress up game! Choose first the fashion style that suits her better, then, after you have picked the perfect clothes for her, express your exquisite sense of fashion adding those chic accessories that would be the last touch of refinement to her fancy outfit.

After you have bestowed your fashion creativity upon your imaginary pet, why wouldn't you give your feathered buddy there, in the silver cage, the same royal treatment? Do you have a weakness for birds? Your love for the feathered delicate creatures and your passion for high class fashion can now meet in the magic feathered dress up game. You will find there the cutest little canary that wouldn't wear but those kind of stylish, divalike dresses (feathers) and accessories. Choose her a spectacular tail, featuring a night gown, add her a little bit of chic sparkle with some refined tale accessories and there, she is almost ready. Almost! After you have poshed up her outfit you cannot set her against a dull background, now can you?

Information is power! Now that you have learned some of the greatest animal fashion tips you could say that you have the power to bust those preconceptions that clothes, fashion, high style are exclusively human related!