When I saw the Kid Made Modern booth at Alt Summit back in February, I knew immediately that this was a brand for Mazzy and Harlow. Started by Todd Oldham, they sell a variety of arts and crafts kits for kids. The kits are not as prescriptive as most of the craft boxes you see in stores, which instruct your kids on how to make a specific bracelet, potholder or window hanging. Instead, these kits are filled with things like colorful poms poms, string, glitter paper, and iridescent buttons so that your kids can put together whatever they can imagine.

This week, Kid Made Modern is launching a brand new clothing line which is born from the same principles, encouraging kids to open their imaginations and create brightly, boldly and with tons of color.

There is nothing muted or understated about these clothes. They are loud and proud. They can be mixed and matched. They are worn to be seen. Mazzy and Harlow fell in love immediately.

I let the girls pick out their own outfits and as expected, Harlow gravitated towards the colorful dresses, while Mazzy stuck with the t-shirts and leggings. A plain white t-shirt that said “Go Make Stuff” was totally speaking her language. When the clothes arrived, it was the first thing she grabbed to put on. Basically, a white canvas against everything else. She paired it with the “Glitch” leggings.

Harlow chose the Venus Fly Trap dress first, which looked gorgeous. The dresses are handsewn in Texas by the same woman who made Todd Oldham’s runway line in the ’90s.

My kids have been sent a lot of clothes for blog posts over the years and it’s interesting to watch what they do based on their outfits. Sometimes they are inspired to act fancy or cool or sporty. When they put on the Kid Made Modern outfits, they were immediately in playful and fun mode. They made faces, horsed around and laughed their heads off.

This was what they did when I told them to “pose.”

Harlow’s favorite dress was the Smush dress, which was inspired by a box of crayons that Todd Oldham left in a hot car when he was a kid. They melted into a rainbow of smudged colors. After hearing that story, Mazzy wanted a Smush dress too.

“I want to put on the t-shirt with the monsters throwing up!”

“That’s not monsters throwing up!” I told her.

“Yes it is!” she said.

I looked at the linesheet that they had sent over email. She was right. It’s literally called the “Monster Barf” t-shirt.

After a few poses for the camera, Mazzy and Harlow’s creativity got the best of them. They did not want to model— they wanted to CREATE. Kid Made Modern had sent over a few of their arts and crafts kits (like the Sparkle Stash Kit and the Bright Bundle Kit) along with the clothes and the kids were excited to make stuff.

Harlow wanted to create a t-shirt out of the supplies, and I had to explain that we didn’t have the right materials. She ended up glueing several strips of colored paper together to create the shape. I think she was inspired by the Dressmaker dress which labels all the pieces and parts it takes to create a garment— pockets, collar, waistline, sleeves. etc. Perfect to give a young fashion designer all the vocabulary he/she needs to hone her craft.

Pretty soon, they left the confines of the coffee table and started playing with the box the clothes came in.

Initially, I was trying to encourage them to go back to the table so I could take more photos, but then I realized this was what the clothes were all about. They taped two boxes together and called it a spaceship, with each of them sitting in their own seat.

To my eye, it wasn’t that complicated of a contraption but in Mazzy and Harlow’s head, it was the “Most Awesome Spaceship Ever.” How do I know that? Because Mazzy wrote it on the flap. Don’t you wish we could see what our kids see sometimes?

She also wrote: Captain Unicorn’s Spaceship in big letters, with “and assistant Chloe” (that’s Harlow) in very tiny letters. I don’t think I need to ask a psychologist what that’s all about.

Have I talked about the fact that Harlow’s Colors dress has the color names for each of the stripes along the bottom hem? It’s got red and blue but also playful names like toast, wet clay and pickles.

I asked Mazzy and Harlow if they could take a few more posed pics and then Harlow had an idea. “What about those photos from high up of all the cool stuff???”

At first, I had no idea what she was talking about, but then I remembered that the night before I had showed Mazzy and Harlow some of the overhead pictures that people post on Instagram of their sleeping babies arranged in scenes created from blankets and accessories.

“YES!!!!!!!!!” Mazzy figured it out before I did. “LET’S DO IT!!!! I bet we could create something cool!”

I was never creative enough to come up with those scenes on my own (nor would I ever risk waking a sleeping baby) but Mazzy and Harlow were undeterred. They brought in pillow cases and an emoji sun from their room. “The blue carpet could look like a sky!” Mazzy said excitedly.

“Stand on something tall to take the picture,” Harlow instructed me.

I brought a kitchen stool over and snapped a pic of them laying down on the floor. I showed it to them.

“It’s missing something,” said Mazzy. “Oh, I know!” She ran off and then came back with two sets of wings.

While this was happening, in my head I was writing my blog post. I figured it would be funny to document Mazzy and Harlow’s lame attempt at sleeping baby art, but joke was on me, because it actually came out pretty cool!

Then they got another idea. “Let’s use the poms poms from the craft kit in the picture!”

Now, I had an idea. “Oh! I know what would be cool! We could sprinkle the pom poms around like stars and it can look like you are both floating in space! We can even use the string to make constellations!!!”

“Nahhhh.” My idea was rejected unanimously.

“Let’s make a heart that connects us,” Mazzy said.

“Let’s make pom pom snow angels!!!” Harlow offered afterward.

“YEAH!!!!” Mazzy agreed. “You lie down and I’ll pour them on you.”

Turns out, we weren’t just taking photos in clothes. I was watching my kids art direct. Hmmmm…maybe they should art direct my Instagram from now on.

“Hey guys! What if we—”

They cut me off. They were done. It was time to get back into the “Most Awesome Spaceship Ever” and fly off to space.

Giveaway: $500 Kid Mde Modern gift card

Do you want to win a $500 Kid Made Modern gift card? Just visit their site and tell me what item of clothing would bring out your kid’s creativity in the comments below. You must be a Mommy Shorts daily or weekly subscriber to win. If you are not already subscribed, you can do so here.

Winner will be selected at random and announced on April 22nd.

Winner update:

Congratulations to Nicole Volschenk! Please email allie@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize!

Use the code MOMMYSHORTS to get 15% off your order! Expires May 1st, 2018.