Fancy Nancy Dress Up Review

Fancy Nancy Dress Up - as the name may suggest - is a lovely universal dress-up activity app starring Fancy Nancy herself, a character from the series of books by the same name revolving around a young girl with a large imagination who loves to dress up and is into all things “fancy.”

Here, children are able to choose from a variety of shoes, skirts, tops, dresses, pants and fun accessories such as hats, crowns, boas or jewelry to dress an image of Nancy, also including a nice selection of backdrops to choose from.

The look of this app is lovely with the same style of illustrations found in the series of books used throughout, making Nancy stylish and ornate without ever seeming too adult-like in her garb or provocative in her dress.

As this app opens up, Nancy is ready to be dressed up by children with the tap of the "start" button. From here, one can choose the wardrobe button and then any item of clothing or accessories available which then brings players to a scroll bar filled with similar choices.

I like how one can layer choices, adding a skirt over pants, a dress, coat and top, as well as layer on every accessory choice possible, much like the way children love to play dress-up in real life. Likewise, the removal of these layers is fun as well, as one can drag an item off the bottom of the page, freeing up space to continue to mix and add new layers of clothing.

There is also an option to create a random outfit as well that is very nice, creating a very detailed outfit full of fun elements children will love, discovering as they remove layers to see what else she is wearing and possibly developing new ways to use these pieces in their own wardrobe designs. An undo button is also offered, allowing children to retrace their choices as they swap clothing - a nice touch.

It is nice that one has a chance to change backgrounds as well, with some lovely choices including a charming backyard scene with details to me reminiscent of Monet’s Garden, a posing against a fence outside at night including details such as stars in the sky, that along with the included music creates a simple, relaxing, and serene moment children as well as adults will enjoy as well as other choices. One can also choose a photo from their device to create a personal background as well. Stickers are also included to embellish the pages.

A short story is included along side the dress up activity, which teaches children vocabulary words that pertain to fancy things as well, as does this series of books. Children are able to change Nancy’s wardrobe among the pages of this story.

I have enjoyed the first of the series of Fancy Nancy books. Although critics may accuse her of being pretentious, I choose to look at her as a child with a grand imagination, yet I can appreciate how the tone of this story can be changed by the tone the narrator chooses to deliver in the text of this story.

Likewise, this Fancy Nancy app also includes a child speaking for Nancy as she encourages young players to dress her up. Although not a major flaw, I do not care much for the tone the child narrator uses as a dash of sass may be heard by those who criticize this character as being ostentatious to a fault. I love the included frilly clothing, all charming and age appropriate, as well as less dressy elements well suited to other children who may find themselves playing with this app but who may have a taste for clothes different from Nancy herself, but comments like “I’m a glamour girl” or “That’s posh” now carry an unfortunate connotation some parents may not want to share with their children.

Keeping this in mind, fans of Fancy Nancy or other children who are into dress-up may enjoy this app a great deal.