Meet the fashion-obsessed preschooler who crafts designer gowns out of paper

Using construction paper, tape and whatever craft supplies she and mum Angie find around the house, a precocious preschooler who goes by the name of ‘Mayhem’ has spent the past nine months whipping up one-of-a-kind dresses as well as cute copies of red carpet and runway looks – and all out of paper!

The amazing results of Mayhem’s crafty couture inspirations are posted almost daily on mum Angie’s Instagram page. She even has a website fashionbymayhem.com where the ‘anatomy’ of their designs are revealed. This yellow number is captioned “a request for yet another Taylor Swift dress gone horribly wrong…but more fabulous than the inspiration.”

While Mayhem’s devoted mama clearly has a tough little taskmaster on her hands, the two share a genuine passion for bringing these pretty paper dresses to life. And working conditions aren’t so bad, as you can see in this video of Angie on the floor of her softly carpeted sweatshop, patiently threading paper strips to form the green and white check ‘fabric’.

Mum Angie tells mummyshorts.com that it all began last year when she noticed little Mayhem was shunning her regular dress-ups and wrapping herself in scarves and sheets. She suggested making a dress out of paper and they’ve done so nearly every day since.

Mayhem’s early work looked like this paper patchwork fantasy…

But in just a few months, she had progressed to THIS cocktail-style concoction!

Christmas cracker! As for their preferred construction materials, Angie says that they mostly use paper “but we also use wrapping paper and gift bags…silk scarves, tulle and aluminuim foil. Clear packing tape and glue are our adhesives of choice.”

“Channelling spring with today’s dress”, reads the post next to this floral fancy worthy of a fashion magazine photo shoot. The increasing sophistication of the dresses’ design and contruction obviously begs the question: “So how much of it is actually being done by a four-year-old?”

Angie says the ideas are pretty much a 50/50 split and that “Mayhem constructs a lot more than most people would probably believe… She knows exactly how many sheets of construction paper she needs to make herself a top and a bottom. She can lay the entire thing out and tape it together all by herself.” She whipped up this dress one day while her mum was out. Pretty impressive!

“Hallelujah!” Showing a talent for colour blocking, this sweet shift is another one made entirely by Mayhem.

So where does the future face of recycleable fashion get her inspiration? All over, says Angie, including shows she watches or books. After major awards shows, the pair Google images and Mayhem picks out the gowns she wants to make. This one was captioned “Dear J-Law, I’ve got your back. XOXO”

“We weren’t planning to do a Grammys dress at all. I also wasn’t planning to do a second dress today. I didn’t plan on running out of tulle. I didn’t plan on Mayhem having 100 tantrums today. You better believe I’m ‘not planning’ to have a glass of wine this evening either…” reads Angie’s Instagram post.

Taylor Swift: super-style icon for the under-fives.

What an eye! Mayhem requested a paper lookalike for Lupita’s flawless look before all the entertainment shows flagged it as the ‘BEST’ look of the Golden Globes. Angie, however, confesses that she is the “least fashionable person you will ever meet. I know nothing about fashion and cannot sew a straight line to save my life.”

Project Runway (where this and other designs originated) is another great source of inspiration for Mayhem, and while she’s never actually watched the show, Angie says when she showed her little girl a clip and explained that it was a show all about making clothing, “I thought she might hyperventilate.”

Mayhem considers this high-concept creation their ‘best one yet’ and mum Angie admits this one took a bit more time than usual. Construction details can be found at fashionbymayhem.com

Elsa from the movie Frozen is also a favourite.

It’s not just the designs and execution that make following #fashionbymayhem so addictive, it’s also her talent for striking a pose.

This was the day that Mayhem learnt the ‘hair flip’. Hilarious!

She calls this one the roller-coaster dress and so naturally they photographed her with a ‘roller-coaster face’.

Dreaming of a tropical vacation, Angie turned Mayhem into a vision board of sand and sea. The touching back-story to it is that Mayhem suffers life-threatening allergies that actually prevent the family from travelling to many tropical locations due to the risks of her reacting to environmental allergens beyond their control.

Fashion really can be fantasy…