With Syn Sophia clothing designing games such as Style Savvy or Fashion Dreamer and the FuRyu Model Debutline, there can be outfit creation elements. We might meet requests. However, it usually involves some set items to work with and color or pattern variations within that. Dressmaker, a new simulation from Cozy Lives, gets far more detailed about the process with delightful results. We’re deciding on embellishments. We pick and cut fabric. We take ownership of the whole design process, and it feels both unique and appealing every step of the way.

Dressmaker begins simply enough. Immediately after starting, you find yourself in an office being visited by a woman named Rose who’s come to ask for a dress after seeing your ad in the Town Herald newspaper. Since you are so new, you don’t have any jobs yet, and you’re tasks with helping the librarian with a new a new dress for 200 gold. 

This commission acts as the tutorial. It brings up how you need to measure the bust, waist, and hips of each client to ensure the dress would fit and prepare a mannequin. From there, it becomes about fulfilling the request. As a librarian and for that first commission, you need a dress that has a Professional stat of 40, a 60 quality level, and comes in under 200 gold. During this preparation part of the process, you can choose the type of bodice, sleeve, and skirt, as well as pick fabric and accessories. Once the pattern is drafted based on your decisions for color choices, design, and such, you basically go to the International Emporium to pick up fabric and accessories. Once that’s done, you cut, sew, assemble, and fulfill the order. Doing more orders advances the story and garners your designer more attention, which means more commissions and opportunities to make dresses.

What I appreciate here is how Dressmaker does sort of take cues from past fashion and clothing creation simulations. Each fabric type will have tags tied to it that show its color, material and stats at a glance. For example, that tutorial commission I described to explain how it works involved needing the Professional aesthetic to be at 40. Well, Black or Brown Wool Pinstripe fabric each have a Professional 50 score and only costs 10 gold for a meter, which would work perfectly. As you complete more commissions, you’ll get notice about the International Emporium offering more stock. 

What I will say is that while Dressmaker gives us lavish options for the creation process, it is a simulation that is designed to put the creative side first. There is a story to it! You will get customers and requests! There is money involved! This isn’t about capitalism, though. This is about art. I appreciate that so much. It’s pretty low-stakes, but in a good way. We’re getting a chance to have fun and engage in some dream realization, and Cozy Lives embraces that with things like the ability to recycle fabric and a requirement system that allows us to have fun with orders. 

Dressmaker also comes with some accommodations, which I didn’t expect from this indie simulation game. If you head into the menu, you can turn on optional accessory rotation and sewing assist features that make the creation process a little easier. Since part of my review involved checking it out on a handheld gaming PC (it’s okay and manageable, but the font is small), I found the sewing assist quite helpful there!

But really, Cozy Lives does seem to get exactly what kind of game this is. That’s because of how freeform it is. There are guidelines for each commission, but I found quite a few options to experiment and still come in under budget and within the request. There are no timers. We can take as much time as we want to put things together. Once a dress is done, we can arrange a photo shoot with different environments, lighting options, and positioning to make it look appealing. Of course, the downside is once a dress is done, that’s… it. It doesn’t get displayed anywhere so you can see it. You have a photo of the memory, but that’s it. 

I do think there is a little room for improvement. There are elements of Dressmaker that are a little finicky. Arranging accessories can be a pain. So can zooming in on areas. I also experienced quite a few crashes, losing my progress as a result. I imagine and hope those would be fixed eventually. But at present, it needs a few touch ups. 

Dressmaker feels unique among other clothing creation simulations as a result of the premise, and there are a lot of customization options. The concept feels very different than other games out there. There are a few elements that feel like they need some finishing touches, especially regarding crashes and the zoom function. But after a patch or two, I think it could be a real designing gem.

Dressmaker is available for PCs.