Animal Crossing New Horizons: Fashion designs of the week

Animal Crossing New Horizons: Good Enough to Eat

Food seems to be a big inspiration for designers in the Animal Crossing New Horizons community, with delightful wearable confections being a staple of the virtual fashion world. Whether its outfits that look like specific foods – shout out to the trend for hat designs based on ramen bowls – or inspired by tasty treats, there's a smorgasbord of great looks to sample.

With that in mind, for this week's Animal Crossing design round up, we're opting for something a little more light-hearted, and looking at the fan-made fashion that's good enough to eat.

01. Sweet Dress

Astonishing attention to detail is the hallmark of this tasty look from designer Peach. We can imagine a real-life version of this would be almost homely, being a simple slip dress with a light cardigan on top, but creating a layered look in Animal Crossing is no easy feat – and this has added detail with an appearance of frills, bows, and delicate buttons. It's the 'fabric' design that really stands out though, with literally dozens of individually depicted cakes, biscuits, and berries. Absolutely fantastic work here.

02. Peach Cobler

Using pastel shades of yellow and peachy-pink, this design from Mint is evocative of the tasty dessert it takes its name from. The dress also adopts elements of Sweet Gothic Lolita style, with plenty of frills, ribbons, and pleats, but isn't quite so extravagant – this is the sort of affair you might wear at a particularly idyllic picnic on a warm summer afternoon. One really nice touch though is the peaches around the skirt alternating in design, rather than being uniform – it makes the whole look feel warmer and more organic.

03. Appletun Dress

At a glance, this balloon hem dress from creator Naomi is a basic affair, but the more you look at it, the more detail and nuance you'll notice. The neat green cuffs, the contrasting red-green leaves at the collar, the apple core lace effect across the chest, the subtle wave design at the waist giving the impression of a ribbon waistband, and the yellow hem on the skirt that creates a continuity with the upper half all help to elevate the overall design. The colour scheme unifies the garment brilliantly, evoking images of a basket of fresh apples, but most astounding is the colour blending, creating a gradient that blurs softly from yellow to green. An incredible effort.

04. Watermelon Dress

This fruity look uses all the visual motifs of an actual watermelon to present a really fun outfit: the rosy pink of the flesh, flecked with seeds; the alternating shades of green at the sleeves representing the rind; even the thin light green border at the edge of the dress match the paler part where fruit and rind connect. Housing everything in the rough wedge shape of the balloon hem dress template also helps tricks the eye into seeing the whole outfit as a tasty slice of watermelon. Designer JulieBeanz has created a garment that's refreshing just to look at.

05. Cookie Monster

While a lot of food-based designs opt for lighter colours and patisserie inspired patterns, this rich look instead hews to a darker, richer palette. The blue dress itself may be simple but by covering it in gooey, dripping chocolate with perfect shading to give it a more liquid appearance, designer Kylie delivers a striking look. There's some real meticulous detail work going on too, with each small cookie being unique, while the massive cookie bows at front and back having their own layout of chocolate chips. Delicious.

06. Milky

Rather than trying to recreate a particular food here, designer Caelan instead does a fantastic job of translating Japanese snack brand Milky's mascot onto a simple yet stylish tee. It's a less overt approach to food designs, and given Milky is less well-known in western countries, it makes for a subtler look – pop this on and visit a friend's island, and see if they get the reference.

07. Funfetti Cake

Another standout from designer Kylie, this may seem more like a parfait than a cake, at least from the front. Its layers of cake could equally be wafer and sprinkles, but interspersed with cream whichever way you view it, and crested with mounds of whipped cream and cherries. Scoot around back though and the all-over frosting and a delightful design touch of a pair of candles make clear this really is wearable cake. The cute cookie-style bow makes for a nice little side snack, too.

08. Sweet Cream House

Another darker, bolder look here, this complex design from Caroline doesn't bring to mind any particular treat so much as it does the high class artisanal patisseries that might make them. The intricate tiers that build up from the base of the dress convey an almost Rococo aesthetic, while the pink and white layers give the most food-like appearance, creating a gentle impression of cake or biscuits – all topped with chocolate, of course. This look is practically decadent.

09. Sweets Cardigan

Your first impression of this coat-based design from creator racecarrot may be that it's a bit plain; dowdy, even. There's no denying that the upper part gives off a very "1960s librarian" vibe, with its prim collar and slender bow. As the eye moves down though, you realise this is quite a mischievous look – the pockets overflow with chocolate, while the waist downwards appears to be an ice-cream cone, complete with a belt of choco sauce and sprinkles. An almost secretive food design.

10. Banana in Spanish

Yes, designer Caelan's creation here is the simplest of the week's selections, but it's perhaps the cleverest. Despite being called "Banana in Spanish", it depicts a strawberry, while the text behind it reads "ichigo" – Japanese for strawberry. We love a multilingual gag. Despite the simplicity, the shades of red and pink used really complement each other well, while the greens of the leaves and yellow of the font elevate the overall look. If you fancy the same design on a slightly more complex garment though, look up Caelan's "Banana Hoodie" on their designer page in-game.

For details on how to access these designs in your own game, see our handy how-to guide.

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