Bratz Coloring Pages

The Bratz look is unmistakable: an oversized head, huge almond eyes, full lips, and clothes that were always one step ahead of the high street. These Bratz coloring pages draw fashion dolls in that style, with outfits made to be colored and restyled.

A lot of the pages are simply about the clothes. A doll poses in lace-up platform boots in front of bold stripes, twirls in a long dress of ruffles, wears a denim jacket covered in patches, sparkles in a sequined jumpsuit under the spotlights of a dance floor, disappears into a huge feathered carnival headdress, walks through the snow in a puffy coat and earmuffs, strolls through autumn leaves in a scarf and boots with a warm drink, and poses under a wide-brimmed hat beside a palm. A pair of dolls stand back to back with their arms folded in matching outfits.

Others follow the dolls through their day. They sit at a dressing table covered in brushes and perfume, reach for sneakers on a wall of shoe shelves, pack a suitcase, sew at a machine in front of stacks of patterned fabric, share a tall milkshake in a diner booth, paint each other's nails, braid a friend's hair, play an electric guitar on a stage of crates, sit on a beanbag in headphones with long braids, walk a fluffy dog, skateboard along a boardwalk, roller skate through the park, ride a bicycle with a basket of flowers, lean on a scooter at a flower stall, jump in a puddle, picnic on a checked blanket, relax under a beach parasol, sit at the edge of a pool, and decorate a Christmas tree. Close portraits show a doll with a jeweled headband and another in profile with a high ponytail and big hoop earrings. A mandala of doll faces, a pattern of handbags and boots, and a border of handbags, sunglasses and bows finish the set.

The dolls with a passion for fashion

Bratz dolls were launched in 2001 by MGA Entertainment with four friends, Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha and Jade, under the slogan "The Girls with a Passion for Fashion". They looked nothing like the dolls on the shelf beside them: big heads, small bodies, heavy eyeliner, and wardrobes of platform shoes, cargo pants and cropped jackets that followed what teenagers were actually wearing. Their feet even snapped off, so each doll could change shoes.

They were a huge success in the 2000s, went quiet for a while, and came back in the 2020s, when the style of that decade, low-rise jeans, butterfly clips, lip gloss and platform boots, returned to fashion. Parents who played with the first Bratz now find their children discovering them.

Why the 2000s are back

Fashion runs in cycles of about twenty years: what teenagers wore two decades ago comes back once the children who saw it grow up and start designing. The early 2000s, the years of the first Bratz, returned around 2020 with low-rise flared jeans, baby tees, chunky sneakers, platform boots, tinted sunglasses and tiny shoulder bags. Many of the outfits on these pages come straight from that wardrobe: the wide flares, the platform soles, the patched denim, the cropped jackets. For a child, it is a way to see what their parents wore at their age; for the parent, it is a very familiar page.

Designing outfits with color

These pages are really fashion design sheets. A few tips from the way the dolls were styled:

• Pick a palette of three: one main color, one accent and one neutral like black, white or denim blue. Bratz outfits were bold, but they always matched.
• Denim: color it blue, then add a lighter streak down the middle of each leg for the faded look.
• Sparkles and sequins: leave tiny white dots of paper and color around them.
• Lips and eyes: glossy lips come from a darker line at the bottom and a small white highlight; the eyeshadow is where the doll's personality shows, so try purple, blue or gold.
• Hair: Bratz hair comes in every shade, from platinum to deep red; color it in long strokes following the curls.

Quick poses and busy scenes

The quickest pages keep one doll large on a plain background, like the puddle jump, the roller skates and the profile. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Jumping in a puddle
• Roller skating in the park
• Profile with hoop earrings

The detailed pages are filled with shelves, flowers and patterns. Lots of detail begins with:

• Trying on shoes
• Picnic on the blanket
• Guitar on stage

A fashion lookbook

Print several of the outfit pages and turn them into a lookbook, the booklet designers show a season's collection in. Color each outfit around a theme, a color, a season or a party, give the collection a name, and staple the pages together behind a cover made from the handbag and bow border. The sewing machine page makes a good first page: the designer at work, before the collection is revealed.

Printing the collection

All the pages are free PDFs drawn on A4 at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so the platform boots stay on the page. The printing guide points to the option. Add to pack puts a whole lookbook into one file. More fashion dolls are in the Barbie coloring pages, and the style continues in the princess coloring pages, the KPop Demon Hunters coloring pages and the bow coloring pages.