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Showing posts with label Magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magazine. Show all posts

Votre Beaute cover tribute

In December, the Greek edition of Votre Beaute magazine celebrated it's 20th birthday with a great anniversary issue, showcasing various moments of the magazine's history in Greece. The cover was a blast: featuring one of the most iconic Greek models ever, the inimitable Mara Desypri (nowdays a photohrapher, frequently contributing to Vogue Hellas) wearing a dress by Vassilis Zoulias, who started his carrer as a stylist when Mara was a model and now is a fashion designer turning out gorgeous collections full of coveted frocks and accessories. I loved it so much, I decided to make a version of it for my blog. Of course there is no doll looking like Mara: her strong features would not make a very commercial doll. I picked Red Zinger Daria from the Future Perfect 2009 collection. Her make up was very close to Mara's and she looks gorgeous too.


The hair of Mara was styled by the extremely talented and fellow doll collector and lover Thanos Samaras. I could not even begin to try and imitate the same hair on Daria, so I just made a new updo, keeping it stylish and chic. The black dress is the top and skirt of Dressing the Part Agnes, shoes are from an older Fashion Royalty outfit and the gloves are from Bewitching Hour Luchia. Unfortunately the doll's articulation does not help to style the exact pose but I did the best I could save breaking her shoulder joints. And here is the original cover (Photo by Thanassis Krikis, fashion editor is Michalis Georgiou and makeup is by Stellar):


And yes, you do remember correctly, this was the same set up for my Holidays card for 2010!

Rumor: The Magazine "Haute Doll" May Be Closing Down Production


If you go to the Haute Doll site and try to order a subscription or renew an existing one you will get the message "no products found."
Yesterday the unconfirmed statement that they were shutting down erupted on one of the doll boards and spread like wild fire. Later in the day, HD sent the message that they would be issuing a statement. They did not say when.
I'm rather surprised as I thought the last issue of Haute Doll was one of their best!
I know something went wrong recently with their ordering system during a big event and shortly after that they went on leave for a while.
In spite of the fact that I write for FDQ, I enjoyed most of what HD had to offer. The main focus of each publication is different.
Perhaps they were overextended with the amount of exclusives they took on. We may never know the underlying problem. Right now, we're just waiting for some explanation.

Some of their recent exclusives have been Sybarite: The Cross; Dolci Bambola Giftset and Peak's Woods Goldie.



 While I'm sure The Cross (LE 150) sold out even with it's $820. price tag, I don't know about the  LE60 Bambola for $510.  That's quite a specialized type of doll and I know of just one person who purchased one. The Peak's Wood doll (LE 40 @ $760-$810) is the latest and part of an entire collection of exclusives which included many fashions. When the ordering for those items opened up, that was when their system went haywire.

Previously they offered an exclusive Traveler Innoquii. This doll had to be practically given away she was so disliked. Ditto for the Valia Pivoine whose initial price point was ridiculous, was put on sale and then the W Club wound up having a 2 for 1 lottery on their leftover Valias. 

I always thought those two dolls resembled eachother. In a prior blog post, I parodied a Haute Doll cover which featured Innoqui with my version of Valia whom I named Innoquous.


Now she needs a cover.
Must be the new Abused Woman style.

Lula Cioccolato in Milan for Salone del Mobile - 50's dollhouse kitchen


Wallpaper magazine posted on their website about the special project of the incredible Lula Cioccolato chocolaterie in Milan. It is the Salone Del Mobile (Furniture Fair) in Milan, the biggest design event of the year, and every shop in the city of course is tuned to this mega-event. So this chocolate shop displays some of their products into this amazing vintage 50's kitchen. Even the packaging is influenced by that era. Check the article here.

Photo courtesy of Wallpaper magazine.

My dolls in Haute Couture: a photoshoot for Grazia India magazine!

A while ago the editor of Grazia India, Nadnini Bhalla contacted me about doing a photoshoot with my fashion dolls for the magazine, with them wearing miniature outfits created by Indian fashion designers. She said she loved my Vogue mock up covers and wanted to make something in that context for the photoshoot. Of course I agreed and started planning the whole thing. After a while, the outfists arrived. Opening the garment bag of each one was a surprise: the worksmanship was incredible. The designers, with only a basic pattern to help them had made miniature miracles. Some of the outfits had miniscule accessories with them, which made them even more incredible.

Turmeric sequin ball gown and gloves, Lecoanet Hemant

Not all the outfits were made in the exact doll sizes I had provided. Some were too big or too small to fit on either 12" dolls or 16" dolls. But with the help of pins and proper posing, all of them were finally photographed by me with my dolls wearing them. From a huge number of photos, I picked soem and sent them over to have the magazine editors finalize the selection and layout. When this was done, it was ready for printing. The issue was out in May and it was a huge 12-page spread exclusive. I am publishing the results here and hope you like them! In future posts, I will feature each and every dress seperately, with facts about the designer, the specific dress and also photos of the original outfit on the runway. Enjoy!


Jumpsuit, Raakesh Agarvwal; Bubble-hem dress, Sitara By Manjaree; Bambino-print maxi, Kallol Dutta


Bubble-hem dress, Sitara By Manjaree


Ombre pleated gown, Nachiket Barve

Ruched Dress with circuitry sleeve, Prashant Verma

I would also like to thanks Nandini Bhalla (senior editor), Nidhi Jacob (editor) and Rajni Phatak (accounts) for their incredible help and collaboration and coordination of this dream project! Grazia India is in great hands!




Lame origami gown, Varun Sardana; Lime one-shouldered maxi, Gauri and Nainika


Ball gown with rosette train, Preeti Chandra


Sheer knotted dresses, Anuj Sharma


Tie-dye sleeveless jacket and top over satin pants, Savio Jon


Sequin strapless dress, Namrata Joshipura


Textured prom dress, Alpana and Neeraj

The shoot was also published in an indian blog about fashion, High Heel Confidential. The photos below of the magazine pages scanned are from that blog as I still have not received the magazine to scan them myself.



All photographs for Grazia are not to be published in any other form, in print or electronically without permission from the magazine and me. Photos published by special permission of Grazia Magazine.