Hollywood Dolls

Meeting talented people has been one of the many joys of collecting fashion dolls. Meeting people like Michael Williams is an honour. His talent in creating exquisite dioramas, that not only look realistic, but are bristling with taste and style, is unique. I will present here his amazing diorama inspired by the interior designer Jonathan Adler, letting Michael talk about it in his own words.


Michael: I was never your "normal," or perhaps I should say "ordinary," little boy who liked to play with action figures and toy cars in the sandbox. I got my first Barbie, Sweet 16, when I was 5 years old, and progressed to Malibu Barbie & Ken, Pretty Changes, and Superstar Barbie before selling them all off at a garage sale by the age of 10. As a child, I simply loved the escapist fantasy of these glamorous characters in their Dynasty gowns going on James Bond-like adventures in their bright yellow plastic mobile home, since we couldn't afford the A-frame Dreamhouse, back then. They were an outlet for my imagination, and I got to be the costume & set designer, hair stylist, screen writer and director, all in the confines of my small-town, Midwestern, middle-class, orange shag-rug-carpeted living room.



The first time a doll resurfaced in my adult life was right before moving to New York in 1994. I was on a yearlong fellowship studying studio photography in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, when my best friend there gave me a Dutch-talking Barbie, complete with little wooden shoes. He and his boyfriend would often buy cheap play line dolls to repaint and restyle as their favourite silver screen icons, like Joan Crawford or Bettie Davis. And so I had my first introduction to grown men who play with dolls, and not the inflatable kind.

When I returned to the US and moved to New York, I discovered the Barbie on Madison boutique at FAO Schwarz and fell in love with retro reproductions of the very first #1 ponytail Barbie dolls from 1959, and I got a couple as novelties for my bookshelf, because I love vintage 1950's and 60's film and fashions, personified by actresses like Audrey Hepburn and Doris Day. An older friend once recounted nostalgically how he remembers when there was a time that you could HEAR a woman enter a room just by the ruffling sound of her crinoline petticoats. I enjoy escaping back through time to that era, where women wore pearls and little white gloves and both men and women wore hats, and these dolls can personify our idealized vision of that bygone Camelot.


This presentation gets its name from my September 2007 HAUTE DOLL Magazine feature on diorama doll house furnishings, and it serves as a laudatory homage to Bravo TOP DESIGN guru Jonathan Adler (age 41),who first fell in love with ceramics at age 12 in summer camp, but took a brief detour in the movie business before launching his initial line of pottery at Barney's in 1994. The line was an instant success, and in 1998 he opened his first store in Manhattan's SoHo neighbourhood, which has since been followed by several boutiques across the country, as he expanded his line into a glamorous new furniture collection, along with bedding, towels, and pillows (some of which are licensed and carried by Bed, Bath and Beyond and department stores). He even redesigned the Le Parker Meridien Hotel in Palm Springs, now a hot resort vacation destination.


First, I thought I'd start off with the inspiration for my dioramas - from the catalogue of Jonathan Adler.


Many of the pieces in the feature come from either bargain vintage finds on ebay (the centrepiece red corduroy sofa set cost only $15)or IKEA's line of doll house furniture that closely match Adler's lacquer-finished end tables, along with items like the wall screen from Barbie's My Scene and Fashion Fever line, accessorized with many simple and easy handmade projects like the Adler-inspired pillows (printed onto ink-jet friendly fabric), star burst mirrors of painted toothpicks and foam core, a George Nelson clock made of pins and paper, vases and lamps from fluted metal beads that closely resemble the gourd-inspired signature pottery of Adler, and an Adler place mat that doubles as an area rug.





























All photos are by Michael Williams: check him out at: MAWPhoto and also at his Flickr album.

RESOURCE LIST:

Room With A View magnetic diorama from Cleabella

Carolyn Allen
Mod-O-Rama Fashion Doll Furniture
cda311@myway.com

Matt Trujillo
Custom OOAK reflocked Ken dolls
rubbermatt2000@yahoo.com

Joan Hudson
Reproduction Francie fashion
jhudson1101@hotmail.com

B&J Fabric (for black and white pattern on wallpaper)
525 Seventh Avenue, 2nd fl at 38th St
New York, NY
(212) 354-8150

TOHO Shoji Bead Store
990 Avenue Of The Americas/36-37th St
New York, NY
(212) 967-2088

It has been quite a while since I have properly posted in this blog, I promise it will soon change. Meanwhile, I got interviewed in a Greek magazine, SOUL, about my blog, by my friend Indiktos. Below are the scans of the two page spread I got in the magazine, with photos of my dolls (most of them published in this very blog), a portrait of mine with one of my dolls (Tonner's Ghost of Christmas Future). After the scans, you can find the whole interview translated in English. I hope you like it.






25.000 Greek blogs need luck or hours of surfing to go through and discover addresses that hide something more than views or confessions. The Fashion Doll Chronicles: this is the English language blog of Stratos Bacalis', a collective explosion that will send you directly to the valley of the dolls.


What are fashion dolls? I do not have or, better say.... had any idea:

Fashion dolls are dolls of limited edition, dressed in very good quality or, rarely, porcelain.

To tell you the truth, I only know about Barbies. (laughter)

I only knew Barbies too, but not the collectibles, the ones that are sold everywhere. In 2000 I discovered, through an advertisement in a foreign magazine, that the Franklin Mint company was selling a 16 inch doll lookalike of Olivia Newton-John στο Grease. As a big fan, I had to have her. Then I found out there were more…


What dolls are you collecting?

Quite a variety. I started out with movie stars: Olivia, Liz Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, Lucille Ball, Audrey Hepburn. I also like dolls from a particular period (especially 18ος -19ος αιώνας), as well as the Gene Marshall series which are mainly in the 40-50ς. From the smaller dolls, only the Fashion Royalty series by designer Jason Wu and certain Barbies, like the Versace one. I have a fondness for Asian ladies, they...fascinate me.

A very dear friend hosted my dolls in her blog, giving them a room at the Million Dollar Hotel! The room is no. 228 and the photos are mine as is the selection of the text accompanying them and the song playing. Enjoy!

I was very happy today to receive this e-mail:

The Fashion Royalty convention this year was very successful for everyone involved. Integrity and Jason Wu managed to present a well coordinated glamorous event and the attendees had a blast attending the various events and picking up lots of dolls: this was the convention with the most dolls released ever. The theme was The Royal Life. And here we will start a series of articles presenting some of the convention dolls. First to arrive, the beautiful Going Places Vanessa.


Vanessa Perrin is considered the most sought after face of Fashion Royalty dolls. Each one of her re-incarnations becomes an instant collectible, its value rising much higher than the retail price. The reason? It is not the number of dolls being produced for sure; even the Vanessas on big releases have become collectibles. I guess it is the face mold: she's the best looking Fashion Royalty lady ever made. My personal preference may be Kyori, but every Vanessa doll released is looking great, a thing not easily said about Kyori Sato dolls.


This Vanessa is no exception. Dark haired, with smoky eyes and sensuous coral lips, she is simply stunning. The hairdo, a double French twist, gives her an air of hauteur, befitting the royal theme of the convention. There were again complaints of badly painted eyes, but far less than Pale Fire Vanessa (see previous post here).


Her jewellery set is impressive but not anything unusual. Filigree "gold" chandelier earrings with coral and black "pearls", with matching necklace. A bracelet would have been a nice addition, after all, she is a convention doll.


Her dress is the classic mermaid style gown that Jason Wu has given us countless times until now, especially in event or special dolls. This one looks even a bit like the Lights, Camera, Royal Veronique gown. Here we get it in a blue/black fabric with tulle and lace overlay. I love the draping on this gown, especially around the hips, pity it gets lost as it is black on black. The lace is gorgeous, with a lovely eyelash finish:


Underneath, contrary to expectations, she is wearing only flesh colored panties. No elaborate garters and stockings here. Her shoes are not much better than Pale Fire : black strappy shoes again, nothing to brag home about and certainly not royal looking.


So, while the doll itself is lovely, as all Vanessas usually are, the total package leaves a lot to be desired: un-original dress, less then stellar shoes and underwear, incomplete jewellery set for a royal lady (the crown given with her at the convention only does not justify the title by itself). The advantage is in that she makes a very good substitute for those like me who do not have a dark haired Vanessa and especially the raven A Fashionable Life Vanessa FAO special doll.

This is one of the two outfits from the Gone With The Wind Tonner series released this fall. They are both Scarlett's costumes. As the actual Tonner Scarlett doll is not yet released, I tried this on my FM Scarlett, still the best likeness of Vivien Leigh in the doll market. And here she is:


The dress has a shirred white bodice, in a soft fabric, anchored by red ribbons, with short puffed sleeves with the same trim. Considering scale and all, it looks very faithful to the film. It has a shirt collar neckline, with a small cameo brooch on it. The brooch is grey and looks plastic and cheap, not much of a jewel. No other jewellery is included with the outfit, although they should have added the two bows on combs Scarlett is wearing in her hair. Here is a close up of the actual actress:

The doll is also missing the big golden comb at the back of her hairdo. As one can see in the film, the cameo is tasseled and looks expensive. Contrary to what Franklin Mint did with the film's jewellery in it's GWTW dolls, Tonner's accessories seem poor in comparison. Check out the cameo below.


The skirt is, as with Tonner Melanie's dress, huge. And I mean it: she takes so much place on the shelve, she might as well be alone on it. Or even be a lamp shade, LOL. I love this volume, it makes the doll's waist look even smaller (much like the real dresses were supposed to at the time) and the deep red colour is much more impressive up close than on the photos. It is lined in white silk. The difference with the real one is only in it's drape: the actual skirt looks more gathered at the waist than the doll version does. I do not know if this is due to scale or fabric considerations, but see the real thing here:


The outfit is completed by a white sash tied at the waist. It ends in a silk fringe with lovely detail:


The sash looks out of scale as one can see from the photo below, but with a skirt this big, it might not have looked good otherwise:


I also have it tied wrong, the knot in the film is quite different, but I made the captures after I had done the photo shoot of the doll. So please forgive that!
The outfit does not come with the undergarments to support the massive volume of the skirt. So, if you want to display it properly, you have to buy the extra underpinnings set that Tonner has released. This consists of a chemise, pantalettes and a layered hoop skirt with wired rings. Much like the ones found on the Melanie doll, this helps the skirt stay full and look its best. I did not put the chemise under the dress but it seems that it can be worn by Scarlett without a problem under it. I would have gone for a corset though. Here is the first layer of the hoop skirt:


There is no tulle layer here, but the silky second layer of Melanie's undergarments. It does not seem to diminish the ability of the hoop skirt to show the dress skirt properly, so no objections to that. Under that first silky layer with the lace trim, we can see the hoops, made in exactly the same way as Melanie's.


And of course the necessary pantalettes:


The boots, in red leather with matching red ties and black soles look great and even fit FM Scarlett nicely. Here Tonner scores high: although they are not as nice as Melanie's shoes, they are infinitely better than those hideous plastic FM boots.


In total we have a nice ensemble, one that no other company ever made for their Scarlett dolls. It will make a nice addition to the FM Scarlett collectors who do not already own it through one of the talented seamstresses making excellent versions of it out there (Alana from Doll Fashions By Alana comes first to mind-see her version here)