Tatiana's Doll House: The Bedroom

In the third instalment for Tatiana's doll house, I have the bedroom! Every house needs a nice looking bedroom to rest and relax and Tatiana's is no exception! Of course it is always in the style laid out for the rest of the house - black & white.

The bed and bedding are from the Fashion Royalty Loft collection furniture. This line of furniture was a hit with collectors and most items are very sought after. The bedside tables, trays, striped vases and lamps are from the Jonathan Adler Barbies.

Tatiana repainted lamp bases and trays that were originally hot pink (Barbie anyone?). The bench and vanity table are solid wood shadowbox frames cut with a miter saw - I can see she uses shadowbox frames a lot for making benches or side tables. For the vanity top she inserted a real mirror in the small wooden photo frame.

The Panton miniature chairs came with the Dynamite Girls convention chair pack given to the attendees of 2008 FR Convention. Integrity also sold a pack of chairs in an assortment of colours. The curtains are table napkins. 

The closet door is from Barbie House by Mattel. The hinges were broken by Tatiana's girls beyond repair, so she just cut them off and the closet was born! The fluffy white carpet is a piece of craft fur. The white vases, telephone and basket came with various Mattel play-sets, which Tatiana then repainted. The silver tea set is Re-ment and the tea tray was just a purple no-name doll accessory. 

The wine bucket and bottle are Gloria, the glasses are from a Fashion Royalty convention accessory pack. The small silver cushions came with a jewellery box that looks like a mini sofa - these are easy to find in accessory shops in various styles and colours.

I hope you enjoyed this month's room from Tatiana - back next month with another beautifully decorated room in black & white!

Dollz in Oz event presents two new Integrity dolls

This year's Australian major doll date was again the Dollz in OZ event. Held at the Sheraton Four Points in Darling Harbour, it was a day full of dolls for Australian fans. The event dolls were made by Integrity: Regal Estate Agnes was the event doll and Magnetism Monogram was the companion doll.

Regal Estate Agnes is a dressed doll wearing a black bustier dress with a cream coloured jacket and a black belt over it. She comes with fishnet stockings, clear blue pumps, blue stud earrings and black-and-blue necklace. Her face screening is a softer version of the Festive Decadence Agnes that was the second W Club doll last year. Her hair is long and lose. To me she looks hastily designed and produced. She does not remind me of Agnes at all.And blue with cream and black? The theme was Hollywood, but she would not get a chance there, even in daytime.

Magnetism Monogram doll is a tooted red haired doll, with a very classic make up look - brown and gold eye-shadow with red hot lipstick. She is wearing a gorgeous pink satin gown with matching pink and black shawl. The gown is decorated with a huge bow and it has a matching belt with a gold buckle. A golden cuff bracelet decorated with rhinestones and matching earrings compete the picture. Her shoes (not shown in photos) are emerald green with ankle straps. To me she is very Old Hollywood meets YSL glamour and would get her in an instant if I could.

Nouvelles Icônes - Des Poupées Pandores aux Sybarites - Exhibition at Musée de la Poupée in Paris

Le Musée de la Poupée-Paris is delighted to be celebrating the fifth birthday of iconic doll range ‘The Sybarites™’ a product of Superdoll_collectibles™, London with an exclusive six-month exhibition. It opened on the 14th of March and will go on until 19th of September 2010.

Not since The Pandores, luxurious fashion dolls created in the XVII century and the Second Empire Parisians, have we seen anything like the Sybarites™. During the Ancient Regime, the Pandores were the equivalent of Paris fashion ambassadors to the European Courts. The Pandores wore the latest creations in order to tempt the aristocracy to commission the couturiers to create a life sized version. These dolls even had Diplomatic immunity: during times of war, the dolls had a royal pass to cross war torn borders.The aim of this exhibition is to travel, hand in hand with the fashion doll, from the last two centuries until today. You decide; utility item? play-thing? ...or highly coveted objet d’art?

The Sybarites™ were the first manufactured doll of then couturiers Charles Fegen and Desmond Lingard; they were born out of the void in the doll-world in terms of the quality and beauty that C&D were looking for in the dolls they wanted to buy and, ultimately dress in their fabulous gowns. Through painstaking development, clandestine market research and their strong vision, C+D crafted the doll of their dreams: Clone 0101 Venus D’Royce. Initially there were two breeds of clone and since inception in 2005, these have expanded into the double figures, however some remain unseen by the public eye.

Oh how I want to visit this show... but then again, seeing so many unattainable dolls together in one place would probably make it a heart-rending experience.

P.S. You can listen to this blog post if you download the audio file from the right column - see the section titled Audio Blog Posts!

Integrity On-Line Event exclusive dolls: Mini Avantguard clones!

Every time Integrity hosts an event for presentation of a new line, it has an event doll. It was the same again with the on-line event this year, but this time there were two of them - and they were mini-clones of the 16" Avantguard dolls Androgyny and Aphrodisiac that Integrity released last year.

They both look very much like their larger counterparts. The dolls use the Monogram line face sculpt and NuFace body (i.e. smaller bust and without waist articulation) so that makes them so much less articulated than their bigger sized sisters.  The reproduction of the fashions looks excquisite - I like it but already have Androgyny in 1/6 size so I had to pass, even though the price was really good for two dolls. 

Integrity Toys 2010: Poppy Parker

The Poppy Parker line was a hit last year, the dolls and fashions becoming difficult to find in a short period from their release, each new doll greeted with glee from the collectors who found a new doll to feature in their collections. This year, the collection is about Poppy's arrival in New York, the naive ingénue becoming a city girl. There are four dolls and two fashions in the collection. And one of the dolls is a gift set. Poppy's make up is a little bit changed this time around, no painted separate eyelashes but eye-liner in the 60's style, a move that divided the collectors.

So the first doll is Coney Island Saturday. Poppy is dressed for a day out in Coney Island, with sailor style outfit, curled bangs, ponytail and side-glancing eyes. She's cute and reminds me of the retro styled FR gals from the Style Du Jour collection of 2007 - a mix of Bueno Sera Kyori's and High Tide Vanessa's outfits.

Of course New York in the 60's means beatnik scene is in it's heyday - so Poppy of course has the Beatnik Blues. With a blue suit and a black turtle-neck typical of the era, accessorized with the ultimate beatnik hat, the French beret, Poppy shows the intellectual side of her. Black flat shoes, tights and a leather belt complete the outfit. If I could get a second Poppy, this would have been the one. Unusually brilliant!

Up next a Poppy that looks so very grown up in relation to the other dolls of the collection. The Look Of Love Poppy wears a layered tulle beaded gown that reminds me a lot of Franklin Mint's first Elizabeth Taylor Vinyl doll. She does carry a clutch! Silver sling back shoes, a diamond bracelet and matching stud earrings complete the look.

The fourth doll is the gift-set that makes the difference. A more limited edition than the other Poppy dolls (350 while the rest are at 500 dolls each), She's Arrived! gift-set gave it's name to the collection and presents us a blonde Poppy that reminds me Grace Kelly and January Jones as Betty Draper from Mad Men - but in a younger version maybe. The set is comprised of a fuchsia typical 60's suit (very Jackie Kennedy) worn with a white sleeveless blouse, white gloves, clutch, pumps and diamond stud earrings...

... and yes, she has a nice turquoise suitcase with white trim to carry! And that is not all! She can mix and match this with a nice geometrical print dress with boat neckline with a bow and a  circle skirt, turquoise belt , pearl necklace  and a shopping bag. The shoes are cute pink ribboned mules.

As mentioned earlier, there are two fashions included in the collection and, as with the Fashion Royalty one, the prototype doll wearing one of the fashions became a hot topic among the collectors. A Night To Remember fashion is a belted butter yellow sleeveless gown with white bolero jacket and appliqué flowers scattered on it.

The outfit looks like something Doris Day would wear - Blizzard in the W Club forum mentioned the Glass Bottom Boat and I found this photo of Doris Day:

The other fashion is a print dress with matching short sleeve bolero nothing extraordinary but again the prototype doll looks so cute.

Poppy's boyfriend, Chip, is prominently featured in the stories accompanying the descriptions of the outfits - will we see him this year? I hope so!