Superdoll London celebrates Christmas with another great trifecta of dolls
Just like last year, Superdoll London dazzles us once again by releasing three impressive dolls just in time for Christmas. Not only that, they added a small regalia set (crown and sceptre) to compliment the looks. Each doll represents one of three elements: earth, wind (air) and fire. If I could buy one, it would probably be Vushka, as I’m a sucker for smokey eyes and pale lips, even though her outfit is the most conservative of the three. It’s great seeing three different Sybarite sculpts in one release. The regalia set adds a nice touch to the release but better fits Vushka and her princess look. The one thing no missing from all three sets: jewellery.
Let’s check out the dolls. Text and photographs below courtesy of Superdoll.
KUMALO SYB/DD_0135 EARTH
Inque is thrilled to be joining her sisters this year for the Holidays. Like an exotic Africa princess she chose to wear chocolate satin and furs. From the top. Her gorgeous wig of blended black and brunettes formed into a multitude of topknots ...fabulous! Her eyeshadows in the spectrum of turquoise and smoke surround her eyes of translucent chocolate with lids of muted sepia, eyes those of golden amber. Lips of dark rich red. Her multi piece ensemble; a confection of chocolate satin hot pants and a corset dripping in beads is the foundation of her 'look'. Accompanied by a matching satin bolero trimmed in metallic matte gold rice beads and seeds and spectacular guipure finds. Inque loves drama and for this she selected a fur wrap inset with feathers; just to get her silhouette going!
Always accessorised to the point of envy, Inque has an indiscreet set of fabulous faux fur condiments; consisting ankle & knee pads, fur balls to her foot and totally uncomfortable stiletto heeled courts in a chocolate brown with broad ankle ribbons! Bringing exotic Africa with her; a final accessory is her monarch staff adorned in her tribal colours.
Clone: 1603 Inque d'Royce
Skintone: TRUFFLE
Of course she comes with the following standard accessories:
-manic_cure hands (see booklet for hand change instructions)
-booklet
-stand
PRODUCTION MAY VARY FROM PROTOTYPE SHOWN.
Price: £279.20 (Excluding VAT at 20%)
VUSHKA SYB/DD_0136 AIR
Venus is thrilled to be joining her sisters this year for the Holidays. Like a blonde Siberian princess she chose to wear sky blue and gold. From the top. Her gorgeous wig of baby blonde set with a centre part cascades in voluptuous curls to her waist. Huge glorious hair ...fabulous! Her eyeshadows in the spectrum of muted browns and smoke surround her eyes of translucent charcoal and mud with lids of muted nude, eyes those of sky blue. Lips of pale rose outlined in rose. Her 1 piece frock; a confection of gold lace and tulle trimmed in matching rhinestone bearing an empire line front and a long slim torso in back. All this over a multi layer tulle and glitter attached petticoat. Mid calf length front trains toward the back. Venus loves drama and this gown has just her favourite kind.... the glamourous kind.
Always accessorised to the point of envy, Venus has an indiscreet fabulous faux fur wrap in dark blush fur, opera length gloves in almost not there glistening gold tulle, and totally uncomfortable stiletto heeled courts in a pale gold with broad ankle ribbons!
Bringing fairy tale Siberia with her; a final accessory is her gorgeous 'coach' purse in gild 'gold' and a matching blue velvet strap.
Clone: 1000 Venus d'Royce
Skintone: COSMETIQUE
Of course she comes with the following standard accessories:
-manic_cure hands (see booklet for hand change instructions)
-booklet
-stand
PRODUCTION MAY VARY FROM PROTOTYPE SHOWN.
Price: £269.75 (Excluding VAT at 20%)
RIO SYB/DD_0137 FIRE
Voltaire is thrilled to be joining her sisters this year for the Holidays. Like a titian Latin princess she chose to wear blazing pink, orange and purple. From the top. Her gorgeous wig of natural vibrant reds set with fringe and an up do we call bun - bun - bow. ...fabulous! Her eyeshadows in the spectrum of violets and smoke surround her eyes of translucent charcoal and ginger with lids of muted white, eyes those of green flame. Lips of gorgeous coral. Her 2 piece ensemble; a confection of embroidery and satin trimmed in gold and sequin. A matador suit hitting all the right curves, with epaulettes and a stand collar. Voltaire loves drama and this suit of lights has just her favourite kind.... the glamourous kind.
Always accessorised to the point of envy, Venus has an discreet white lace jabot at he neck, and totally uncomfortable stiletto heeled courts in a hot pink with broad ankle ribbons!
Bringing south America with her; a final accessory is her pair of banderillas and a red tulle veil.
Clone: 1000 Voltaire d'Royce
Skintone: CORALO
Of course she comes with the following standard accessories:
-manic_cure hands (see booklet for hand change instructions)
-booklet
-stand
PRODUCTION MAY VARY FROM PROTOTYPE SHOWN.
Price: £275.79 (Excluding VAT at 20%)
GLORIOUS CROWN AND SCEPTRE Set
Custon made for your Princess
Price: £35.00 (Excluding VAT at 20%)
Integrity Toys 1st International Design Challenge - my entry!
Integrity Toys has been holding a Design Challenge contest for every convention they hold. This year, they decided to extend this for W Club members from all over the world and proclaimed their 1st International Design Challenge. As many other club members, I jumped at the chance of participating - putting my years of studying pattern making and fashion design at work. The brief was to pick a past doll from Integrity Toys and remake her as her opposite - i.e. if she had a day look, the entrants should remake her in its evening version and vice versa.
Photo courtesy of Integrity Toys
I decided to use the gorgeous Aperitif At The Balthazar fashion from Fashion Royalty 2004 Voyages collection. As it was a day outfit, I would make my fashion an evening look. And since it was only an outfit, I could pick any doll I wanted to remake. My pick was Dania Zarr Rare Appearance, a 2014 W Club doll. I named her Champagne At The Waldorf, referencing an iconic hotel of New York, with legendary balls held in it, much like Balthazar is an iconic French style brasserie of the city.
The sketch of my entry - Champagne At The Waldorf
I made the design easily - the inspiration came quickly and I focused on making something that would be relatively easy to make commercially, as the winning entry gets to be made by Integrity Toys to sell. The evening look kept the two-piece part of the suit, turning the jacket into a vest with a shawl collar. The bottom part of the skirt and the collar were made from pink muslin, echoing the lining of the original suit, while the rest was the same pied de coq print as the original - finding the fabric was easier than I would have ever thought! I picked pink for the buttons as well.
As my sewing skills are negligent (I can sew a button but that's it), I turned to my friend Maria from Habilis Dolls for help and she recommended her friend Ursula, a very talented seamstress that has made some perfectly made doll fashions to sell; luckily agreed to sew my prototype. The final look was enhanced with a pair of rhinestone and pearl jewels fixed on the ends of the shawl collar.
As for the doll, I restyled Dania's hair into an up-do, to match the evening look, and added feathers in her hair with a rhinstone and pearl brooch, as the original had a small fascinator with similar small feathers on it. You cannot see the shoes but I used some beautiful black pumps with ribbons at the ankles. The entry did not make the final round but I am happy I entered and would do it all over again! Let me know what you think of my design in the comments.
All photos courtesy of Stratos Bacalis unless otherwise stated
The second Net-A-Porter Jason Wu 10th anniversary is for sale... and sold out!
We have gotten used to it by now... special 10th anniversary limited edition doll by Jason Wu goes on sale by online luxury retailer, usually earlier than anticipated, people scramble to get her, tears and tantrums ensue, people lash out at forums and social media about how bad the process is. Happened yet again with the second Net-A-Porter released Elyse Jolie.
The doll started trickling out from the Asian websites of Net-A-Porter, then the wave moved on to Europe, to finally crush down on the US. If you were not prepared to wake up,earlier than usual, keep searching and refreshing the website and have credit card ready to spend $200 in the US, AU$362.88 in Australia ($277.25 US), HK$2,240 In Hong Kong (286,70 US$), US$282.24 plus taxes in South Korea, €278 in France (329,64 US$), €284 in Italy (336,75 US$), or £255 in the UK (342,31 US$), well, why bother? This is not the way to enjoy a hobby, bask in the beauty of a collectible doll and get satisfaction from adding her to your collection. At least that’s what I think. Other people will tell you this is the way collecting Fashion dolls goes, you should be prepared for stuff like this when starting your collection and so on. But why? Just to get another coveted, limited edition doll that will be forgotten when the next one comes along? Do you think all these anniversary dolls will achieve holy grail status and be as coveted as, let’s say, A Fashionable Life or True Royalty Vanessas?
This Elyse had the following description on the retailer’s website:
- Height 32cm
- Width 9cm
EXCLUSIVE AT NET-A-PORTER.COM. Little known fact - Jason Wu was a toy designer before starting his acclaimed fashion career. Created to mark his 10th anniversary and celebrate his whimsical background, this limited edition doll is styled in a one-shoulder red and black mini dress from the house's Fall '13 runway and features ultra long eyelashes. It comes with a display stand, coordinating lace-up pumps and interchangeable manicured hands.
- Comes in designer packaging
- Product number: 1046363
The photographs are so obviously not by Integrity. The NAP team have no idea how to pose the doll or even set her up on the stand properly (the underarm support was placed at the hips, lol), which goes to show how a non-collector buyer will deal with the doll. If she wasn’t dressed in box, no way they’d bother. And I wonder, why not ask someone who does know? A luxury retailer would do that, wouldn’t they? Unless their margin is so low, they did not even want to deal with it. Then again, if that is the case, why not make the dolls available directly to fashion doll collectors through the usual channels? It did not even gain enough press coverage to justify it as a publicity stunt.
She looks nice though. I love the pleating and sewing of the dress (I guess the snag at the back is just a badly closed zipper) and the shoes look very detailed. It does remind me of the ITBE dresses but it is much better. But again, no jewellery and no bag or other accessories. Her skin tone could be AA black or light honey, it’s hard to tell. With Seduisante Elyse coming this month to W Club members, it will be a battle of dark skinned Elyses!
Photos courtesy of Net-A-Porter
Gigi Hadid Barbie is going on sale tomorrow!
It had been announced earlier this year that the Gigi Hadid Tommy Hilfiger Barbie would be going on sale, but we did not expect her before 2018. If you remember, Mattel originally made an OOAK doll in Gigi Hadid's likeness to celebrate her Tommy x Gigi collections with Tommy Hilfiger. The Instagram posts featuring the doll that were posted on @BarbieStyle account had more than 100,000 likes and 1,500 comments. It was only a matter of time before both companies and the model agreed on a commercial release of the doll.
The doll is a bit different from her OOAK incarnation. The $50 Tommy x Gigi Barbie doll is wearing a navy flag hoodie from the collection with shirts shorts and sneakers, a look Gigi was wearing on the fall 2016 Tommy x Gigi show.
I liked the OOAK outfit better. The striped dress was more elegant and stylish. I guess that the street style will be more popular with non-collectors though. The doll’s head seems a bit bigger too. It’s great to see an articulated body (Mattel’s stiff bodies are a major reason I rarely buy any) but the flat feet make her redress options fewer. Maybe shoes from the Fashionistas will fit her. The OOAK had articulated ankles and was wearing flat platform sneakers (similar to the ones worn by the model next to Gigi above).
Of course Gigi is thrilled with the doll, as she mentioned in a statement. “I’m so honored to have my own Barbie, which celebrates an iconic moment in my partnership with Tommy Hilfiger. Seeing the final look of the doll was an amazing experience, and I’m excited to share this really cool creation with fans around the world.”
Tommy Hilfiger released a statement too. “The collaboration with Gigi and Barbie was an exciting new twist on our brand’s history of partnering with pop culture icons and our ongoing ambassadorship with Gigi.” The model has one more season of collaboration with the brand, due this coming February.
The doll will be available for sale from Tuesday, 5th of December, on Barbie.com, Tommy.com, select global retailers and Tommy Hilfiger flagship boutiques in New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Düsseldorf, starting at 6 a.m., EST. The doll is on preorder and ships on December 29th.
The Barbie website has the following information:
”Designed in collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger, the TommyXGigi Barbie celebrates the unforgettable runway event where Gigi Hadid was introduced as global brand ambassador for TOMMY HILFIGER womenswear. The doll is styled in a classic navy TOMMY HILFIGER flag hoodie, white shorts with red trim and brand logo, and white slip-on sneakers, matching Gigi Hadid's closing look for the Fall 2016 TOMMYNOW experiential runway event at which the first TommyXGigi capsule collection was introduced”.
- Doll Designer: Linda Kyaw
- Label: Black
- Body Type: B50 Poseable Body
- Facial sculpt: Gigi (New Sculpt)
- Fashion: Sweater, shorts
- Fashion Sewn On: No
- Accessories: Bandana, shoes
- Doll Stand: Yes
- Package Dimensions (H/D/W): 13“ x 3.3“x 8“
SKU #: FPV63
Photos courtesy of Mattel and Tommy Hilfiger.