When I opened the W Club email announcing the final exclusive doll of 2016, read the words "RÉCEPTION À VERSAILLES VÉRONIQUE PERRIN" and saw the doll's face, my mind went straight to Vanessa Perrin True Royalty. I was expecting to see a doll analogue to that one, something glamorous, royal, majestic and resplendent, fitting with the Versailles theme and environment. Alas, no such luck. The doll, while beautiful, is no match to its title, theme or previous experience from this brand. There's no Royalty factor in it. She could be going out for a glass of wine with her girlfriends, not hosting a reception in Versailles for her parent's 35th wedding anniversary (as the storyline accompanying the email mentions). And the background photos of the real Versailles does not do the doll a favour. 

I'm on the fence about getting this one. I like the doll, although I'd rather have her in a lighter skin tone, like Japan or Cream. I love the jewellery. The underwear looks nice too. The dress, not so much. No bag either. Simple shoes. I do not have a red-head Vero so it might weigh in on my buying decision.

Véronique is a fully articulated 12.5-inch doll with fully rooted hair and hand applied eyelashes. Véronique is wearing a dove gray designer cocktail dress, accessorised with a brand new set of enameled jewelry, and also comes with lingerie and pumps. For adult collectors ages 15 and up only. This doll cannot stand alone; a doll stand is included.

The doll in the pictures is a prototype. Final colors and textures may vary slightly. Background props not included. All text and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2016 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission.

Graphics and Layouts by Alain Tremblay Marketing.

On the first official day of the convention, i.e. today, the convention collection is presented to the attendees and the sales room opens for them. One can see that the Supermodel theme is running strong, and we keep guessing which models are represented by which dolls. Some of the outfits are really iconic, at least to those who lived fashion in the late 80s and early 90s. Versace has the lion's share, with Chanel a close second. Adele, Vanessa, Vero and Eugenia also have a second dress, from an Avedon shot Versace campaign.

Pity they have boots instead of the pumps and socks shown in the original. The dresses look yummy though.

From the blonde highlights on brunette, I'm guessing Cindy Crawford. 

The dress is Chanel Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 1990, as seen in the photo below taken by Lagerfeld for the house's campaign. Linda was wearing it on the runway as well.

Naomi of course. And that gown looks like it's Thierry Mugler from his Haute Couture Autumn /Winter 1992 collection, worn on the runway by Christy Turlington.

One of the most iconic Chanel Haute Couture gowns, from the Autumn/Winter 1990 collection as well, worn on the runway and in an equally iconic Irving Penn photoshoot for US Vogue, by Christy Turlington.

Pity they did not make the magnificent boots that went with these gowns, they are the sole reason they look extraordinary and not like another overblown couture gown.They also missed the gorgeous embroidered bows on the arms. I want the dress if only to try and complete the look.

Enough about the dress, who is Vanessa channeling? She does look like la Linda below:

But Linda never had her hair that long in this phase of her career and especially as a blonde. My guess is 50-50 between Claudia Shiffer and Nadja Auermann.

I'm fairly sure she's supposed to be Linda Evangelista. Eugenia's sculpt is a dead ringer for Linda and that hair colour was Linda's for a couple of her reincarnations, both in short (the best) and medium length hair. I wish they were not afraid to go shorter on these dolls,

The dress is of course the iconic safety pin Versace gown that made headlines for one then unknown Liz Harley. It was worn on the runway by Helena Christensen, while a more daring version was worn by Christy Turlington, both below.

So, what do you think? Who is who? How are you liking the Supermodel theme so far? More dolls in the following posts! 

All doll photos and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2016 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission. Note: The pictures contained in this email show the prototypes and the final dolls may vary slightly.

As the W Club started later than usual in 2016, it affected the pacing and schedule of new doll releases. This past weekend was the second unveil of the year, after the first with the Poppy Parker collection early this summer. This one included the Fashion Royalty collection, arguably the most important one of Integrity Toys, plus the My Little Pony (MLP) franchise collection and a couple of ITBE 16 dolls. This event was a live webinar presentation, unlike the previous one which was done through emails. The presentation was done by Carol Roth, W Club founder, assisted by Alain Tremblay, but without the Fashion Royalty designer, Vaughn Sawyer, who was in China attending production procedures. The team was completed with Jesse Ayala for the MLP line (more for that in the relevant post). They also mentioned that the collection was based on a concept worked by Jason Wu and Vaughn together. Jason will also be making an appearance at this year's Integrity Toys convention in Chicago and Alain said that if anyone is still interested in attending, to contact him at the company email - there may be a few places available.

As was expected, the Fashion Royalty collection generated a lot of talk and probably raised more questions than it answered. The main one was the new decal eye (hybrid eye as IT names it, meaning the actual eyes are water slide decals and the eye make up is painted with stencils as before) process that some of the dolls are now using, which begun, without the buyers knowing about this, with the upgrade Vanessa club doll and the IFDC Dasha/Annika doll. I will make a separate post about this so will not elaborate further here. As you will see reading on, the dolls that have decal eyes from this collection have it in their specifications.  Most are available to pre-order (with Natalia and Elyse already sold out at most dealers) while Vero, as a basic doll (a much welcomed return of the Close Up dolls), will be available later in the year through IT Direct.

How I saw the collection "A Delicate Bloom" as a whole? I was again underwhelmed, much like with the Poppy Parker one. While it looks nice and coherent, with some gorgeous details and dolls, it is not what I was expecting based on the Vanessa upgrade doll and her delicate, intricate outfit, hairstyle and accessories, that all the dolls would have a similar styling and aesthetic. And while the intense colours and lack of black (much to the joy of several collectors) did stay the same, the rest were severely lacking. I know many people loved it and that is good, but I was waiting to see something entirely different. Another thing that raised a lot of noise was the lack of non-caucasian dolls. With the exception of the asian Kyori, the rest of the dolls are caucasian, even the Latina Natalia has the FR White skin-tone. And no, the so called Hungarian skin tone is not ethnic, just a slightly tanned variation. It is a bit weird coming from this particular company, especially considering last year's gorgeous darker skinned dolls and their popularity. More about how I see each doll below.