The final night of the Integrity Toys convention is always the most impressive, important but also emotional, as everyone has to say goodbye. The evening started with the introduction of the final centerpiece of the convention, followed by dinner, the announcement of this year's competition winners, the raffle of the designer OOAK dolls (which were amazing, pity I do not have official photos) and an interview with Jason Wu.

Jason announced plans for celebrating his company's 10th anniversary in 2017 and the introduction of new features in the Fashion Royalty line, starting with a "Velvet Touch" skin finish (sounds similar to Lovetones skin). He announced that as a thank you for everyone who opted to attend convention this year, a special offer would be included with the convention doll: to pre-order the very first Elyse doll that features the "Velvet Touch" skin finish. It seems like the Jason Wu anniversary dolls will be a separate line, sold through international stores, more expensive and with more detailed handmade outfits. More about the actual doll below.

I forgot to mention in a previous post that Victoire is also making a comeback, with a slightly tweaked body (it will be "explosive" like the FR for easier dressing). Cannot wait to see her back.

The moment everyone was waiting for was of course the reveal of this year's convention doll which came with two complete outfits to match the other girls in the convention collection.

Next year's convention will be in Orlando, Florida the weekend of October 19th-21st, 2017 with the theme of Fashion Fairytale. The amazing fairytale inspired editorials of Grace Coddington for the Christmas issues of Vogue came to mind immediately.

The winner of 2016's Supermodel Convention Design Competition Advanced Category was the talented Salvador Lopez Arriaga, so congratulations for him! He got both jury and public awards. His design will come to life later in 2017 as a real Integrity Toys doll. Here's a picture of his lovely creation: 

At the intermediary category, public prize went to the amazing Ginny Liezert, while last year's winner, the awesome Jason Kramer got the jury prize. Congratulations both, much deserved!

This is a suit from the Dior by John Galliano Haute Couture collection from Autumn/Winter 1997/1998, an iconic collection and show. It was worn on the runway, in the parc des Bagatelles, by Debra Shaw, a model and friend of Galliano's.

Princesse Bundi and Princesse Partabgarh from the Haute Couture F/W 1997 Collection. 

Photography by Patrick Demarchelier

Dania looks gorgeous here, and the recreation of the suit is perfection. Love the amazing Masai necklace. The inspiration of that collection was Marchesa Casati and Masai tribal dress.

Pity the shoes are not the fringed ones shown with the actual outfit, they'd be smashing. I do think though that Jordan or Nadja would rock this one much better, just like Debra Shaw did on the catwalk.

Lacroix sweetie, Lacroix! Finally a gown from the master of couture, and a sumptuous one at that. This is from the Christian Lacroix Haute Couture Spring/Summer 1995 collection and this is how it looked on the runway:

Courtesy Harper's Bazaar/Getty Images

Shalom Harlow wearing Lacroix, styled by Grace Coddington and photographed by Bruce Weber for the March 1995 issue of American Vogue

Dasha, still with her trademark sideglance, looks fab here. She does remind me a bit of Karen Mulder and also of her previous incarnation as Renegade, again blonde and in a red dress.

Elyse was not at convention but she made quite an impression. The face looks a lot like Montaine Market Elise, the dress is lovely, with nice detailing. But the stud earrings and the absence of other accessories do not justify the high price (near $200 from what I hear) of the doll. She is too austere, almost looks like a nanny in a fancy dress.

Note: The pictures contained in this email show the prototypes and the final dolls may vary slightly. 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.

The International Fashion Doll Convention 2016 - or IFDC as most people know it - took place this weekend in Las Vegas, with a spy/James Bond theme. Integrity Toys, which created the convention dolls once again, did an incredible job and brought to us some great dolls - one of which is almost perfection. Alain Trembley styled all three of these winners and boy, did he do an amazing job. I love the fact that instead of a male spy saving the woman scientist, it is  the other way around, plus the villain of the story is a woman too. These were all available for convention attendees but W Club members also get the privilege to enter a lottery for a limited number of them, so if you are a member, check your email right now! 

Even though many collectors adore the micro-sequined suit, I cannot bring myself to like it. I do understand though that another simple one would be too much, since we have got one in almost every convention collection these past years. The doll's make up looks fantastic and I love that she's wearing a choker, a very of the moment detail. She could be starring in any 70s Bond film as an equal partner to Roger Moore. The camera and map in scale are amazing.

I can see that the huge wide head trend in Hommes is continuing and this worries me about the main line. If they decide to make new faces for the new Hommes to be unveiled in the near future, and they have this huge wide head, I will not be buying them other than for body replacements. Other than that, the rest of the doll is amazing - great outfit and lovely, detailed accessories. The shoes and socks are TDF.

I love this doll. Everything is perfection about her, from the hair and make up to the dress and shoes to the transparent set of limbs. I am entering the lottery for her and hope I win - I have never won an IFDC doll in a lottery before. Keeping fingers crossed.

The Saturday gala is always a bittersweet event: while everyone is anticipating the presentation of the convention doll and lots of other reveals and gifts of the night, it is also time to say goodbye and marks the end of the convention. The Integrity Toys design team conducted the highly anticipated OOAK and complete collection raffles, unveiled the final dolls of the weekend and announced that next year's convention would take place in Chicago (the theme, dates, registration information and other details will be revealed approximately in the Spring of 2016). They also announced the winner of the design contest, Jason Kramer, who was attending his first convention and won both categories, the advanced with his 12" entry (which will be made into a doll from Integrity next year) and the intermediate with his 16" entry. Here are photos taken from the flickr profile of Crystal.

Jason Kramer - winner of the advanced category in the design contest

This is Jason Kramer's 16" entry that won the intermediate category. It is actually portraying model Shalom Harlow at the finale of the Spring Summer 1999 Alexander McQueen collection, where her dress was spray-painted by industrial robots live on the runway.

Of course the final two dolls of the weekend were revealed: Elyse Jolie was the centerpiece (the designers mentioned that the change in her name's spelling was requested by her and they had being writing it wrong for years!) and a new character was introduced in the Nu. Face collection, Ms. Karolin Stone, a model and actress. Everyone in attendance received the gorgeous Karolin doll who is the official convention doll. Not everyone was pleased, as Elyse or Vero were expected to be convention dolls. The fact that Jason Wu did not make an appearance during the convention and no doll was wearing one of his real life outfits in miniature was also much discussed and speculated upon.

I'm not a fan of this Elyse. She looks a lot like previous releases of her (On The Rise was the first that came to mind), while the dress is too transparent  - shouldn't it be lined? I really like the fabric buy maybe it needs a different design to look its best.

The face looks familiar. She could be using the Ayumi 2.0 (more likely, as it is out of use now) ot 3.0 sculpt. Her severe look and simplicity did not go down well with some attendees - I read somewhere that when she was announced, everyone was silent for a few moments. She looks modern and strong but I would not try to get her.

Note: The dolls shown are prototypes and final versions may vary slightly. All doll photos and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2015 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission.

Back in April, Integrity Toys announced that all W Club members. whether going to the convention or not, would have the chance to buy a special Cinematic convention doll. The doll was Reigning Grace, had the face of Eugenia and would wear a lovely pleated black dress, which we discovered was the one Grace Kelly was wearing in Rear Window. Now the promo photos arrived, with the doll soon to be shipping to members. I must say she has surpassed my expectations and I am surely glad to have pre-ordered her. The dress looks fantastic and very faithful to the original. The doll is gorgeous, her screening the same as Diamond Society (with different shades of course), I just wish her hairdo was more close to the classic glamour bob Grace Kelly had than this Victoire chignon. She is lacking a bit in accessories, but the film outfit does not have anything more than this either, apart from a hat. Stunning.

Eugenia is a 12.5-inch fully articulated vinyl doll with fully rooted hair styled in a sophisticated chignon. Eugenia is wearing a vintage inspired pleated dress. She accessorizes her look with gloved hands, jewellery and shoes (interchangeable flesh-toned hands included as well). A doll stand is also included. For adult collectors ages 15 and up.

Note: As with all dolls that feature a chignon or "updo" type of hairstyle, Integrity Toys does not recommend taking the hair down, as it was designed this way. Taking down the hair will be done at the owner's risk and will automatically void the warranty.

The doll pictured is the prototype, as usual, the final production may vary slightly. All photos and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2015 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission,

The International Fashion Doll Convention, organized by the incredible Jim Faraone (if you do not recognize the name, you have a lot of reading and searching to do regarding fashion doll collecting), took place in Las Vegas, this past weekend, with the convention dolls being offered once more by Integrity Toys. They are usually very covetable dolls, as they are limited editions, and only available to attendees, with a very small portion offered via lottery for sale to the W Club members. The convention theme was "42nd Street - Dolls on Broadway, so the IT design team picked the famous musical "My Fair Lady"and interpreted some of the costumes for the convention dolls. Let's see how they turned out. They are using Nu Face sculpts and bodies as part of the Nu Fantasy line.

Without you is a 12.5-inch fully articulated vinyl doll with long rooted hair and hand applied eyelashes. She wears a long, lace overlaid, ultra fitted gown with contrasting band at the hem. Exclusive to the 2015 IFDC Convention, this doll also includes a doll stand. For adult collectors ages 15 and up.

Someone mixed their song titles - Without You is the song Eliza sings almost at the end, where she feels totally free and independent from Professor Higgins, the day after the ball. In the film, she is wearing the pink frilly dress, whereas here we see black lave overlaid on nude lining. Great outfit apart from the white lace hem (why?), it does not particularly remind me of any outfit from the film (and most Broadway productions imitate those outfits. Beaton had done the original theatrical London and Broadway costumes as well), except the striped detail at the leg slit and the shoes that is lifted off the horse-race scene magnificent Beaton dress. Another Erin though? There was one already at the latest Nu Face release. And she reminds me a bit of the Erin from last  year's convention. Love the huge ring.

Wouldn't It Be Loverly? is a 12.5-inch fully articulated vinyl doll with rooted hair and hand applied eyelashes. She wears a pink dress with embroidered bodice and tulle overlaid skirt. Exclusive to the 2015 IFDC Convention, this doll also includes a doll stand. For adult collectors ages 15 and up. There;s a warning from Integrity Toys about the doll's hair:even though they are fully rooted, IT does not recommend taking her hair down as they cannot guarantee that the hair cut will be even and that taking the hair down may ruin this look and will void her one-year warranty. So be careful with that.

Again the song title does not match the outfit inspiration. This pink creation clearly is inspired by the pink fluffy confection worn by Eliza at the aforementioned "Without You"scene, while she is wearing the flower lady outfit (in green) while singing this song. The dress looks very sixties (the hair style adds to this feeling) and the colour looks like a match with the film outfit - but that's where any similarities end, One of the twins finally makes an appearance - which makes me wonder why they did not use Lilith for the previous outfit instead of Erin. She looks a bit awkward posing like that, I wonder how the dress looks if the doll is posed in a more normal position. Too simple shoes compared with the other dolls though.

Danced All Night is a 12.5-inch fully articulated vinyl doll with rooted hair and hand applied eyelashes. She wears a white and silver gown. Exclusive to the 2015 IFDC Convention, this doll also includes a doll stand. For adult collectors ages 15 and up. Again, Integrity advises collectors against taking the hair down for this doll as it is not cut even and will void the one-year warranty.

Easily the best doll of the bunch, and not because of the sculpt. Of course it is inspired by Eliza's white outfit at the ball. The dress cut and the hair do and make up are perfect. The fabrics used not so. I'd much rather see this in a white fabric like the yellow one used for On The Rise Elise from last year's FR collection and, instead of micro-sequins, the top band could have bead embroidery like the collar of Nostalgia Dania. The higher price of the doll is not justified for me looking at the complete set, unless the fabric for the dress is that much more expensive (which I doubt). I love the shoes.

These are pictures of prototype dolls. As always, the exact colors and the actual production dolls may vary slightly.All photos and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2015 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission.