The Fashion Doll Chronicles: models

Showing posts with label models. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Gigi Hadid gets her own Barbie doll - and we want her too!

The latest celebrity - and a top model nonetheless - to get her likeness made as a Barbie doll is none other than the beautiful Gigi Hadid. Both the official Barbie Instagram account as well as the model herself posted a photo of the new doll, to advertise the second collection Gigi is presenting for Tommy Hilfiger.

There was a selfie of course:

The doll looks a lot like the real thing and I'd love it if she became available to buy. Please Mattel, make it happen! I am sure Gigi would love it too! More images from the Barbie Instagram below:

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

There's a Cindy Crawford Barbie doll and it is not for sale

Instagram is the medium of the moment for lots of celebrities and professionals alike: it's so much easier to share a photo of something you're doing or your newest creation than writing about it or staging an elaborate presentation. Especially if it can reach thousands of people in an instant. It is not surprising then that it has become the social arena of choice for fashion people. most notably stylists and models. Cindy Crawford is one of the original 90s supermodels that is active on the platform. Just the other day she posted a photo of a Barbie made to look like her:

Since there was nothing published about the doll from Mattel, I did a little on-line search and came up with the goods: the doll is an OOAK creation, It was presented to Cindy way back in 2003 at the CAAF (Children Affected By AIDS Foundation) benefit in Santa Monica, California. The doll is dressed in a Roberto Cavalli gown, the same one Cindy was wearing during the event.

I don't know what made Cindy remember the doll after all this time and post it again (in the text accompanying the instagram post she mentions loving Barbies as a child), but it sure made me wish for a series of dolls in the likeness of supermodels from that era: Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, Tatjana Patitz etc. They would be the ultimate fashion dolls. One can only hope. And it doesn't have to be Mattel making them. Looking at you Integrity Toys.

Top photo courtesy of Cindy Crawford (Instagram), middle and bottom photos from Daily Mail/Wireimage

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Carmen Dell'Orefice as a fashion doll by Tonner Doll

Carmen Dell'Orefice is a famous fashion model, with the longest career in the industry - she keeps modelling still, 82 years old, since her first Vogue cover at age 15. Tonner Doll had long ago announced they would be making a doll in her likeness and they debuted it as a centrepiece at their 2014 Tonner Con. The model was there for the unveiling.

The doll is wearing a luxury knit dress with a fur-trimmed jacket. She has a brand new body,named Chic Body: it’s a variation of the Antoinette body, with broader shoulders and a fuller bust. The doll also features a white rooted mane and painted blue eyes, and is highly limited, with an edition size of just 200 pieces.

The doll looks great, although I do think they took a safe route with her. I would prefer a more fashion-oriented Carmen, with her amazing wild silver mane and style in full swing. This looks tame in comparison to her usual editorial/advertising appearances.

The likeness is amazing though. If I had this doll, I would restyle the hair to make it more glamorous. She deserves it. Let's see some photos from the presentation:

Below are some gorgeous photos of the real Carmen. All doll photos are courtesy of Tonner Doll and Ernesto Padro - Campos. Convention photos from Tonner Doll Facebook page.

ASnd of course a great version would be one with hair styled like Carmen was by the talented Thanos Samaras for Vogue Italia.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Think Pink - Sunny Harnet ready for the red carpet

One of the most memorable musical numbers in the Funny Face film is "Think Pink". If you remember, a year ago, Integrity Toys release a series of seven dolls inspired from the film and its costumes, as part of their Paramount license. So it was only natural that one outfit at least from the Think Pink sequence would be selected. Well, actually there are two, a pink suit and an evening gown. Here, as a tribute to the Oscar cermony that takes place tonight, we focus on the latter, in a recen photo shoot I did.

The doll is evoking the model Sunny Harnett who appears in the film along more famous models Suzy Parker and Dovima (who has a speaking role). Sunny appears with many outfits in the sequence but most notably the outfit shown here. This look is composed of a pink satin two-piece gown with a transformable pink faux fur peplum that turns into a cape, as shown in the film. Pink opera length gloves (the usual oven mitt variety), bright pink satin shoes and a jewellery set (clear bauble necklace and rhinestone stud earrings) complete the outfit.

The 12" fully articulated vinyl doll has rooted hair and hand-applied eyelashes and sports the FR: Monogram body (with Victoire Roux legs) and the Imogen head sculpt.She does reming me of Sunny Harnett a lot and the gown is a faithful representation of the one shown in the film. She looks ready to pick up an Oscar! The last close-up of her shows her necklace backwards, it was a mistake but I liked the photo so here it goes.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Jason Wu and Christy Turlington - that's one doll I'd love to see

Jason Wu picked my all-time favourite model and muse, Christy Turlington - Burns to be the model of his Autumn/Winter 2013 ad campaign. Continuing a theme from last season, where he had fellow supermodel Stephanie Seymour photographed at La Grenouille, this time around Jason has Christy posing in Mr.Chow. Photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and art directed by Patrick Li, the images will launch in the fall editions of Love, Tank, Self Service and The Gentlewoman. Now Mr. Wu, please please please make a doll in Christy's likeness and I will be a very very very happy man. And yes, the dresses shown would look lovely on that doll too.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Funny Face: A Woman Who Thinks (Marion / Dovima)

It was about time I started photographing and posting the Funny Face dolls, who have been arriving home one after another in all their elegance and finesse. I must say that the dolls are exactly or even better than the prototypes and it is a unique treat opening their beautiful packaging.

I had written, in the post about their presentation, that "A Woman Who Thinks" is the best doll of the bunch. Her arrival confirmed my opinion. She uses the Anja sculpt to great effect. If you have seen the film, you know this is Marion, the model posing as "A Woman Who Thinks", the new target group and inspiration for Quality magazine. Marion is played by Dovima, a real model, and one of the best models ever. She parodies herself, and it is a great treat to see her in a film, as most of the images we have from her heyday are photographs.

The doll comes with two outfits and their respective accessories. She is already dressed with the black narrow dress with the irregular cut out neckline, which is a good approximation of the real one. I love the grainy fabric and it is stretchy enough to pose in. Unfortunately, using the Victoire/BoD body means that there is no waist joint, so the posing is a bit limited. I think that for this doll, the FR body would have been a bit better. The dress fastens in the back with hooks, which are a bit difficult to fasten as they are black on black.

I was surprised to find out that she can stand on her own. The nice leather black pumps help with that. Black stretchy gloves and a pair of "diamond" stud earrings complete the look. She is wearing pantyhose, as all women did in that era.

Her short hairdo should have been a bit less fluffy - the real model had her hair much closer to her scalp. The make up is great, the blues on her lids match her eyes and the red lipstick and nails are divine and era-appropriate.

The second outfit from the film is the one called She-bop. It is a yellow gown with a matching hat that has a green ribbon and an orange crown. It is impossible to find a photo of it on-line so I had to make a capture from the film. In it I noticed that the actual dress could have a green fabric panel at the back to match the ones from the hat. The doll dress does not.

The dress has a lot of fabric. There is a satin yellow fabric under the layers of billowing yellow chiffon over it. The draping on her bust is nicely made and the two satin straps complete the look. The dress also has a slim satin belt that fastens in the back with a pearl and a loop. The dress closes with a zipper and a hook on top (which I was unable to fasten). The shoes are yellow leather pumps, same as the black ones.

This look has a "diamond" bracelet to finish it off. Again I had a hard time keeping this on her wrist, the fastening is a bit loose and it kept falling off. Dear Integrity, not all of us collectors have tiny fingers to deal with this stuff!

The hat looks like a flower from the back.

I was really happy they included this dress with the doll, even though it barely registers in the film. The set is incredibly well made and looks very faithful to the real costumes. I love the doll and will definitely photograph her in more vintage looking stuff as soon as I can.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

My dolls in Haute Couture: a photoshoot for Grazia India magazine!

A while ago the editor of Grazia India, Nadnini Bhalla contacted me about doing a photoshoot with my fashion dolls for the magazine, with them wearing miniature outfits created by Indian fashion designers. She said she loved my Vogue mock up covers and wanted to make something in that context for the photoshoot. Of course I agreed and started planning the whole thing. After a while, the outfists arrived. Opening the garment bag of each one was a surprise: the worksmanship was incredible. The designers, with only a basic pattern to help them had made miniature miracles. Some of the outfits had miniscule accessories with them, which made them even more incredible.

Turmeric sequin ball gown and gloves, Lecoanet Hemant

Not all the outfits were made in the exact doll sizes I had provided. Some were too big or too small to fit on either 12" dolls or 16" dolls. But with the help of pins and proper posing, all of them were finally photographed by me with my dolls wearing them. From a huge number of photos, I picked soem and sent them over to have the magazine editors finalize the selection and layout. When this was done, it was ready for printing. The issue was out in May and it was a huge 12-page spread exclusive. I am publishing the results here and hope you like them! In future posts, I will feature each and every dress seperately, with facts about the designer, the specific dress and also photos of the original outfit on the runway. Enjoy!

Jumpsuit, Raakesh Agarvwal; Bubble-hem dress, Sitara By Manjaree; Bambino-print maxi, Kallol Dutta

Bubble-hem dress, Sitara By Manjaree

Ombre pleated gown, Nachiket Barve

Ruched Dress with circuitry sleeve, Prashant Verma

I would also like to thanks Nandini Bhalla (senior editor), Nidhi Jacob (editor) and Rajni Phatak (accounts) for their incredible help and collaboration and coordination of this dream project! Grazia India is in great hands!

Lame origami gown, Varun Sardana; Lime one-shouldered maxi, Gauri and Nainika

Ball gown with rosette train, Preeti Chandra

Sheer knotted dresses, Anuj Sharma

Tie-dye sleeveless jacket and top over satin pants, Savio Jon

Sequin strapless dress, Namrata Joshipura

Textured prom dress, Alpana and Neeraj

The shoot was also published in an indian blog about fashion, High Heel Confidential. The photos below of the magazine pages scanned are from that blog as I still have not received the magazine to scan them myself.

All photographs for Grazia are not to be published in any other form, in print or electronically without permission from the magazine and me. Photos published by special permission of Grazia Magazine.