Dolls Eye View: London F/W 19 Trends

London was no New York! With Brexit (Britain's exit from the European Union) looming, designers are clearly rattled. Not knowing what the future holds and how this will impact them financially, many didn't hold a traditional show and when they did, some played it super safe. Others threw caution to the wind with a chaotic palette. We were tempted not to stop in London this time around. But my girls spotted a few interesting items and so we transform this trip into a learning experience.... It is a quick pit stop on our way to Milan and Paris.

Neo-Afro Post Modernism
Doru Olowu is a young Nigerian designer best known for his innovative combinations of patterns and textiles drawn from his own native land. Looking at his work showed, once again, the influence Africa has on western designers and it gave me a better insight into the mind of the late, great Yves St. Laurent. The French couturier was born and raised in Morocco, an area of the world which impacted his designs throughout his historically successful career. He made much of his fortune by translating the the clothing of local women with its kaleidoscope of patterns, prints and colors into chic western wear. When I spotted the first two garments, I admired how Olowo used three colors of the same print in the same dress. Even more interesting is the middle ensemble where there are three different patterns topped off with an animal print! Personally, I am not really drawn to this color palette and I feel the dress itself is more complicated than it need be. But  still, I appreciate the beauty of this set.

To pull off such an audacious use of pattern and print, there must be a connection. In my case, where I have combined five different prints in one look, each pattern contains black. Also, the abstract print used for the blouse has a light tan streak running through it with ties it to the leopard spotted coat. Her skirt, by the way, was made from a silk men's tie. (Tie prints offer the perfect scale for doll fashion!) Unlike Mr. Olowu, I kept each element very simple. There is a dolman sleeve top, a straight skirt and a cummerbund belt underneath a standard straight coat. Instead of putting Grace in black boots, I pushed the envelope a little further and gave her velvet flocked plaid boots.

 If you want to opt for a less ethnic vibe, remove the head wrap and it easily fits right in with western wear!

West End Promenade
Simple wardrobe staples for a stroll around town.

 The original Vivienne Westwood coat is made from a soft, fleece fabric. I tried to copy this look using the wrong side of a sweat sock. The end result was..well...underwhelming. The moral of the story here is that when something is this basic, your garment is only as good as the fabric itself. So I started again with the approach, "Go big or go home!" This time I opted for a faux fur super plush effect. (This time around, I used a furry head band I found at a beauty supply shop! It contained just enough fabric.) It's a little over-the-top but well suited for all Natasha's silver accessories including her silver stocking boots.

Soft Shoulders
It's not that I'm all that wild about this group. But there are times the clothes on the catwalk look more like they should be cut in 1/6 scale!

Such is the case with this red and fuchsia dress. An empire waistline filled in with two tiers of ruffles makes for the perfect dolly dress, modeled here by Peaches, one of three My Scene dolls in our house!

Though I like the leather corset over the blouse and flared skirt, personally I found the original dress to be a little sad. So for Kimora, I added length to the corset as well as little bit of lacing under the bust. The blouse underneath is a crinkled taffeta bustier and, as you can see, we've added a mini circle skirt cut from faux stretch leather. I have these boots left over from my post on fancy footwork which I feel adds more of a pirate girl charm to the entire look.

Nottingham Hill After Dark
This is a hodge podge of evening looks with no real thread. But you know....dollies got to party! And these were the best uptown looks of the season here.

 When I first saw the Marchesa Notte gown, I thought..."what an interesting use of tie dye." But when you look more closely a second time, you see that the print is really a blurry watercolor floral print. Still, I went with my first impression to create Zoe's gown. I had some purple tie dyed cotton on hand and I must admit....I am very happy with the results. (Moral of the story: think outside of the box for a truly creative look!) And, making this dress could not have been easier. I started out with a simple one shouldered sheath gown. Then, I draped fabric over one should and tacked it on the side just above the hip. The volume tossed to the side and back is more interesting than the original dress where it made to cascade down from the high shoulder point. Again....what I did was to make a basic dress, then drape fabric over the bodice and tack in place!

A pair of wide trousers, a bit of polyester organdy draped into a top.....what better way to look while walking the dog! 

That's it for London. We're headed for Milan where my girls tell me there is LOTS more to love!!!

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Dolls Eye View: London Spring 19 Trends

Another city, another chaotic fashion week! There were lots of clothes--some clownish others ho-hum...very little capturing the fancy of my girls. We nearly skipped over this fashion capital, but then you know what happened.... A few looks caught their discerning little eyes. So here is what they found!

Ruffled!

At the end of the day, most of my dolls have girly-girl tastes. This group has as many (or as few) ruffles as any girl could want. I'm not sure I would wear any of this, but if you are a doll--preferably a playline or fashionista Barbie, a Monster High or a My Scene..these dresses are perfectly suited for you. What's particularly new and fresh here are the dresses bursting with ruffled prints and patterns!

Katoucha shows what happens when you transform an animal print into perky little dress. This is essentially a strapess tube dress topped off with rows of striped and spotted ruffles.

Short Stop

In London, there are two dominant lengths for summer--super short, very long. For this group we see tailored jackets belted over short-shorts, kicky little body-skimming dresses with ruffled trimmed sleeves and a modern day version of a Paco Rabanne shift dress--covered from edge to edge cellophane paillettes.

For China's dress, I couldn't find the oval shaped paillets used in the original dress, but I did have these square translucent blue paillets on hand. I made a foundation using four layers of soft blue tulle then, one by one, stitched on rows of blue transparent paillets using "invisible" thread. I used clear vinyl for the straps. The clear vinyl boots seemed to be the perfect accessory for this "space age" fashion.

The Slink

The ease and fluidity of 1930's fashion is incorporated into these comfortable, breezy dresses. We love how the silhouettes literally slinks over the body. For day this ankle length cotton dress serves as a canvas for an interesting abstract print. While for evening, we like how silhouettes literally pour over the body in a sparkly fabric falling into asymmetrical hemlines.

Jacob's Ladder

Flat, geometric shapes joined together with tiny straps.....what could be more modern! I treated this like a puzzle by starting out with a basic shape, slashing it, then pulling it all together with a web of straps. The ease or difficulty of realizing any of these looks is largely dictated by the fabric you choose, so I discovered.

I used a rayon jersey fabric for Zoe's dress. It is a simple column dress with a deep V cut out in the front. There aren't many straps within the V-neck, however, the doll's body doesn't react the same as humans, and adjusting the straps was quite tricky. I used 1/8" (3mm) ribbon for the lattice work. At first I decided it was too wide, so I removed them and used embroidery yarn. The yarn pulled the V out of shape, so I replaced them with the ribbon!

On the other hand, I had a lot more success with Sybille's dress. It started out as a basic strapless sheath cut from a more structured stretch crepe. The dress is actually in one piece! I did this for control! I cut out a V shape over the doll's belly and I simply made a slash over the thighs. Here, I used full strands of embroidery yarn (instead of ribbon) which is threaded into a needle and sewn in place. We were both much more happy with the result!

Stay tuned...I'm told things are going much better in Milan, our next stop on the fashion month train!

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Dolls' Eye View: London Fall/Winter '18 Trends

The chaos continues. All of the unrest, the socio-economic uncertainty, political mayhem seems to have leached into the design community. Again, much of what we saw ran the gamut of safe, very conservative garments to overly designed costumes....a sort of throwing everything to the wind. The girls decided not to stay very long here. But before they left, we had an exercise in how to be inspired by the spirit or a detail of a garment.

Hyde & Seek

This is a story about leather which the girls just love. Instead of coats and jackets, leather is treated like a fabric and fashioned into flirty skirts and dresses. This group signed by British designer, David Koma, reminded me pf my intentions to update my tutorial on working with leather. Let me give you a hint....glove weight leather sews like fabric!

Katoucha's outfit is a combination leather (the bodice) and a leather-like coated fabric (skirt). I made the two items separately so that I can use them for other looks. Katoucha's skirt is a bit shorter than the one in the photo to keep it a little more youthful and better suited for her proportions. Add a belt and it all comes together like a dress!

Midnight Warrior

Gareth Pugh made his mark as a young designer with extreme avant-garde clothing bordering on goth. What's interesting is how, over the years, his work as successfully transcended into some pretty sophisticated fashion. This season's look is comprised of massive, black on black silhouettes! Okay, so the shoulders are big (we did a tutorial on that), but that's the 1980's revival kicking in.

The secret to the look I made for Grace is that it's a composite of different elements. The leather top is a simple bodice with a peplum flared over the hips and belted. It's worn over a straight wrap skirt and accessorized with a with a pair of thigh high "Barbie" boots. If you can't get the boots, you can always make....spats to fit over a pair of shoes! Oh yes, the fur jacket was borrowed from the tutorial on padded shoulders!

It's a Wrap!

This is an effortless look. Simple garments made special with an element that wraps around the neck or body. This can be as easy as an oversized plaid square tossed over the shoulders of a satin top and pants, a big scarf knotted around the neck of a straight coat or a sleek pair of pajamas wrapped with satin cord. Note the color palette and the print!

This is shamefully simple! Helena's look starts out with a strapless sheath cut from herringbone patterned silk. We took another length of fabric and wrapped it around her neck then belted it! It's the leather gloves and thigh high boots that really pulls off the look!

Tip: I wanted to "control" the drapes so I pinned then stitched them down into the scarf.

Royal Encounter

There's not much to say here except....think brocade, on your next trip to the fabric store! This fancy fabric is all you need to transform any ordinary garment into something quite regal!

Soho Boho

It's the Arts&Crafts movement combined with the bohemian movement of the 60's and 70's. By itself, it's nothing your doll is going to want to wear outside of your sewing room, but we all were intrigued by the texture of the thing! I liked the idea of creating my own fabric using tiny bits of frayed scraps.

The top is simple. A simple bodice without darts, elongated to the hips in blue, covered with scraps. I did this pretty quickly. If I had more time, I might have designed a pattern then filled it in with color coordinated scraps. Personally, I would have stopped here and put this over jeans. But then I got the crazy idea that ripped jeans would be the perfect compliment. So I made a pair, ripped them and added a backing to the holes (so the pants wouldn't fall apart.) My first reaction was that she resembled a big, shaggy dust rag. But the next morning after the photo shoot, it somehow works as an ensemble while capturing the essence of the original look.

As I stated before....such a busy top works best when worn over something simple....like the pair of jeans Donyale is now wearing! (We'll save the tattered jeans to wear with a simple T-shirt, later on!)

Foiled!

By now you already know how much the 18-year old that lives deep within is attracted to silver! I'll admit, the light bright silver on silver is a bit much (pots and pans chic), but since I already had a little bit of silver leather left in my closet.....I couldn't help myself.

After close scrutiny, I noticed the dress had a shiny silver lace trim. For Iman's dress, I took white lace and foiled it. The gloves are tiny tubes of silver lame and the boots are silver leather covered Barbie boots. So Carneby Street Sixties!!!

While we've been busy with Fashion Week, the Academy Awards took place. And yes, my girls were there! While half the girls make their way to Milan, we'll be taking a break to find who upstaged who on the Oscars' red carpet last night!

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Dolls' Eye View: London Spring '18 Trends

Well.....here's the problem. There is still a lot of chaos in this part of the world. Designers are still trying their best to function while the ramifications of BREXIT (exit from the European Union) hover above. Many are playing it safe with commercial (read "boring") collections, while other toss everything to the wind in a flight of chaotic fantasy. The problem is...after you dismiss the under or over designed frocks, that which is left resembles.... New York. That said....my girls were not going to leave empty handed (die hard fashionistas that they are), so they made their pick, jazzed it up a bit with a few fun accessories then headed to the catwalk to strut their stuff!

Crispy Cremes

White continues to be a strong trend for Spring Summer 18. Fabrics like crisp cottons, Indian weaves--have a lot of structure which lend well to shirtwaist dresses, tiered skirts & tees, or even a simple top over wide legged trousers.

Foiled!

Houston...we have a lift-off.... colored metallics make their entry onto the scene here. The ones above are made of leather, though with a sheet of foil, you can create your own effect as we did with Renee's skirt below.

I started out with gold lame (so that the missed areas would still shine), brushed on a light layer of modge-podge then ironed on a sheet of copper foil. Small areas did not adhere which gave my skirt a more rustic, beaten up appearance. If you go this route, one thing to note...adding this much foil to a garment results in shrinkage! (I could barely get the skirt back on Renee). So cut your garment slightly large if you try this! Otherwise, a one-shouldered chiffon blouse softly counter-balances the hard look of the copper tone pencil skirt.

Post Modern World

For my girls, this represents a sort of "pause" while the industry figures it's next move. These are easy to understand, easy to wear garments with an interesting detail here or there. There is, perhaps, nothing to jump up and down about....but then again, these are items that any doll can wear well!

One-Sided Point of View

It's been a few seasons now since shoulders have come out of hiding. You could almost think of this as a nouveau classic. The other big new here is the prevalence of asymmetrical details. The basic dress is relative simple, but hems are cut on the slant, or in slats, all of which give a new look to a familiar silhouette.

Girly Girls

Shhhhh..... don't tell anybody but..behind the badass attitude, the steely cold side eye looks of a vinyl diva.....some dolls just want to have fun in ruffles, frills and floral prints! In general, these are looks that transform perfectly into 1/6 scale (or even 1/4 scale) doll fashions.

Just be aware that when it comes to ruffles and flounces...expect the unexpected. In this case, the result was (for Bea) more interesting than the original. Even though I used a soft chiffon, when gathered, the fabric still had lots of bounce which took the flounces away from the body. The idea of the double flounce over a straighter skirt, when scaled for this Barbie, resulted in a very Balenciaga avant-garde cocktail dress. But do you hear Bea complaining? Neither do I!!!

Give Her the Slip

One of my personal favorite garments, the slip dress, has established itself as quite a classic. Here it is again this season in jersey, satin and sequinned versions. This is the kind of basic garment you can use and reuse in any variety of ways.

Morgan begged me for this dress (made of a single rectangle of rayon jersey). She hit the hat drawer and decided to have a little fun.

Soft Serve

Soft fabrics in soft colors...creamy whites, peach and pink..this is what you should keep you eye on when looking for materials. If you can knit (and I wish I could), look for soft and fuzzy yarns but keep the garment simple! Or...tulle skirts, soft knits with fluffy trim all have the allure of early 1960's glamour girl.

I didn't have any fluffy jersey to make dolly a comfy dress, but I did have a gym sock and some faux fur to make this dress. Natalie's tube dress is made from a gym sock turned inside out to expose the nubby texture.  I added two small tubes for short sleeves to either side. The faux fur (although you could slice up some dyer sheets into tiny ribbons) is attached all along the top of the dress and sleeves. The dress is so stretchy, I didn't need any back closure!

Silver Service

We are still on silver standard! That's another thing to keep in mind the next time you're at the fabric store. Julien MacDonald, in particular featured lots of sexy looks carved from silver lame and silver netting to shiny sequins.

Ye Olde England

A page out of the history books from the turn of the last century. And while I'm not sure how well this looks on humans, it sure makes for some very pretty dolly dresses! Pictured here, lots of black lace and sheer dotted-swiss.

Monica figured that as long as you're going to do vintage, you may as well go all the way. Her dress began with a shift dress made of black chiffon. I pleated small bits of a sheer dotted material, then overlaped them in the front and over another layer of pleated sheer. I attached white lace to the under dress which peaks out from under the layers of the dress. I made her a hat using a black silk rose hair clip, to which I added tiny silk flowers and a scrap of dotted sheer.

Hold on, there. We're only half way through our fashion experience. Stay tuned, the girls are on their way to Milan!!! More fashions to come!!!

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