Integrity Toys Dolly Days 3: How many Elyse dolls can a collector buy?

Day 3 of the Dolly Days Integrity Toys event gave to collectors something they have seen so often lately, it has become the butt of many jokes: another Jason Wu dressed Elyse Jolie doll. It’s only a month, to the day, that W Club members were offered the chance to buy another such doll via lottery. Same thing this month. Again a blonde, pale Elyse, wearing one of the designer’s real life dresses in miniature. This one was worn on the red carpet by Kate Bosworth (for an acne product presentation ffs) and was custom made, contrary to what the club email says - if you check out the designer’s pre Fall 2016, it is nowhere to be found.

Did we need another Jason Wu dressed Elyse, only a month after the previous one, with the same expensive price, minimal styling and accessories? And in a year that has no regular FR collection offered? I’m saying no. And I’m seeing the same reaction from people online. Yes, it’s a beautiful doll. But that’s not the point here. It feels lazy, it is boring, lacks creativity and I’d rather have any other FR character in this offering but Elyse. Where’s Veronique, maybe in a Latin skintone? A friend joked online that the upcoming NuFace collection will consist of five Elyse dolls wearing T-shirts, each with a different NuFace character printed on it, plus a giftset of two Elyse dolls with the twins faces on their T-shirts. Retire the sculpt for a year. Make her precious again. And no, limited editions and velvet touch bodies don’t help.

Item # 10238

Pre-Fall 2016

Dressed Doll

The Jason Wu Collection

Estimated Arrival: Early Jan. 2020

Price: $225 + S & H

Edition Size: 450

Head Sculpt: Elyse

Body Type: FR 6.0 with Velvet Touch

Skin Tone: Japan

Hair Color: Ice blond

Foot type: High-heeled

Eyelashes: Yes, hand-applied

Quickswitch: No

Included:

• 12.5-inch fully articulated doll with rooted hair and hand-applied eyelashes;

• Elyse wears a miniaturized reproduction of a Jason Wu original creation, featuring intricately engineered details at the bustier and overlapping skirt panels on the front of the dress;

• Faux-snakeskin spectator heels;

• Clutch purse;

• Sparkling "jeweled" pendant earrings;

• Matching luxuriously "jeweled" bracelet;

• Two pairs of hands;

• Doll stand;

• Certificate of authenticity.

Final fabrics, colors and textures may vary slightly. For adult collectors ages 15 and up only.

Offer Type: IT Direct right-to-buy lottery.

Participation Deadline: January 6th, 2020, Noon Eastern time.

Pricing: $225.00 + S&H each.

Final Edition Size: 450

Shipping Timing: Early January 2020.

Shipping Timing: Early January 2020 (should ship shortly after winners have paid).

Availability: 2019 W Club members only.

Right-to-buy Participation Limit: Max. one (1) lottery ticket per 2019 membership only.

All photos and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2019 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission. Fashion Royalty, Elyse Jolie and all other character marks followed by ™ or ® are trademarks of Integrity Toys, Inc. Chesapeake City MD USA 21915. All rights reserved. Jason Wu Collection is a trademark of JWU LLC. ©2019 All rights reserved. The W Club is a trademark of Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC. All rights reserved. Doll Photography by Jayme Thornton. Layouts and graphics by Alain Tremblay, Marketing.

A W Club exclusive or a 2019 convention leftover?

A few days ago, WClub members received an email offering them the chance to participate in a lottery for a surprise doll: a Jason Wu Elyse. It is a recreation of a Fall 2017 Jason Wu outfit, which you can see further below. The small edition and the designer outfit definitely makes the doll wanted by collectors. There are some issues though, on which I will further elaborate.

Item # 10237

JWU Fall 2017

Elyse Jolie™ Dressed Doll

Jason Wu Collection

Edition Size: 450

Head Sculpt: Elyse

Body Type: FR

Foot Sculpt: High Heel

Skin Tone: FR White

Hair Color: Blonde

Eyelashes: Yes

Quickswitch: No

Included:

• 12" fully articulated figure with rooted hair;

• Intricately designed miniature Jason Wu gown inspired by a real-life design first shown in his Fall 2017 collection, featuring delicately applied, multi-colored, Swarovski crystals;

• "Patent leather" high-heel mules;

• Intricately detailed "gold" earrings;

• Alternate paid of hands;

• Doll stand;

• Certificate of authenticity.

Final fabrics, colors and textures may vary slightly. For adult collectors ages 15 and up only.

Offer Type: Right-to-buy lottery.

Participation Deadline: Nov 7th, 2019, Noon Eastern time.

Pricing (FOR W CLUB MEMBERS ONLY): $225.00 + S&H each.

Final Edition Size: 450 dolls.

Shipping Timing: In-stock, should ship shortly after winners have paid.

Availability: 2019 W Club members only.

Right-to-buy Participation Limit: Max. one (1) lottery ticket per 2019 membership only.

In a year where production issues have plagued the company and the release of all their main doll collections, which forced the company to focus on delivering most of their product at the convention, a surprise doll offering and of such high caliber, means probably that the doll was destined for the convention. The edition number surely is that of a regular souvenir doll or a centerpiece. A wild guess (and all this is guessing only), is that she was designed and made as the souvenir doll for 2019 convention, but as the brouhaha with the added participants unfolded, they realised that they could not make more of the same to satisfy demand, so they switched to the Spring 2017 Elyse (a 700 edition). Similarly, she could have been the centerpiece to match the souvenir doll (Spring and Fall 2017 dolls), instead of the offered Vanessa one (a 550 edition). Again, this is only speculation.

What bothers me about this doll a lot is the quality of the dress recreation. No matter the Swarovski crystals or the beautifully rendered doll, the dress looks a mess. Stiff, with crude embellishments, it looks nothing like the dress it is supposed to be. And if it was so hard to recreate the original in doll form, like so many others have been done exquisitely in the past, just pick another one. For the asking price alone, this should have been resolved before manufacturing it.

All photos and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2019 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission. FASHION ROYALTY and all other character marks followed by ™ or ® are trademarks of Integrity Toys, Inc. Chesapeake City MD USA 21915. All rights reserved. The W Club is a trademark of Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC. All rights reserved. Doll Photography by Jayme Thornton. Layouts and graphics by Alain Tremblay, Marketing.

Integrity Toys 2019 Convention Day 3 - Jason Wu Gala and convention doll

The last evening of the Live From The Fashion Week convention was dedicated to the Jason Wu Gala. Guests entered the ballroom and saw the evening's centerpiece doll, Ethereal Beauty Vanessa Perrin, adorning the tables. Jason Wu himself was attending, as the convention doll would be designed by him. The winners of the convention design competition were also announced:

Diorama Design Competition:

People's Choice: Lani Billitti

Judge's Choice: Kelly Rinaldi

Doll Design Challenge:

People's Choice: Sinuhe Guzman

Judge's Choice: Osvaldo Vasquez (aka "Ovaz")

The winners of the OOAK dolls designed by the IT team just for the raffle room were picked and the host city of next year's convention was unveiled: the 2020 event will be held at Dallas, Texas, celebrating 25 years of Integrity Toys.

Special guest Jason Wu joined the hosts on stage to unveil the convention doll, the Elyse Jolie doll which he designed himself.

Note: All dolls pictured in these photos are prototypes; final colors and textures may vary slightly.

Item # 91471

Ethereal Beauty

Vanessa Perrin™ Centerpiece

The 2019 Integrity Toys Convention:

Live From Fashion Week

Edition Size: 550 dolls

Head Sculpt: Vanessa 1.0

Body Type: FR

Foot Sculpt: High Heel

Skin Tone: Japan

Hair Color: Platinum Blonde

Eyelashes: Yes

Quickswitch: No

The original Vanessa sculpt makes an appearance as a centerpiece, wearing the same dress as Le Flor Natalia, in another colour. Dear IT designers, it kind of defeats the purpose of having the one of a kind doll’s wearing the same clothes as other dolls, no? The doll is beautiful, even though the orange tones in her make up are a bit off putting. She’s like a mix of Night Warrior and In Bloom Vanessas.

Item # 10239

Spring 2017

Elyse Jolie™ Convention Doll

The 2019 Integrity Toys Convention:

Live From Fashion Week

Jason Wu Collection

Edition Size: 700 dolls

Head Sculpt: Elyse

Body Type: FR

Foot Sculpt: High Heel

Skin Tone: Hungarian 

Hair Color: Brown

Eyelashes: Yes

Quickswitch: No

I’m not in awe of this year’s convention doll. I can pick at least ten Jason Wu gowns that look better than this in miniature size. The original effect of appliqué flowers does not translate well in this scale. Her make up is impressive but limits her redress options. The hairstyle is simply boring. You can see the original outfit from the Spring 2017 Jason Wu Collection runway further below.

Photo: Yannis Vlamos/Indigital.tv for Vogue Runway

All photos and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2019 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission. FASHION ROYALTY, POPPY PARKER, NU. FACE, EAST 59TH, THE INDUSTRY, THE MONARCHS HOMME and all other character marks followed by ™ or ® are trademarks of Integrity Toys, Inc. Chesapeake City MD USA 21915. All rights reserved. The W Club is a trademark of Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.

Layouts and graphics by Alain Tremblay, Marketing.

Six young fashion designers dress Barbie for her 60th anniversary- British Vogue in collaboration with Mattel

Celebrating  Barbie’s 60th anniversary, British Vogue invited six leading young designers to dress the icon in their signature style. Here are the photographs of the designers and their models, read the full story here.

Matty Bovan

A wealth of artisanal techniques have been incorporated into the costume for his intricately constructed Barbie: hand-padded and sewn into her dress with golden Japanese yarn, she is the miniature embodiment of his magpie eclecticism. “It’s kind of like Barbie couture,” Bovan reflects. “I wanted her to have the same energy that my runway clothes have... She’s epic.”

Mowalola

Her Barbie is dressed in a miniature evolution of Mowalola’s spring/summer 2020 collection, with backcombed hair by Virginie P Moreira and make-up created by Daniel Sallstrom (using a miniature paintbrush), “she is a Mowalola superhero,” Ogunlesi grins. “She’s strong and captivating and ready to have a really good time. I want to be wherever she’s going.”

Richard Malone

“Barbie is a businesswoman – and a lot of the women I work with are too, but they don’t dress like men in suits; fashion is a part of their identity. I wanted to show that Barbie could wear a runway look but still live her everyday life and remain the boss that she truly is.”

Art School

Eden Loweth & Tom Barratt’s “non-binary Barbie” offers a perfect example of their take on figure-skimming glamour. “Art School is about making clothes that are really tolerant, that will stand with someone throughout their life, and as they evolve as in their own identity.”

Charles Jeffrey Loverboy

His Barbie (“Let’s call her ‘Wee Hen’,” he decrees in a Glaswegian drawl) exemplifies that spirit: dressed in a replica of the closing look from his spring/summer 2018 collection, which drew upon the history of cross-dressing through the ages, she is, in his words, “wearing the most fabulous piece ever.” “It took a whole week – but just looks like the actual dress!” he exclaims. “I’m really proud of her.”

Supriya Lele

Growing up besotted by Barbie (“I was an only child, so I had about 40”), Lele’s first venture into design was creating custom wardrobes for her – now things have come full circle, as she precisely scaled the measurements of one of her autumn/winter 2019 looks to suit Barbie’s size. In fact, so perfectly is her neon outfit reconfigured that even the pockets are fully operational. “I felt like a child again,” she grins. “But now I have an incredible pattern-cutter to help.”

Photography Credits:
Photographer: Stas Komarovski. Stylist: Poppy Kain. Art Direction: Dom Kelly. Hair: Yumi Nakada-Dingle. Make-Up: Thomasin Waite. Nails: Lauren Michelle Pires. Set Design:Andrew Clarkson. Production: Verity Cousins.

Photos and text courtesy of British Vogue and Mattel.

Anna Sui Japan does Barbie as part of her Swinging Tokyo Collection!

Anna Sui, the well known US fashion designer, has launched a new project called "SWINGING TOKYO". Taking inspiration from the 1960s London street culture "Swinging London", which is the origin of her creation, she proposes a fashion that can be enjoyed freely and urbanely for the next generation of Tokyo. In this project, she initiated a collaboration with various other creatives. From May 1st, 2019 (Wednesday), sales begin at Isetan Shinjuku and the official online shop (Japan).

One of the project’s collections is a collaboration with Barbie. There are four types of dolls combined with an outfit designed by Anna Sui and an original mug, comprising a set of Barbie Doll and Anna Sui collection-ware that will be cherished by all ages. The combination of the catchy and girly world of both brands is a must-see for fans. Each set is sold for ¥21,600 (about US$194.00). There are some T-shirts too. The title below and all information are translated from the Japanese site.

Barbie and Girlish Chemical Reaction Collection 

According to the Japanese website, special items created from the "SWINGING TOKYO" project will start being sold sequentially at the Isetan Shinjuku Store and Anna Sui Official Online Shop from Wednesday, May 1st, 2019. I could not find any Barbie items online yet. The price is expensive for the doll quality: it is just a $5.00 play line doll repackaged in a Sui branded box. You do get an Anna Sui dress with her plus the mug but $190.00 for these is just too much. Remember that a Barbie collector designer doll is usually $100-150. And they are very limited. I wouldn’t pay even half the price for those sets, knowing of probably discard the doll. My favourite is the black dress with the bow. And for that price, they could have given each set a differently coloured mug, no?

© All photos 2019 Mattel. All Rights Reserved.