London Fashion Doll Festival 2019 - day II: the salesroom

The second day of the London Fashion Doll Festival was dedicated to sales. Sellers had booked tables in advance and were in the Summerly Room early Sunday morning to prepare for the day. When I arrived, a little bit after ten, the place was buzzing with excitement. As it was a day open to the public (with tickets), the room was full of people walking among the tables, checking out the dolls and stuff on offer and making their purchases.

The raffle sale was also on for the draw at the end of the day, benefiting the Children With Cancer UK charity. I got myself an iced coffee and mingled in with the crowd, talking to old and new friends, checking out the lovely dolls on sale and enjoying the atmosphere.

Navdeep Sikand was there with Mark and of course, Anouk, La Poupée Mannequin! You can see some of his dolls on sale below, they are gorgeous.

Probably the smallest fashion dolls on sale in LFDF 2019 were the Irena Barto dolls. Her latest collection of 9” resin dolls, The First Spring, were on display along with some more of her work.

I was so happy to finally meet the talented Julian Stanislaw Kalinowski in real life and see his amazing ladies up close!

I spotted a Twiggy doll from the 60s!

Another creator with exquisite resin dolls on sale was the talented Alessandra Nicolin from Italy. Her dolls are so beautiful!

The day ended with the raffle of the donated dolls and outfits to benefit the Children With Cancer UK charity - resulting in many happy people going away with awesome wins and the charity receiving £3.420 total along with the OOAK auction on ebay.

We had the chance to find out the theme of next year’s festival, and see the trailer above - it’s Royals! See you in London Fashion Doll Festival 2020!

The London Fashion Doll Festival 2019 was amazing - and I was there to experience it!

My second ever fashion doll convention, the London Fashion Doll Festival 2019, was held on the weekend of 8-9 June in London, at the lovely V&A Museum Of Childhood in Bethnal Green, London. I had promised the organisers that I’d join them in this second time of the convention being held, so there I was! The event took place over two days in the Summerly Room Of The museum, plus an adjoining smaller room for the workshop. 

The V&A Museum of Childhood in London

The Summerly Room

A banner at the convention area

Everyone registered upon entry, with an easy scan of our ticket. We were given our goody bags according to our registration level (with or without the exclusive Superdoll convention doll). As I found out, the bag had loads of lovely gifts!  Check them out below.

The tables were set for eight persons and mine was named Carnaby Girl. I had the honour of being in the same table with Desmond Lingard (from Superdoll), Izzy Parker with her husband Ian, Christina Paul (who runs the Doll Club Of Great Britain website) and of course, from the organisers, Simon Farnworth, his husband Carl and Kim London. What an amazing company to be with! The tables had a folder with two lovely sketches inside by Navdeep Sikand, creator of the lovely Anouk dolls...

...who also offered ten of them for centerpieces on each table! They were raffled off to the attendees near the end of the day, Izzy won ours. The dress and bags are made by Ineke Hintz. The gorgeous base was given along with the doll. If enough requests are made, LFDF will be able to have some for sale. 

Our centerpiece doll! There were blonde and raven versions of the doll.

Everyone else at the table got a small gift as well - i won the miniature chess you see below in the round box. I was lucky enough to receive some lovely gifts from my table mates too - Kim gave me the tea set (donated by her), Carl the amazing jewellery set (by Alla Dolgaleva Rapoport), Sofia the miniature Barbies and the wonderful Thomas Bartholomew Maffei, who came all the way from the USA, gave me the Sparkle Girl outfits!

Izzy had a gorgeous doll with her, the fantastic Glory resin Sybarite from the Los Angeles Convention earlier this year (above) , while Desmond had with him the 12” House Of Zenith Avenue, introduced earlier this year. She’s not wearing her original fashion and looked better IRL than in photos I had seen (below).

Soon enough, it was time for the workshops to begin. I had registered for both, so my schedule was full! First one was the Face Up workshop by Claudio Coronado, who was introduced by Simon Farnworth. 

Claudio was very thorough in showing us the steps in how to begin painting a doll’s face. A slideshow helped him show the detailed work he does. 

We got a great list of all the steps to follow when painting a doll face and helped us understand it is no easy task. Which is why you see the “before” photo of the doll head I had to paint, but not the “after”! 

The artist at work. This magnifying glass type is perfect for detailed work, I must get one.

After the end of the workshop, I had the chance to photograph the dolls on display. The Carnaby themed set up was beautiful.

The items that were going to be raffled off the next day, to support a great cause, the Children With Cancer UK charity, we’re also on display. See the slideshow below. I should also mention that there is an ebay auction with exclusive OOAK creations (dolls or outfits) for LFDF 2019, to benefit the same charity, that ends on the 22nd of June 2019, so go to this link to check the offerings and bid!

If you love Sybarites, you know Desmond is an incredibly talented photographer as well. Some of his magnificent prints were on display and for sale.

There was a small exhibition of 60s dolls as well, check them out below in the slideshow.

Emperis Dolls had a beautiful display as well and I got to meet the lovely Marcus and William who make them. They had both their new 12” dolls and their 16” ones on display and for sale. Some amazing OOAK dolls were there too, check out Cher in the slideshow below. The guys told me they almost sold out during the day.

Then it was time for the second workshop of the day: Sofia Kalaitzidi from Microsonik London showed us how to make a flower wig. These were very popular during the 60s in editorials and covers of fashion magazines. Elizabeth Taylor and members of the British Royal family were sporting them often in events.

Here are the materials Sofia gave us for the wig plus a prepared base for us to work on.

I managed to go as far as you can see below during the workshop (I’m hopeless with a needle). Some just threaded the larger flowers through the base as they had long wire stems, so no sewing needed, but I wanted a more delicate effect. Will try and finish it home!

And here I am next to the lovely Francesco from Fred-Dolls at the workshop - we had so much fun!

After the workshop ended, it was time for afternoon tea! A proper British tea, with everything necessary - tea, scones, clotted cream, jam, milk, sandwiches, sugar, macaroons and other treats! It was delectable.

During tea time, members of the organising team (l to r: dear Ismail, Simon and Claudio) presented the people dressed in sixties or sixties inspired clothes.

The t-shirts worn by the organisers ate the official convention shirt and all attendees got one!

there were eight of them, all lovely and dapper in mod outfits…

…and the winner was Olga, who was the most popular - people voted for their favourite contestant by giving them their raffle ticket!

Near the end of the day, it was time for the most anticipated reveal: Desmond unveiled the exclusive convention Sybarite doll!

Her name is Dejah and she is the last Generation X Sybarite doll to be released! The edition is 30 dolls and there are two more available at the LFDF site - hurry up!

You can see my doll below, as I opened the box right after the presentation. The last photo is the official one from Superdoll. She’s like a Motown singer from a girl group the 60s or a Northern Soul singer on a tour in Britain in the late 60s..

And here I am with dear Desmond - this one is for you Shazam Paname! Charles was in China, supervising doll production in the factory.

This was the first day of the London Fashion Doll Festival, full of wonderful people sharing our doll passion, making beautiful memories and seeing so many gorgeous dolls. Next up, the Salesroom day.

The 2nd London Fashion Doll Festival is being held this weekend at the V&A Museum Of Childhood!

The second edition of the London Fashion Doll Festival will be taking place this coming weekend at the Victoria & Albert Museum Of Childhood, in Bethnal Green, London. After the success of last year’s first edition, the organisers are making this one even better and enriched with lots of activities. And guess what? I’m attending this year! So those of you not being able to attend will get to see lots of photos and read all the juicy stuff after I return.

This year, the theme is Carnaby: the Swinging London fashion era, with Twiggy, Mary Quant, Jean Shrimpton, Carnaby Street fashions, mods  and so much more as inspiration! You can see the program for the two-day event below. Access on Saturday is only for registered attendees, while the Sunday salesroom can be accessed by the public via tickets bought either online or on site. 

As you can see in the program, there are two workshops, one for making a flower wig and a second for doll face enhancement, which is already sold out. 

Just like last year, the incredible Superdoll Collectables London people are making an event exclusive doll, a LE of 30, which will be revealed at the event. It will probably be one of the last vinyl Sybarites. I have already reserved mine and can’t wait to see her!

The salesroom is full of amazing dolls and doll stuff:

There are some competitions and even non-attendees can join! Take a look here: 

The V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, London is once again serving as the venue for the second convention.  The MOC is the UK’s National Museum of Childhood. It is the largest institution of its kind in the world. Its mission is to hold in trust the nation’s childhood collections and to be an international leader in engaging audiences in the material culture and experiences of childhood.

This year LFDF decided to support the Children With Cancer UK charity. They are doing this via an eBay OOAK doll auction and a raffle which will take place during the Sunday Salesroom. Last year LFDF raised almost £14,000 for the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital Charity.

See you in London! 

London Fashion Doll Festival takes place this Saturday! Are you ready?

I know Simon Farnworth for many years, first online through doll groups and social media, and of course his incredible doll portal Doll Observers. We finally met for real last month at IDC in Milan. And now he's presiding over the London Fashion Doll Festival, which will be held this Saturday, 30th of June at the V&A Museum of Childhood.

The LFDF 2018 is organised by members of the London Fashion Doll Club, a not for profit organisation. A group of like-minded collectors who came together with the dream of organising an inclusive event for Fashion Doll Collectors. The event is not directly affiliated or sponsored by any doll brands or companies, including Mattel. Money raised from the raffle on the day will be donated to the V&A Museum of Childhood and proceeds from their Charity Doll Auctions will be donated to the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital Charity.

The event is titled WONDERLAND and the organisers have also managed, in association with Superdoll Collectables, to secure a very special Sybarite Doll Upgrade Package for attendees to purchase. I think this is a doll anxiously awaited by all, attendees or not.

The Summerly Rooms at the V&A Museum of Childhood will be home to the event with salesroom, exhibition, talks and more. Special OOAK Alice In Wonderland themed centrepiece dolls were specially designed for the event. Attendees will have the chance to win one for themselves. An Exclusive Fashion by Microsonik London will also be handed out along with a goodie bag.

There will also be time for a spot of Afternoon Tea, following the general theme. A special breakout event for the unveiling of the exclusive Superdoll Collectables Sybarite event doll will also take place for the upgrade conventioneers. Charles Fegen from Superdoll will also treat attendees to a talk about the history of the Sybarite dolls. Other dolls brands exhibiting at the event include Andymy Designs, RDG dolls, Emperis, Janka Creator, Anouk, and Free Fantasy Dolls. 

Registration for the event was £70 which includes entry, refreshments, goodie bag and more. The Superdoll Upgrade Package, which includes the regular registration price, Sybarite doll and VAT was priced at £448. Cannot wait to see the dolls and photos from the event. Hopefully next year, I might be able to attend myself!