The Chemist is fashionably late... on time for the Greek Revolution's 200th anniversary

If you are on the Superdoll mailing list, you got an email a few days ago that a new doll was arriving on the 25th of March - and here she is! Chemist is a gorgeous Venus resin doll, dressed in a fantastic outfit that, combined iwth the banner she was photographed with, reminded me of heroines of the Greek Revolution of 1821 that gave Greece its independence from the Ottoman Empire. The crazy coincedence is that she is released on the very day the Greek Revolution celebrates its 200th anniversary. Love it. Below are the photos and description from the online Superdoll shop - she is still in stock while I’m writing this.

CHEMIST DD_0172

* PLEASE BE AWARE THAT SHIPPING MAY TAKE LONGER THAN OUR USUAL SPEEDY DELIVERIES. LONDON IS IN LOCKDOWN. OUR APPOLOGIES IN ADVANCE.

CHEMIST is Fashionably late... It's not unusual, but maybe this time she is pushing it a little. Our apologies in advance.

GEN:VII body!

CLONE:VENUS

RESIN: Ginza

CONQUERER is a great description of this girls attitude

Gorgeous blunt curved fringe and below waist length dead straight wig. Classic edge; bearing white double bow detail beside her face. Sky blue eyes surround in shades of red and dark violet with shaded purple under eye, fine black eyeliner, dusted lids and etched charcoal double wing eyeliner to top. Lips of illuminated red.

Extraordinary billowed gown of white corseted bodice and croissant hip patisseries,' CAPTURED BY ATTRACTION' then 'FALLING WITH LOVE' to the ground in a volumous statement. Front bodice is adorned in bias cut red satin bandeau in a 'cross my heart I LOVE YOU' symbolic gesture while bleeding tears are wiped onto her reverse satin skirt... the 'PAIN OF LOVE' veiled by triple layer superfine tulle 'PETALS OF JOY'. A bright red and gold bolero goes atop this gown as a sign of 'ENDLESS DEVOTION'..... trimmed in laser cut foil and loopity loop lurex trim. I could just go on and on, but in reality; this girl stands proud with her sheer tussle trimmed flag proclaiming: LOVE WINS ALL!'

Built in petticoat and hip pads, dew drop crystal earrings, gilt bow stiletto courts and Suspender set underwear complete this Historic tale of HEARTACHE and VALOUR.

Includes doll stand and applied eyelashes.

PROTOTYPE shown .

PLEASE ALLOW 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS FOR DELIVERY

PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO RESTRICTIONS SUPERDOLL ONLY SHIPS ONE DAY PER WEEK.

Price: £397.47 (Excluding VAT at 20%)

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! 

Hand me the Envelope please - the latest Sybarite is sold out!

This Valentine’s Superdoll London doll is the beautiful Envelope, a brilliant take on a geisha, in her white kimono, towering hair and intricate details. She’s already sold out I’m afraid, but you can enjoy her in the photos from Superdoll below, as well as the site description.​

​ENVELOPE DD-0156

Anyone here for the opening of Envelope?

VENUS strolled through a sea of paper cranes singing to herself: "its a nice day for a white wedding....".
Her gorgeous oriental styled hair is just a hairs breadth short of a statuesque ikebana. Platinum, but in hair terms its almost white, white. Above the shoulders blunt bob, pulled up into a top bun and side bunches; with long paper like sideburns and a blunt slightly curved fringe..
Her gold and teal eyes are rimmed in salmon, rose and soot and her lips of pomelo glossed and glossed again.
Other than her utter delight at the origami cranes, she is delighted by her dragon and peonies brocade 2 part kimono. A whole lot contemporary and a whole lot traditional... just a vision of genius from her favourite designers.
Tucked into her obi, are velvelette laser cut starfish held in place by her gold and purple obi. Her choice of jewellery is a 'silver' bug adorning her obi and finished with a white corded obijime. Ceremoniously she wears a red silk tasselled waist sash.
upon her feet she wears Sock style 2 tooth Geta.
She looked up and smiled at the jucstaposing cranes which reminded her or her organza backpack which indeed is her kimono overcoat.
Venus smiled over her Japanese paper umbrella as the world went by and though....
Happy Birthday to ME!

Clone: 1000 Venus d'Royce
Skintone: COSMETIQUE
Of course she comes with the following standard accessories:
-manic_cure hands (see booklet for hand change instructions)
-booklet
-stand
Production shown .

OUT OF STOCK

Price: £289.95 (Excluding VAT at 20%)

Sybarite Atelier Extreme Edition Couture outfits

What better way to celebrate Paris Couture week than a bunch of extra limited Atelier Extreme Edition Couture outfits by Superfrock? Most of them - if not all - are already sold out! The site mentions that photograph colours are 99.9 percent true to actual colour and to please bear in mind your monitor may be set differently. Also it stresses that photographs are  actual descriptions, as there are no description texts on site. Items are sold with no cancellation or refund accepted. All pieces are ready to ship. Dolls are not included. This sale is for gowns only. 

BLUE RAJA

In stock and ready to be delivered (at time of writing the post)

Price: £480.00 (Excluding VAT at 20%)

The only big gown of the line up, it looks majestic, like something the Queen Of The Night would wear in the Mozart opera The Magic Flute. The turban gives me a New Orleans vibe. I wonder what the shoes look like.

CRYSTAL CRUNCH

 OUT OF STOCK

Price: £300.00 (Excluding VAT at 20%)

Beautiful shorter two-layer dress with 50s vibes. Lots of embroidery on top of the flower pattern. The absence of colour helps in keeping it from going into kitcsh overdrive.

GILT MILK

​OUT OF STOCK

Price: £600.00(Excluding VAT at 20%)

What a Couture day outfit looks like, this is my favourite from the collection. Gorgeous suit, great accessories and perfect styling. 

GOLDEN IRIS

​In stock and ready to be delivered (in time of writing the article)

Price: £440.00 (Excluding VAT at 20%)

Metallic trench coats appear regularly in most fashion doll collections, regardless of era or size. This one comes over a sheer embroidered form fitting dress that makes it really stand out. 

LORHI

 OUT OF STOCK

Price: £400.00(Excluding VAT at 20%)

Another sheer embroidered dress, this time in mermaid shape and fiery red colour. The capelet looks a bit odd combined with it, like it was an afterthought.