IFDC 2019 - Fabulous 40’s Felines doll’s unveiled!

The 2019 IFDC convention was held again in Las Vegas, organised by the amazing Jim Faraone. The theme this year was "Fabulous 40's Felines" and the event took place in the Orleans Hotel. Integrity Toys provided the convention dolls again, plus they offered an extra doll in the salesroom. This year, IT designer Vaughn Sawyers created a trio of 1940's inspired dolls just for the event, which were unveiled during dinner on Saturday. It has been a while since Vaughn did a retro inspired collection. If I’m not mistaken, his last one was the Fashion Royalty Classic collection back in 2013. And this year’s dolls have lots of similar elements to their 2013 sisters. All dolls, including the extra one, will be available through lottery to W Club members.

But let’s get the proverbial cat out of the bag first. When the salesroom opened on Friday, people discovered that there was an extra Integrity Toys doll on sale: a make-up and violet hair colour variation of "Beyond This Planet" Violaine Perrin, part of the NU. FACE Counter Culture collection designed by Jessy Ayala.

Item #82100A

Beyond This Planet (Violet Variation)

Violaine Perrin™ Doll

NU. Face™: The Counter-Culture Collection

Ship Date: In-stock, will ship when lottery winners pay for their wins.

Special W Club Price: $140.00 US

Available Via Right-To-Buy Lottery

Edition Size: 800

Head Sculpt: Violaine

Body Type: NU. Face 3.0

Foot Type: High-heeled

Skin Tone: FR White

Hair Color: Violet

Eyelashes: Yes, Hand-applied

Quickswitch: No

Included:

• 12.5-inch fully articulated doll with fully rooted hair and hand-applied eyelashes;
• Convertible cargo cropped denim pants;
• Long sleeve top with drape/hood detail;
• Iridescent scarab-colored paillette jacket;
• Short metallic socks;
• Royal blue faux-leather boots with light "gold" pierced detail,
• Neon yellow "patent leather" purse with strap/harness detail;
• Multiple bracelets and rings;
• Neon yellow/aqua faux-leather choker with "gold" hardware;
• Light "gold" star/moon earrings;
• 2 tiny hoop earrings on top of right ear;
• Nose ring, light "gold" hoop (removable);
• Doll stand;
• Certificate of authenticity.

When you attend a convention with a theme, you usually expect all dolls officially on sale there to be inspired by it, even with a wide margin, when they are extra. So it was quite jarring to see the very opposite of a 40s glamour gal on sale by IT Direct. Even more so seeing a colour variation of a doll from last year’s NuFace collection, one that had cause quite a fuss with the problematic rooting of her hair. Were there extra Violaine dolls made and the company found a way to sell them? The sheer size of the edition is quite big for a convention-offered doll (800), quite close to the original one (850). People that shied away from the previous version due to her dark lips are surely going to try for this one (I suspect a lot of dolls will be available to the club lottery), even though the fantasy coloured hair might still be an issue. If the outfit was in different colours too, the doll would make a bit more sense, the irrelevance to the convention theme notwithstanding. Now she just smacks of opportunism - and don’t throw stories about fun variations at my face. Companies that sell product want to profit and take advantage of every opportunity to minimise loss, which is perfectly fine. Sugarcoating it makes it feel insincere though. And to make matters worse, look how much more interesting Jessy made her, by putting her in another outfit by Kyle (inthevalleyofthedolls)

Item #75026

Glamour Puss

2019 IFDC IT Direct Exclusive Doll

Approx. Ship Date: In-stock, ships once the lottery winners have paid

Retail: $160.00 + Shipping

Edition Size: 500

Head Sculpt: Alternate Monogram Sculpt

Body Type: E59

Foot Sculpt: High heel foot

Skin Tone: FR White

Hair Color: Black Velvet

Eyelashes: Yes, hand-applied

Quickswitch: No

Included:

12" fully articulated doll with fully rooted hair and hand-applied eyelashes

Two-piece fitted suit, with contrasting, perfectly pleated draping detail on the front;

Faux-fur stole;

1940's period inspired faux-leather handbag;

Perfectly matched faux-leather pumps;

"Pearl" choker necklace and matching earrings;

Intricately designed hat with tulle veil attached;

Alternate pair of hands;

Doll stand.

​The three dolls by Vaughn are all beautiful and a perfect fit to the convention theme. They remind me a lot of his Classic FR collection, as I mentioned earlier, and this is a very good thing, as that one was gorgeous too. Using Monogram sculpts with East 59 body (the line everyone thought would be presented here) is a brilliant idea. The doll has a sultry, sexy style and the suit is right out of a 40’s Hollywood film. The shape, cut and execution of the suit are breathtaking. If I could afford it, I’d enter the lottery for this one too, but the high prices (and getting even higher, as you’ll see below) prevent me from doing so. The bag and shoes are very similar to the 2013 Splendid Jordan and share their colour. 

Item #75025

Dish

2019 IFDC Centerpiece Doll

Approx. Ship Date: In-stock, ships once the lottery winners have paid

Retail: $165.00 + Shipping

Edition Size: 400

Head Sculpt: Alternate Monogram Sculpt

Body Type: E59

Foot Sculpt: High-heeled

Skin Tone: Cream

Hair Color: Copper Penny

Eyelashes: Yes, hand-applied

Quickswitch: No

Included:

• 12" fully articulated doll with fully rooted hair and hand-applied eyelashes
• Intricately designed lingerie set;
• Floor length, black chiffon robe;
• Colorful enameled jewelry set, composed of a choker, earrings and matching cuff bracelet;
• Black "leather" open-toe pumps;
• Alternate pair of hands;
• Doll stand.

Considering the convention theme, one of the dolls at least would certainly have been a lingerie one, and the centerpiece fills this part brilliantly. Dish is delicious (pun intended) and the combination of the transparent robe with the lace undies, red hair in a classic 40’s style and lush lips makes her irresistible. They should have included a miniature retro telephone with her. The +$10 price from the previous one is probably due to the more limited edition, but the difference is only 100 dolls. It’s a lingerie doll, she would be the cheaper one, she even has less accessories than the rest.

Grandstanding

2019 IFDC Convention Doll

Approx. Ship Date: In-stock, ships once the lottery winners have paid

Retail: $175.00 + Shipping

Edition Size: 500

Head Sculpt: Original Monogram Sculpt

Body Type: E59

Foot Sculpt: High-heeled

Skin Tone: Japan

Hair Color: Hollywood Platinum

Eyelashes: Yes, hand-applied

Quickswitch: No

Included:

• 12" fully articulated doll with fully rooted hair and hand-applied eyelashes
• Long hot pink satin gown with bow and pleat details on the back, featuring contrasting lace cups at the bust;
• Long, luxurious, faux-fur cape;
• "Stone" encrusted "golden" necklace;
• Matching earrings and ring;
• Elaborate gold and iridescent pink open-toed pumps;
• Alternate pair of hands;
• Doll stand.

This is the best doll of the convention. Elaborate gown, incredible hair and face, magnificent jewellery and shoes. I’m not crazy about the fur, it does not look great in the photos, but she can live without that. I love the nails too. She looks a lot like a very good and dear friend of mine, so I’m entering to get her. Va va She also gives me vibes of Carmen Dell’ Orefice, the famous fashion model. Well done Vaughn, fantastic trio of beauties. 

The dolls pictured are prototypes. Final fabrics, colors and textures may vary slightly. For adult collectors ages 15 and up 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. FR: Monogram 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.

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! 

Integrity Toys Luxe Life 2018 Convention - final gala and convention doll reveal

Sorry for posting this so late after the convention but I was away on business and did not have time to write. Better late than never though!

As most people know, Saturday night is the time of the final gala and the reveal of the much anticipated convention doll. The centerpiece doll was the one that first greeted the attendees though, as they entered the ballroom: Agnes Von Weiss!

Item # 91453

Affluent Demeanor

Baroness Agnes Von Weiss™ Centerpiece Doll

The 2018 Integrity Toys Convention: Luxe Life

Gala Dinner Event Centerpiece

Edition Size: 450 Dolls

​Hmmm. Not bad but no comparison to last year’s Agnes centerpiece. And her dress reminds me of an old Barbie release as well as a bubble dress of the same burgundy colour I own. Simple black shoes with ribbon ties, minimal jewellery, no bag... not that luxe for me. Slapping a crown on an outfit does not mean it automatically becomes luxu. Ask Dolce & Gabbana, they have been doing it for ages. And we saw the purple highlights in last year’s convention dolls. 

The winners of the convention design competition were also announced. The Diorama Design Competition had only had one participant, so it was the sole winner for both People's Choice and Judge's Choice: Lani Billitti. In the Doll Design Challenge, the People's Choice was the talented and very creative friend Mario Paglino, while the Judge's Choice was the talented and very creative friend Sinuhe Guzman, who later told me he first saw Fashion Royalty dolls in my blog. It made me so happy that those two guys won, they are worthy winners.

People’s Choice winner doll by Mario Paglino, photo by Mario Paglino.

Judge’s choice doll by Sinuhe Guzman. Photo by Patricio Lecuona. 

Then the winners of the OOAK dolls designed by the Integrity Toys design team just for the raffle room were picked and the host city of next year's convention was unveiled- Baltimore, Maryland. The theme will be “Live from Fashion Week” and it will take place from 10-12th October 2019.

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

Item # 91454

Inspired Grandeur

Elyse Jolie™ Convention Doll

The 2018 Integrity Toys Convention: Luxe Life

Edition Size: 600 dolls

A bit disappointed with the convention doll. Too much colour on face and hair, too little on the outfit. She’s a hodgepodge of previous Elyse doll’s with the make up of Spring Forward Eugenia. The design competition dolls look much better than this.

Note: All dolls pictured in these photos are prototypes; final colors and textures may vary slightly. All photos, unless otherwise noted, and information contained herein is copyrighted Integrity Toys, Inc. and Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC 2018 and may not be reprinted or disseminated without express written permission. The W Club is a trademark of Intercap Merchant Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.Layouts and graphics by Alain Tremblay, Marketing.