I have yet to actually get a BJD, so I have been working on an old Barbie, but I would love to do a face up. I want to create a doll that looks like my mom when she was younger. I’ll try to find an old picture of her to show you what I mean. She really looked like a doll.

The Red Fairy is a documentary on YouTube about making OOAK (one of a kind) Barbies. It’s really well done and about 6 minutes long.

I still have to do the face on the Barbie I’m currently working on, but I’m waiting until I can get some good paints. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with her. I don’t really want to do something super fantasy oriented, like fairies.

When I last had the camera (and USB connector) working, I took some pictures of a Barbie top I knitted. It was actually my first knitting finished project, so I like it. Anyway, I’ll post some doll pictures here.

This is my doll shelf. The one on the right is wearing my knitted tunic. The one next to her is the one still waiting on a face. I promise I’ll put her face back on soon.

My latest crochet dolls are here. I didn’t use a pattern for any of them; I was just playing around.

Cheese-ola, I know. couldn’t resist. So remember I found this fantastic fabric at Joann’s. I had something envisioned but didn’t know if I could pull it off. It took me days of pondering and drawing it out and this is what I came up with.

This big sis is my favorite doll by far! I LOVED Hello Kitty as a child and can still very much appreciate it. AND I especially love that my daughter loves her too! Her hat is completely removable! yikes! I am in love with her!!! Will I be able to let her go? and just to show you how messed up my picture taking skills are…but I still wanted to show you her “complete” look so you can appreciate her with me

I wanted “natural” light and extreme sunlight is what I got! Can you see the beams of ray. ugh. too late to retake pictures. need to move on…

Can’t wait to show you what lil sis and I worked on today!!! My house was a zoo! Two 3.5-year-olds running around, taking toys out EVERYWHERE and one 1-year-old trying to put it ALL in her mouth (she’s teething again)….while lil sis and I worked in the corners of the rooms (I was in the kitchen, she was in the living room just so we could cover all bases!) so that the kids were nowhere near the scissors, blades, and papers! It’s no wonder we hardly got anything done. Is this how my life would be if we added one more to our mix?

more to come…

big sis

There’s so much written about Barbie’s body…and the impact it has on girls. I thought it would be useful to compare her body (from the Barbie and the Three Musketeers theme) to that of the new Liv dolls (Spinmaster) and the Moxie Girlz (MGA Entertainment).

First we took a look at their feet.

From left to right: Moxie, Liv and Barbie

As you can see Moxie has pretty big flat feet.  Good for standing on but pretty clumsy looking. Liv also has flat feet and can actually stand in her sneakers (our testers loved this aspect).  Liv also has articulated toes–a very nice touch.  Barbie has….Barbie feet–she can’t stand in her bare feet–but then again she gets to wear purple boots.  I acknowledge my obsession with these particular boots.

Dolls sans Clothing

If you’ve every played with these fashion dolls and little kids, you know they usually end up without their clothes.  In part, kids are curious about what’s underneath –and because preschoolers now play with these dolls–they don’t have the fine-motor skills to put the clothes back on.  In fact, the dolls often end up without heads. I didn’t feel the need to do that here, but it happens.

From left to right: Barbie, Moxie Girlz, Liv

Size: You’ll note that Moxie (in the middle) is far smaller than either Barbie or Liv.

Age: Moxie Girlz clearly looks more like a middle schooler -rather than an older teen.  She is, as they named her much more girl like.

Limberness: Liv is the most limber– she has arms and legs that are jointed at the elbows and the knees.  Her head, hands, hips and feet also move. Barbie has one arm permanently at an angle. Only her arms, legs and head move (but not at the knees or elbows).  Barbie’s feet are in a frozen in a “yes, you may try the glass slipper pose”). Moxie Girlz– has both arms in a permanent straight position–they only move from her arm pits. Her legs from the hip — and you can move her head and big feet.

From Behind

From left to right: Moxie Girlz, Barbie, Liv

Realistic…not really unless you model for J.Crew. Our testers liked the underwear on the Moxie Girlz. Looking at this now–Barbie looks a little hippy…amazing.

Liv’s Head

Just so there are no surprise, Liv’s hair piece comes off and you’re left with a doll that has sculpted short hair.  We were a little taken aback by it, but our testers loved putting the hair on and off–she has a hole at the crown of her head.

Spinmaster's Liv Doll

Since I am a toy collector and all I believe this doll to be creepily-cool and I actually wouldn’t mind owning it.

In seasons past, ELMO is the toy we get all the calls for -someone in desperate need for the latest version of the original Tickle Me Elmo Doll.  We have particular fondness for the original – Joanne brought Elmo on the TODAY Show – Bryant Gumbel loved it–and played with it for the entire show.

This season, ELMO is being completely ignored.  A smaller, perhaps cuter critter has grabbed the imagination of children and media outlets everywhere -even though ELMO  tells jokes this year as well as any Borscht Belt comedian. Oh and yes,  he’s  still throwing kisses…it could break your heart.  Watch our video.

Disney's Princess Tiana

Last week I talked about this doll as one of the top five hottest toys in toyland on the TODAY Show.  But because I only had two minutes to discuss five toys, I didn’t have time to demonstrate why this particular Princess Doll is so much fun.  Watch our toyportfolio.com video and you’ll see the interactive/light up features of this talking doll.

Right after my segment, I got an email from Disney–reminding me that there were less expensive Princess Tiana dolls…so true.  You can get your Princess fix for under $16.  The Just One Kiss doll retails for $24.99–and I already see lots of price gauging. There are plainer Princess Dolls–but we have not personally seen or tested them–I do see some complaints on line about the quality of the least expensive version–but we can’t confirm. We’re thrilled that Disney is featuring the first African-American Princess.  If you’d also like a book, we’d recommend Princess and the Royal Ball by Natasha A. Tarpley/illustrated by James Finch)–a full review is on our site.

Venus Ebone Starr Williams, es una jugadora de tenis profesional estadounidense nacida el 17 de junio de 1980 en Lynwood, California,Estados Unidos. Pentacampeona de Wimbledon y doble campeona del US Open, Venus ha ganado 41 torneos de la WTA (7 de Grand Slam). El 25 de febrero de 2002 se convirtió en la primera jugadora afro-americana en ser n.º 1 del ranking mundial de la WTA, actualmente es la n.º 6.

Summer was a permissive parent on the farm, always allowing too much and taking away nothing. The clock’s lazy pinwheel hands slowly spun meaninglessly. Work got done, picking beans or churning butter, but the laughter dried out the sweat and we argued over who would get the next turn. Heather and I could explore for acres and never stop to rest. Big farm breakfast carried us to lunch and then on into supper. Grandma was the best cook in the world and we knew it. Looking back I see the spell she put us under. The food was good but she made it magical every time she would put a spoonful on your plate she would say, “Isn’t that delicious?” Sometimes between meals we could wrestle the briars on the edge of the produce plot and come away with blackberry lipstick and painted hands. It was a time before Internet, cell phones and computer games. The T.V. only came on at night after we spent a bit of time on the porch listening to crickets and watching the field across the street twinkle with lightening bugs.
This particular day was a yellow day. I mean the scene in my memory looks as if it has been washed with yellow watercolors. The sun hung mature in the sky like a man in the prime of his life. He smiled upon his work, the green grass, the fields of ripe hay and even the tint to our cheeks. It was one of those days when we would sit in front of the fan in the kitchen and marvel at the choppy sound of our voices.
Starting across the chunky gravel driveway that led to the crackling gravel road I almost fell. My arms splayed at my sides and circled as I tried to find balance. Heather and I erupted with laughter over the fault, trying to replay the event with the finesse of slapstick comedians. We hadn’t come to our senses yet when we saw dad pull up.
He was driving his new Caprice Classic in ocean blue. It was the same novelty car in which we had inadvertently locked the keys with the new automatic door locks. We backed ourselves up to the house side of the driveway and waited for him to pull in. He got out but locked himself at the car probably knowing grandma wouldn’t welcome him in the way she might have before. We hugged him and made him hold us, unaware of how long those hugs would really have to last. The freedom of the time allowed an easy visit. We were wearing our hot summer clothes, shorts and tank tops, only enough to cover ourselves. The heat came down, causing our eyes to squint. There were things to be done. The barn had fresh spring kittens in the hayloft and a new calf was down the lane. Distractions were everywhere waiting for us to explore.
Grandma came out of the house and approached the car, putting on a phony smile for our benefit. She tried to be nice and reassuring. She would make everything delicious for us. When last kisses and hugs were exchanged, dad got back into the Caprice Classic and looked at us sideways out the window. He had a long drive ahead of him and was probably ready to get on the road. “Take care of my babies Geneva,” he said. There was no thought of how long he would be gone or the void that would be left in his place.
We went out to the barn and climbed the ladder. The spring kittens were getting big enough to play. If we could handle them enough they wouldn’t become feral like some of the other cats.
Heather and I climbed the bails to the place where the kittens were. I reached inside the space where the nest had been since the kittens were born a few weeks ago. Nothing. The mother must have gotten nervous about us touching her babies and decided to hide them somewhere else. But Heather and I could not be dissuaded. We climbed over bails from the front of the loft to the back, listening for meows and reaching into every crease. Still nothing. We looked across the barn to the other side, the straw side. Mama cat would have had to carry each kitten over the beam that joined the lofts. All of the cats taunted me on that beam, walking across so confidently as if to show off their skills. I never did cross it. It was a long way to the ground and there were pitchforks and other barn tools underneath. I couldn’t believe Mama Cat would have carried her babies over such a treacherous journey.
We climbed down the ladder and up the other side. This side of the barn hung over the corral where the cows were standing around chewing and stomping their feet to startle the flies that swarmed on their backs. Sunlight breathed through the spaces between the plank walls, creating beams of sparkling air that rose up to the rafters. The straw was much coarser than the hay and it scratched our bare legs as we climbed around looking for the kittens.
“Heeere kitty, kitty, kitty,” we sang. Listen.
“Here kitty, kitty.” Listen.
A faint mewing fell on us from the back of the loft near the beam. Heather rushed the sound and stuck her hand into the nest, pulling out a tabby kitten with crusted eyes.
“This one is mine. Which one do you want?”
“I like all of them,” I explained.
“Well, you can’t have all of them. You have to pick one.”
I was experienced enough to know that my sister created rules that didn’t make any sense. But it still annoyed me that she made me play by those rules.
“We aren’t going to take them home with us. We can just share them while we are at Gran’s.”
“Yeah, but this one is mine while we are here. Which one do you want?”
I grabbed a calico from the nest and it began to ball, tensing and clawing in my hand. I put it up to my neck, holding it close to see if it would settle down. It didn’t.
“I’ll have this one,” I said begrudgingly.
Holding “my” kitten to my neck with one hand, I reached in for another. Heather did the same. Four kittens were now balling and walking over us with shaky legs and crusty eyes, two calicos and two tabbies. One was missing, another calico. We searched our hands in the crevice but came away with nothing.
I looked over the edge to the ground below the beam, hoping not to see the missing kitten dead on the dirt floor. It wasn’t there. It couldn’t have been on the other side. We had searched everywhere. Cats disappeared on the farm all the time but usually not this abruptly. Litters would emerge in the spring and we would play with them all summer. By Thanksgiving they would be gone. The Mama Cat and a few other adults were constant. Kittens would never make it to the next summer. At the time I thought that nature kept the balance. Now I think Grandpa may have helped.
Heather shot her kitten back in the hole and said we should go in the house. She was starting to sneeze. Apparently allergies plagued her on the farm. Her allergies plagued me too. I couldn’t be left to enjoy the kittens on my own, especially “her” kitten.
The side door to the farmhouse was a storm door with plywood paneling in place of glass. It opened into the boot room where Bo was kept. Bo was a mean German Sheppard, the second Gran had, and just as mean as the first. As we walked in room he lurched toward his food and began to growl. I was sure that Bo and I had a misunderstanding. He thought that I was his enemy, a kid that would pull his ears and poke him with sticks if I got the chance. All I wanted to do is pet him and maybe have him run around outside with me when Heather’s allergies flared up. I knew better than to push the friendship though. Ranger, the last Sheppard, bit my hand once. Gran said they had to have mean dogs to protect the farm.
Heather and I walked past the growling dog and up into the dining room. It was a big room with a big table, big enough to seat the whole family at the holidays. A piano sat against the wall where the screened porch watched the street. The potbelly stove sat coolly next the table, waiting for a fall chill. The coo-coo clock ticked away the seconds until the bird would be released again. Gran was busy in the kitchen, gracefully moving back and forth between the sink and the stove in her floral-print sleeveless top with her gingham pants. You didn’t have to match your clothes on the farm. You didn’t even have to have two matching boots. When it was muddy, you could pull two boots from the boot bench and as long as they both fit fairly well you were fine. It was more about what you could do, how hard you could work, and how it felt to just be there, rather than how you looked.
“How are my little darlings,” Gran would always say.
She called us her little darlings. She always acted like we could not do anything wrong. And even if we did, it was our parents’ fault for not raising us better. It was nice to have somebody think that.
“We’re bored Gran,” Heather complained.
I was not bored but was included in the statement. Nevertheless, I was interested in seeing what kind of excitement Gran could cook up for us.
Gran’s green cat’s eyes lit up and her nose holes flared out life a wild horse. She dried her elegant hands on a towel and took a stance like one of those women in the old movies. She was Calamity Jane, hands on hips, tilting back on her heels as if she were getting ready to start dancing.
“Well, let’s see what we can find.”
“Can we look at your jewelry Gran?”
“Can we look at your old doll?” The doll was my favorite of all Gran’s treasures.
We tiptoed our way up the steps, single file, Gran, Heather and I. The fan was humming in the window of Gran’s bedroom. Her old sleigh bed was stacked three mattresses high so that the rats couldn’t get her while she slept. I never saw a rat inside the house at the farm. I’m not sure if the higher mattresses would have kept them off the bed anyway. But it made Gran feel secure and it made her bed seem luxurious. Of course, we weren’t allowed to get on the bed in the day because we had been in the barn and were teaming with barn germs. Gran had a thing about germs too.
As the treasures spread out across the top of the dresser and onto our ears, necks and shirts, Gran began to howl about each piece, telling stories of their origins. Her ears pricked up through her white unruly hair, alert and excited about the sounds of pearls, stones and metals touching each other. Gran pawed at the boxes and jewelry as if touching them reignited a spirit inside her that was sleeping, waiting to be called back. I found a picture in the cedar chest. I recognized Grandpa, looking younger but still almost completely bald. He was wearing his Army uniform and sitting in a jeep with a rare smile on his face. On the back of the photo it was dedicated to “Geneva, my darling. 1944.”
As I looked up to Gran’s face her wild expression dropped back down into her heart.
“Don’t confuse pity with love,” she grumbled as she gently slid the picture back into the box. “I was already going on with my life when he came back from the war. He cried for me to marry him.”
“What about the doll,” I quickly said, hoping to bring the wild Gran back.
The eyes confirmed my hopes and she started to open the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers, carefully holding her hand inside to prevent the doll’s head from crashing into the frame.
It was a doll that had been hers since she was a little girl. It lay in the drawer, which Gran had made into a bed, a pillow nestled in as a mattress. It had a white gown, handmade with lace and embroidery around the sleeves and neckline. I knelt on the floor next to Gran as Heather continued to play with the jewels. Gran and I silently touched the doll, afraid that our chatter may have drowned out the messages that the doll was telling us.
She was a girl doll with crystal green eyes that opened and closed depending on her position. She was a medium, a link between this life and some other. She lived both in the present and past, telling stories to those lucky enough to read the light that emitted from her nest in the drawer. Her hands were worn so that the composition that had covered her core was breaking away in pieces, leaving a scorched look. Although she was a baby, she was aged so that she was both old and new at the same time. Her hair was molded into the composition with soft curls that surrounded her face. Her mouth spoke through the silence, a painted red bow.
I wanted to pick that old baby up and carry her around the house into a corner where she could privately tell me everything she knew. Her presence was so piercing, so intense that it scared me at night when I was trying to sleep in the room next door. I imagined her coming to life, speaking real words, batting her animal eyes at my curiosity.
The storm door slammed downstairs in the boot room, warning us that Grandpa was in from the field, hungry and expecting something to eat. Gran gently pushed the doll back into her tomb and quickly cleaned up the treasures. As she walked to the top of the stairs her ears slid back down into her hair and her feral eyes descended behind her domesticated mask. There was a time and place for magic and the time had passed.

If you’re looking for something for your pre-schooler for Christmas, you may want to consider one of the TV star dolls, as I call them.  There are a lot of great kids programs out there, and most of them have capitalized on the toy scene by making toy dolls that match their television screen characters.

A couple that come to mind are Dora the Explorer, and her slew of supporting characters and her cousin Diego and his animal friends.  There’s a great Diego doll currently on sale, complete with the perfect Diego outfit, watch and camera that sells for around $45 or so, that kids just love!

The particular Diego doll I’m thinking about is a talking doll. Whenever you push his stomach he speaks phrases in either Spanish or English, much to the delight of his owner.

Aside from these dolls, there is a ton of other character specific toys out there that are sure to delight your kids this Christmas season. Fisher Price also has a lot of great character toys too, and of course there are always tons of DVDs and computer games too that you can purchase.

Crunch time. Less than 1 week away from Unique LA and I am losing steam big time. I’ve been working non-stop for the past 1.5 months despite being sick for 3 weeks in between and I’m getting a bit nervous about it all. Always do, never changes. It’s a good thing. means I’m excited

33 dolls have been completed. I did not have the energy to make any paperweight dolls but lil sis is making up for it, thank goodness. I must admit that these girls seem to be the most detailed ones I have made so far. Perhaps, that is the reason why it took FOREVER to complete. I tried my best to take good pictures but I am now considering the fact that it is not me alone who is at fault; it is time to upgrade cameras. ugh.

Still left on my list: hair accessories and lil sis and I will be working on a new project this Tuesday. Yes, 4 days before Unique LA. sigh. That was the only time we could squeeze in a “craft session”.

Until I can take better pictures of the limited edition dolls, these girls will have to do…

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

big sis

Nueva doll. Solo para ss. Yelle.

Julie Budet (*17 de enero de 1983) más conocida por su apodo Yelle, que es el acrónimo de “You enjoy life”, es una cantante francesa de Saint-Brieuc, Bretaña. También corresponde al nombre de la banda que integra con los dj’s GrandMarnier y Tepr.

Looks like Groove, Inc. is teaming up with Disney again for the March 2010 Dal and Byul releases. Per usual I love all Dutch shoes ;3 and the Byul’s wig is a really lovely color, though it’s hard to see here. I actually think the Pinocchio outfit has potential for awesome and the Dal seems to have a darker skin tone which I’ve really been wanting. Cross those fingers!

Welcome to my blog about nesting dolls–specifically, Russian Matryoshka Dolls. Collecting these dolls can be a fun hobby, but its also hard to tell what your buying at times, especially on e-bay. I hope to present those interested in nested dolls with information that is both valuable as you hunt down collections and fun and informational as well.

Matryoshkas date from 1890, and are said to have been inspired by souvenir dolls from Japan. They initially consisted of 8 wooden dolls that all nested inside of one another. The outside of the wooden dolls were painted bright colors. Initially, these were the impressions of women on the outside. The smaller dolls were painted as girls and sometimes boys or babies. The amount of variety in the painting and images is really what makes the Matryoshka nested dolls unique. So unique that certain collections can go for thousands of dollars.

But the real joy marveling at their craftsmanship and artwork.

i know i’ll be buying a taeyang alberic (after forgoing and shattering my dream of buying a bjd due to unavoidable reasons) but after seeing nov09 released luts bjds, i nearly lost my objective. especially after seeing super senior delf dew. alberic can’t compare to him. he’s like a south pole to dew’s heaven.

my dear lord raynor, the girls are swooning for you. aren’t you gonna do something about it?

This is a former Cover Girl Esme (2000) that I bought nude to customize. By the time I had painstakingly rerooted her, Tonner had issued a factory Esme with a similar hair tone and even hairstyle (so I could have saved myself all that work… grrr.) On the other hand, all that work I put into her made her special to me, and while she´s far from perfect, she still makes me proud.

I made her sheath from a Gene pattern in Dolls In Print magazine. The magazine was, sadly, short-lived but it contained one of my all-time favourite patterns.

And here´s Tonner´s Sumptuous Esme (2004). Not identical, but similar enough that I wouldn´t have re-rooted mine if Sumptous had been available when I started.

Sunset Grille Alex in a sweater that I knit from a pattern in Faszination Fashion Doll.

Here´s Allie (Capital Investment Tyler, 2002) in the same sweater. The pants were also from a pattern in Faszination Fashion Doll.

The doll in pink is May Wong (Cheongsam Jade Lee from 2004) in her original outfit. The girl in blue is Simone (Lunch at Two Alex), with her hair restyled and a slight enhancement. I made the blue cheongsam from a dress in Faszination Fashion Doll, a German fashion doll fanzine.

Here´s Mod Jadde Lee (2004) modeling the same cheongsam. With her bangs removed, she looks so much like the girls in antique Asian art!

Way back in 2002, I participated in a swap on one of the doll boards. My swap partner was just waiting for her first 16″ doll – Cherry Blossom Jade (later spelt with double d) from Madame Alexander´s Alex line – to be relased and I designed the things I made for her with this doll and her colouring in mind, trying to compile a small but versatile basic trousseau. I didn´t have a Jade myself to model the outfits before I sent them off so my Alex girls had to help out. I´m sorry about the quality of the pictures but these are actually the only ones I have of these outfits. I rediscovered them a while ago in a folder.

A picture I grabbed from the internet to show you which girl these outfits were made for:

Lunch at Two Alex wears a velvet cheongsam with a white cherry blossom pattern made from a Simplicity Gene pattern. Lunch was one of the first Alex dolls from the 2000 collection. In keeping with the Chinese theme, I made a takeaway lunch box with noodles and chopsticks.

Vivien (Milano Alex from 2001) is the model for a grey sweater and red silk pencil skirt made from Tonner´s Tyler Wentworth fall pattern (I think). I repainted Vivien´s eyebrows to match her hair color somewhat later on. It irritates me when the brows are so much lighter.

Vivien dresses up by swapping the sweater for a corset (also from Tyler´s pattern) and accessorizes with a matching handbag.

For a hot summer day, Vivien dons a mod graphic print sheath. I forget which pattern I used.

Finally, Sunset Grille Alex, also from 2001, shows a simple but elegant nightgown (made from an enlarged Barbie pattern in Barbie Bazaar) that can also double as an evening gown if you want it to.

Flashback:

Dolls This Week– January 5, 2000

NEWS

NEW 16″ MADAME ALEXANDER FASHION DOLL
Madame Alexander is getting ready to unveil a new, 16″ fashion doll at toy fair in February!  The company has been running a mysterious ad with the new doll in silhouette in several of the current doll magazines.  The doll will have separate outfits available and will be along the lines of Gene, Sommers and Field, and Tyler Wentworth. (About.com)

Madame Alexander is one of the oldest and most prestigious doll companies in the US. Founded by Madame Alexander (d´oh!), they have been producing collectible and play dolls since 1923, including Cissy, the first fashion doll that had a “teen” body rather than a little girl´s. Following the success of Mel Odom´s Gene doll, the first modern 16″ fashion doll marketed to adult collectors, and the successful introduction of Robert Tonner´s Tyler Wentworth doll, MADC introduced Alexandra (sometimes misspelled Alexander) Fairchild Ford in 2000. While Gene Marshall is a movie star in the heyday of Hollywood and Tyler is a contemporary fashion designer, Alex is the editor of ELAN fashion magazine and her world was built up around this.

AA Paris Williams, the entertainment editor, was added in 2001. Chinese Jade Lee was introduced in 2002 as an award-winning architect initially hired by Alex to redecorate her office and New York flat and later given a column in ELAN. “Discussing the marriage of “Form and Function”, Jade’s “On Image” column explains her approach to both fashion and architecture as being informed by cultural influences and creative vision, and describes a few examples of recent outfits that illustrate her philosophy.” (MADC press release). Latina Sofia Cruz joined the crew in 2004 as the editor of the Spanish edition of ELAN. French-educated “ELAN´s It Girl” Suzette Morgan followed in 2005, as the author of a regular feature on lifestyle and domestic subjects.

Alex´aunt Amanda Fairchild was also introduced to the line in 2004 which permitted MADC to include fashions from different decades in the line.  “Always the epitome of glamour and beauty; from her heyday in the late 50’s and 60’s right through a new century, Amanda Fairchild, was raised in the languid gentility of New Orleans. From her, Alex received an overview of fashion history and an eye for clothes that few young women are fortunate to have. To this day, Alex credits this informal training as the source of her success as an editor. And it is certainly why she has hired her Aunt Amanda as an adjunct editor of Élan, and why Amanda is featured on a regular basis in the magazine. With her panache and flair for fashion over five decades, Amanda Fairchild has become a legend in the fashion world and something as a Grand Dame in the best of the couture houses.”  Finally, Sienna Evans joined in 2006 as the new beauty editor.

Fun facts:

• Fairchild was also the surname of Barbie´s mod cousin Francie, who was issued between 1966 and 1976. As Francie simply vanished from Barbie´s world without an explanation, perhaps Alex Fairchild Ford is, in fact, Francie´s secret lovechild?
• The AA man in Tonner´s Tyler line, Russell, also goes by the surname Williams. Cpuld he be Paris Williams´ brother, cousin, husband (oh noes! Poor Esme!)…?
• Besides MADC´s Jade Lee, there is also an Asian character named Jade in the Bratz line, and one in Integrity´s play line. Tonner introduced Suzette Dubois into Tyler´s world in 2004. Why can´t companies be a bit more original?
• Alex and friends have also cameo´d as other characters. In MADCs Hollywood line, Alex played Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face and as Sabrina and Holly Golightly; Sienna played Leslie Caron as Gigi, Grace Kelly, and Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods; Amanda played Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund and Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee. The Desperate Housewives dolls also featured the Alex line sculpts, among them a blonde Jade. The scupts were also used for the History of Fashion line.