Homage to Veronique Perrin - Part III of Many

The 2003 Fall/Winter Mauve Absolue Collection consisted of four Close-Up Veroniques, five dressed Veroniques and two dressed Adeles.

Veronique Perrin "Paradise," a close-up doll, and "Chic Escape" a dressed doll, both arrived wearing bathing suits accompanied by handbags. Chic Escape also had a hat. Paradise was an MFD exclusive with an edition of 750 and a retail price of $35. Chic Escape's edition was 1000 dolls with a retail price of $26. Both dolls are still highly prized although this year their prices have dropped below $200.

Chic Escape's hair, although I received her NRFB, was quite unruly and took away from her beauty.

I had her hair rerooted with a blend of light to platinum blondes and I love it.
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Fashion Plate Brunettte, LE 800, Retail Price $75
I recently added her to my collection. She is a pretty doll but her hair is not a "user-friendly" style. She's got the two pieces of hair coming down on both sides of her face and it doesn't really work.

Mauve Absolue, LE 750, Retail $99.
This doll was my first spectacular Fashion Royalty doll when I started collecting. I couldn't believe the jewelry and the gown. There was so much work and detail in this little doll that I spent many a dolly minute just staring at her. She remained in her original fashion for at least 2 years! When I finally decided to move my dolls to tall bodies, she got right back into the same outfit!

Flame Rouge, R&D Exclusive, LE 500, Retail $99.
Although this doll has a gorgeous face and from afar looks amazing with her black hair and big red gown, I found both of those things to be issues for me. The hair was too big and the curls were difficult to keep tame looking. The dress was too much as well: too much fabric and overly designed. I did not keep her for long.

The next installment will cover the Veroniques of the Spring 2004 Sheer Perfection line: Pearlescence, Haute Luxuries, Diamond Dusted, Social Call and Sheer Goddess.

Homage to Veronique Perrin - Part II of Many

Continuing with the Spring 2003 Premiere Collection we move to the dressed dolls of which there were six. Five were Veroniques, one was Adele. One of the Veroniques was Toast of Paris which had a limited edition of only 100. I did manage to snag the outfit sold separately under the same name but I have never seen the doll!
First we have Lush Life Veronique, a limited edition of 500 and exclusive to Katy's Collectibles and Doll Dreams and Cuddly Things. She retailed for $65.

Lush is wearing an ivory lace up bustier with a creamy ivory long fish-tail skirt that has a large gathered train at the back. Her long gloves match her top and the beaded jewelry and purse match the skirt. The promotional photo above is one of the best, in my opinion, with it's lighted vanity mirror and table. That would have been a great piece to have for the dolls.

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Second is Midnight in Monaco. She was an IFDC doll and sold for $125., which I'm guessing was the entry fee to the convention. There were 500 made in all. When I first saw this doll she reminded me so much of Gene Marshall because of the extreme upward gazing eyes. To me this Veronique has the most unique look of all the early Veros because of her eyes and the shape of the head. It may be the same sculpt but she looks different!

Her gown is a pastel peach with all over embroidery and beads. At the hip are several folds of chiffon which wrap around to the side ending in a train. She carries a small similarly colored clutch purse and wears faux diamond studs. Around her neck is a simple faux diamond drop.

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The third doll is Silver Society a big favorite among collectors to this day. She was an edition of 1000 and sold for $65.

Her silver silk sheath is embroidered and beaded on the bodice and fits like a glove. The accessories are a fabulous silk and tulle headband style hat, long gloves, silk purse on a silver chain, faux fur and silver slip on heels. I believe she had faux diamond studs and perhaps a bracelet. I understand that this doll's jewelry tarnished badly. Mine did not come with jewelry because of this problem. Miss Society was the first of the pony-tailed Fashion Royalty dolls and it's a fabulous long pony tail with big curls at the end which are still perfect on my doll to this day! One feature of Silver Society that drew many comments were her lips. They are light with a darker lipliner outline. I love it.

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The next two installments will cover the 2003 Fall/Winter Mauve Absolue Collection.

Homage to Veronique Perrin - Part I of Many

It was announced last year that Veronique's sculpt would be retired. She was one of the original two characters of the Fashion Royalty doll line along with Adele. This is the first in a series of posts which will show the Veroniques I've photographed. I have not collected all of them but I've had many. Some are in the collections of others now. All the Veros I own are on tall bodies now; however, you will see an assortment of bodies as these photos were taken as I went along my merry way. Any image that does not have my signature belongs to Integrity Toys unless otherwise noted.
Starting with the Spring 2003 Premiere collection we have a Close-Up Blonde and a Close-Up Redhead. Both were editions of 1000 and priced at $29.99. They came dressed in panties and a lace up bustier and a fabulous, rich-looking long robe. The robe had a W embroidered on one lapel. The jewelry was a pair of faux diamond studs and the shoes were slip-on pumps with fabric linings and uppers.
Their hair was long and silky and they were gorgeous even with their straight arms. The finish on those dolls was perfection.