Showing posts with label Jason Wu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jason Wu. Show all posts

2/11/2021

2020 W Club Year In Review

2020 Recap From the W Club

Here's a listing of the amazing offers and opportunities that the W Club brought its members during the 2020 membership year, extending way beyond what was guaranteed at registration... and, this doesn't even include all the "first to know" information that members received throughout the year, allowing you to get in on the action before members of the general public! Being a W Club member truly has its perks and as you can see, the list is really long! It's non-stop excitement you definitely won't want to miss out on in 2021!


2020 Recap...
 
  • Kicked off with 3 made-to-order upgrade dolls- "Le Tuxedo" Eugenia Perrin-Frost, "Mademoiselle Lilith" Lilith Blair and "Pretty Bird" Poppy Parker
  • Monthly forum contests with free prizes
  • Meteor launch reveal and chat with Vaughn Sawyers
  • "Afterglow" Keeki Adaeze W Club lottery
  • Quarantine bonus content, videos and/or contests from a variety of IT designers and collectors
  • Poppy Parker Model Traveler Collection reveal and chat with David Buttry
  • "Sizzling in Paris" Poppy Parker W Club lottery
  • Priority Convention registration
  • Jason Wu "Velvet Rouge" Véronique Perrin W Club lottery
  • The Monarchs Homme "Most Influential" Perry Marino W Club lottery
  • W Club only Integrity Toys Convention Upgrade Dolls Package, including made-to-order pre-orders for "Petite Robe Classique (Jour)" Adèle Makéda and "Petite Robe Classique (Nuit)" Véronique Perrin
  • W Club only Integrity Toys Convention W Club Event Package including the souvenir "Charmed Child" Ayumi and guaranteed made-to-order pre-order of "Wicked Narcissism" Eugenia Perrin-Frost centerpiece doll
  • "Up & Rockin’" Jerrica Benton/JEM Flip-side Gift Set W Club lottery and special W Club pricing
  • "Perfect Match" Rio Pacheco, JEM and Riot Llewelyn Gift Set W Club only first-come, first-served opportunity and special W Club pricing
  • Club doll one – made-to-order "Undercover Angel" Poppy Parker mini gift set
  • Jason Wu "Fall 2018" Iselin W Club lottery
  • Lotteries for the W Club allotment of the IFDC "Lady Luck", "Masquerade Magic", "Kiss in the Shadows" and "Viva Poppy!" Poppy Parker dolls
  • W Club Fall 2020 Online IT Micro-Capsule Collection Reveal Event
  • NU. Face Essentials Collection: Wave 2 "My Allure" Karolin Stone and "In My Skin" Colette Duranger W Club lotteries
  • "Such a Gem" Dania Zarr design competition winner W Club only made-to-order doll
  • Club doll two – made-to-order "Enamorada" Natalia Fatale mini gift set
  • Jason Wu "Anniversary Kiss" Blond and Brunette color variation Poppy Parker W Club only lotteries
  • "I Am A Giant" Pizzazz and Roxy gift set W Club lottery and special W Club pricing
  • Official 25th Anniversary "Legendary Status" Agnes Von Weiss W Club only made-to-order doll with special no order limit
  • Dolly-Days "Ginger & Cinnamon: Holiday At Home" W Club only made-to-order gift set
  • "Beat This!" Aja and Shana gift set W Club lottery and special W Club pricing
  • The Jason Wu Collection "The Originals" Adèle Makeda and Véronique Perrin W Club only lotteries
  • Club doll three – made-to-order "Wild Feeling" Rayna Ahmadi mini gift set
  • Dolly-Days East 59th and Poppy Parker reveal
  • Club doll four – made-to-order "Sugar and Spice" Poppy Parker duo-doll gift set
  • Club doll five – made-to-order "A Fashionable Legacy" Violaine Perrin doll
  • W Club only lottery for remaining 2020 Legendary Convention items

For those of you who love made-to-order pre-orders, that is 15 different offerings (16 dolls, as "Sugar and Spice" Poppy was a two-doll gift set) between the 3 upgrade dolls, 5 club exclusive dolls, 2 convention upgrade Adèle and Véronique dolls, 2 W Club Event Convention Package Ayumi and Eugenia dolls, Design Competition Dania doll, 25th Anniversary Agnes doll and Dolly-Days Ginger doll you were guaranteed access to just for being a W Club member!

________________________________________________________

Especially during a world-wide pandemic, we are so grateful for all of you and are beyond thrilled that we were still able to pack so much dolly goodness into just one membership year!

We really hope that you enjoyed your experience and that you'll join us again for even more fashion, friendship and fun once the W Club registration opens for 2021!

All 2020 W Club members will automatically receive 2021 W Club registration information once we are ready to launch. You do not need to contact us to inquire.

And, if you know other collectors who are not part of the W Club yet, don't forget to spread the word; we've got some amazing things in the works for 2021!

We can't wait to "see" you again for another exciting doll-filled year in the W Club!

The W Club Liaisons

10/13/2019

2019 Integrity Toys Convention: The Gala Event Offerings

The convention ended with the Saturday night banquet at which the winners of two contests were announced. I wish the emails had photos of what the winners actually designed!



Diorama Design Competition:People's Choice: Lani Billitti
Judge's Choice: Kelly Rinaldi
Doll Design Challenge:People's Choice: Sinuhe Guzman
Judge's Choice: Osvaldo Vasquez (aka "Ovaz")

"The winners of the outstanding OOAK dolls designed by the team just for the raffle room were picked and the host city of next year's convention was unveiled- Dallas, Texas!
Finally, special guest Jason Wu joined the hosts on stage to unveil the convention doll, an absolutely stunning Elyse Jolie doll which he designed himself!"


I was thrilled to learn that Ovaz won the design challenge. He's been through a lot this past year but kept working on his designs and creations. He definitely deserved this award.

I thought it was funny that the text emphasized that Jason designed the Elyse by himself.  It cracks me up. We know that Jason is not involved in the designing of the dolls and hasn't been for a long time. However, occasionally his human designs are recreated (more or less) for dolls.
What I've read is that there was a mixed reaction from the crowd upon seeing that the character chosen for the convention souvenir was Elyse. The cry was "again?" Integrity does this. If it sells, they'll make it over and over until collectors have had it up to here. They're doing it with Poppy. They did it with Vanessa.



The centerpiece was Vanessa. I think she is quite pretty. I do not like the gown.



 The Convention Doll Elyse Jolie is beautiful. I love her raven hair and the embroided nearly sheer gown. She'll be coming to join my tribe of Elyse's, (yes, another one) this week.




Next year's convention will be held in Dallas, Texas.

For those of you who have asked questions on this blog, please be aware that for some reason Blogger isn't working well enough at this time for my responses to post. I'm looking into fixing that.

6/11/2019

Part II Summer Project, Continued

June 18, 2019

Elise "J'Adore La Fete" 2015
Wearing original gown from gift set.







Elise "On The Rise" 2014
Wearing "Sheer Bliss"





________________________________________

June 17, 2019

Elise "Midnight Star" 2013
Wearing Anika Luxottica's dress.








Elise "Hair Workshop" 2013
This doll was available at the 2013 convention to those who signed up for the workshop.
She is wearing a blue jumpsuit that came with Lana Turner "Portrait of an Era." Handbag is from another IT fashion.




__________________________________________________

June 16, 2019

Elise "Escapism" 2012
Wearing OOAK Cholo Ayuyao. Cholo won first place in a design contest for this creation. I was lucky to be able to buy it from him. This doll has been wearing it ever since.






Elise "Engaging" 2011
Wearing Antonio Realli





_________________________________________


June 13, 2019
I cheated a bit because it was raining outside. These photos were taken indoors using natural light.


Left: Elise "Most Wanted" 2011
Gown by K
Jewelry by IT

Right: Elise "Dark Swan" Reroot  2010
Gown by K
Jewelry by IT






                                   _________________________________________


June 11, 2019

Elise "Escapism" 2012  W Club Centerpiece
Original Fashion




Elise "Flawless" 2011
Gown by Antonio Realli.
Jewelry from Vanessa "Poesie Sans Coleur"




                                   _________________________________________

1/08/2019

The Best and The Rest: My Collection 2018

It goes without saying that life has a way with our hobby for which we don't always plan. I started out the year recovering from bilateral knee replacement surgery. Going up and down the staircases in my house was not my favorite activity. Then, somewhere around July, we were going to move. The first thing I packed was my dolls. Needless to say, we did not move so I had to unpack and I'm not quite done. I made the difficult decision to sell off my large Tiny Kitty collection. Tiny Kitty dolls were the ones that brought me to the 16" Tonner dolls and from there...well, you know how it goes. I must admit that this is not the first time I have begun to sell my TKs. This time I'm determined as there is no room and I don't keep dolls in boxes.
It's time to review what I've added to my doll collection during 2018.

The Best

An interesting turn of events was my buying several of Integrity Toy's 12" dolls.  I had cut back almost entirely for quite a while but IT really brought it to Fashion Royalty this past year.

Eugenia Modernist was a 2018 W Club Membership Registration Upgrade Doll. This doll is stunning with her dark skin tone and sleek light blue mini dress with matching round handbag. Her open-toed silver thigh-high boots and silver accessories made her a perfect doll to add to the tribe.




I wasn't going to go for her but every time I looked at her picture, I loved her more and more: 


Elise Jolie "Perfume Blond" W Club 10th Anniversary by Jason Wu Doll.  She was quite pricey as she came with a full-sized bottle of Jason Wu perfume which I don't particularly care for. I tried it at a department store. She also comes with a miniature of the perfume bottle which I love. Her pastel peach, sparkle-embellished gown is one of Jason's creations as well. I was able to sell the real perfume and so brought the total down somewhat.





Isha Kalpana Narayan "Divinity" W Club Doll was irresistible to me because of all her jewelry accessories and the pretty style of her lace and tulle dress. I think the henna designs on her forearms and hands are a beautiful accent.




"Hot To The Touch" Bellamy Blue is an Industry Line doll. I don't collect guy dolls any longer (or so I say) but when I saw this one's fashions, I caved.  I'm still on the fence about keeping him and that's why I don't have a free-standing photo of him.




Victoire Roux's "Divine Evening" fashion was added. It fits my Monogram dolls perfectly and it's not black.



It's close to impossible for me to choose the best of Kingdom Doll 2018. I love all of them.  I can't choose a favorite. The Seren giftset, The Eden Atelier doll and Vanbrugh are all gorgeous.  Seren came with several outfits and many accessories and props. Eden's gown and wig are truly miniature works of art. Vanbrugh is a classic stunner. She looks amazing in every wig and every style I put on her.
Seren


Eden

Vanbrugh


The Kingdom Doll Convention Dolls all had the newly redesigned body. Like most conventions, there is a souvenir doll and often an optional companion doll. In Scotland, our souvenir doll was Rosalind "The Red Queen." She has dimples and is so cute.



There were two companion dolls. Attendees had to decide in advance, without seeing her,  if they wanted the white or the black. We were told that their outfits were the same but their effect would be very different. Normally I'd go with black but I decided to let fate decide for me as I knew both would be fabulous. The black sold out and I am happy to say that I was thrilled with Raphaella, The White Queen. This gal has freckles and a very youthful vibe. That was unexpected.



This gorgeous doll was a surprise gift from Kingdom Doll to the attendees. Her name is Realm.


Another Kingdom Doll I added to my collection prior to the convention last year was Electra. In this photo, my skeleton is playing with her. She is about to lose her patience. Electra was the first doll released with the new body.


Kingdom Dolls are my favorite dolls.

Fashions from other sources deserve special mention in my "Best of" category.  I purchased 7 outfits from Aquatalis, a company in Vietnam you can find on Etsy. Two haven't arrived yet. of the other 5, one stands out. They call it Chandos. It is embroidered all over with flowers and leaves. Nimue models.


___________

This one hurts to write about because she was not an inexpensive doll and I had very high expectations of this company. The doll is Dominion Doll's new 12" creation, Aura.  Before I buy another, I will make sure the following has been taken care of.
First of all, her earring holes are too small for any of my earrings (and I have hundreds of pairs) to fit. It's a fairly minor issue if I wanted to get out my jeweler's drill and fix it but do I? I'm not about to send her back to Russia for such a minor issue.
The major issue is that her ankles do not support the weight of her upper body. I recall having this issue with the early Numina dolls. The joints are always going their own way when I try posing her standing normally and this is unacceptable. I'm going to have to wire them.

However, she is gorgeous but she does need better engineering. Ease of posing a doll is very, very important to me.

I have spoken with a collector friend and apparently, her Dominion doll does not have this issue. Hmmm.

I'm going to try her in a lighter-weight fashion such as slacks or simple sheaths. That could make a difference. But still...




________________

The Rest

I have already written about how disappointed I was with the Outlander Dolls, Jamie and Claire Fraser. Claire was one of the most unattractive dolls that Tonner has ever produced IMO.  I gave that doll a lot of chances and nothing made her look good. She did not look at all like the actress who plays the role of Claire. Not a wee bit. The face and body of this doll are huge. Her clothes and shoes are way too large for Tyler or for any other doll I own. Both had to go.   

 

As far as Jamie, he has an attractive sculpt. The jury is out on whether or not he looks like the TV Jamie. His hair came in a dorky style. I washed and restyled it, sold his outfit and redressed him. Not great but he's staying.

 

_____________________________________

All in all, it was a very good year. I love my collection and enjoy gazing at each doll. My dolls live a great fantasy life with the finest fashions, jewelry, hairdos and accessories. They don't get wrinkles, gain weight or get sick. They always look wonderful and they get to have things like tiny liquor bottles filled with real Scottish whisky!