 |
| Lammily, created by Nickolay Lamm |
In my early years of doll collecting I happened to purchase some of Tonner's Emme dolls and her fashions. However, I liked Tyler's proportions much better and soon sold the Emme items.
I'm not an overweight person but I grew up with the "you can't be too thin" mentality. Diets were a way of life along with diet pills in college and afterwards. I learned it from my mother. She didn't have Barbie dolls. Her generation of dolls were 'chubby-looking' things.
 |
| Madame Alexander (Composition) "McGuffey Anna" 1935 |
Gianfranco Ferre model:
Hollow-eyed and gaunt, the skeletal model stalked down the runway at the Gianfranco Ferré fashion show in Milan last night wearing a dress cut in a deep V that revealed her protruding clavicle and flat chest.
A flurry of flashbulbs popped as photographers vied to get the best shot and the line of fashion editors sitting front row scribbled furiously on their notepads.
If ever there were a case of Emperor's New Clothes at fashion week, it was here.
Did any one of the assembled crowd really think this model - bony cleavage, dark circled eyes - looked good? Could they genuinely say that this image was aspirational? And ultimately, would the model do what must be her main purpose here: sell these clothes to other women?
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2042345/Gaunt-model-shocks-Gianfranco-Ferr-Milan-fashion-show.html#ixzz2vgtPriWs
I'm always amazed at how most models and movie stars looked in the 1940's through the 1960's. They had thighs and waists and arms.
 |
| Women Cast Members from the TV series Mad Men |
 |
| The Three Graces by Sandro Botticelli |
Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/normal-barbie-doll-with-average-female-body-is-coming-to-life/284212/
If Barbie actually has this enormous affect on you or your child, why would you even buy one? I simply don't understand.
ReplyDeleteMost dolls are "aspirational" or fantasy. The same people who moan about Barbie's unrealistic body most likely
wouldn't buy an Emme doll or this one, either. (I wonder what the sales figures are for the bald dolls everyone
was clamoring for recently?)
Don't like? Don't buy.
The bald dolls were for a specific population. My best friend has breast cancer. When she lost her hair the first question her three year old niece asked was "Aunt Justine how are you going to be a princess without hair?" I think it is important for little girls to feel they are pretty even if they lose their hair. It is a small thing that can mean so much.
DeleteI agree that it's definitely the fashion industry and actresses who set the standard for thinness. I also think they both use barbie as a smokescreen. "See, it's not us, it's that dumb doll." And that Lemmily doll is plain, ugly and boring looking. The teen girls I know are anything but that.
ReplyDeleteOK, "the first" is interesting because I'm pretty sure we've heard that before. I like different sizes in dolls, so a more normally proportioned doll is fine, but I'm not crazy about her face. That said, I'm supposed to be cutting ba-a-ack! (no sale)
ReplyDeleteinteresting....i'd buy one or a niece. not b/c of body issues, but b/c i know the world is flooded with barbies. the first doll i ever played with was my sisters Sasha doll. not a fashion doll.
ReplyDeletei think the move towards skinniness began with the camera and people seeing themselves being flattened out. and it goes too far for sure.
people often talk about marilyn as if she were an voluptuous ideal. but she wasn't. see here at the beginning of her super stardom.
http://i61.tinypic.com/2iqhkdl.jpg
she was lean with real flesh on her. genetic lotto + skill. as a model she worked with that. it's often you hear people rationalize being obese by citing her as being XYZ size and forget the shift towards vanity sizing.
the problem, if there is one, with dolls like this is they are boring. she will need a gimmick beyond being realistic. she needs a story for people to invest in her.
I would buy one of these if the brunette one you pictured comes to market; she's got a very cute face. Nickolay Lamm has also designed two blonde ones; one was not-so-bad and the other one did not have a pretty face AT ALL!!! But in answer to your question, yeah, I'd buy one.
ReplyDeletePeople, piss me off. Prove that Barbie, the doll is linked to body dysmorphia. And by prove I want a measured study. Body dysmorphia and dysmorphic women are that way for seriously profound reasons, and is far more complex than a doll. Barbie might look sexualized, and so for that reason sure... whatever, But she is and has always been a fashion doll. FASHION isn't for 'real people' its for fashion. Mattel has gone above and beyond to make Barbie less "sexual' but I would be so mad if that frumpy doll was given to me, as a child or adult. Actually, I was mad, because my Maxie and Jem were to big for all my Barbie clothes as a kid. I wish people would get a hobby and get off Barbie. No one ever talks about He-Man or GI Joe looking like they are on steroids. Such BS.#barbieforever
ReplyDeleteI saw this a few days ago and you know what? It bothered me. It's great that this person wants to promote a healthy body image for young girls, but when the first thing I see on their page is about criticizing Barbie I was immediately turned off. They could have easily said the same thing without throwing Barbie into the mix. I don't understand why some people think it's empowering to women to tear other women down (however plastic these woman may be). The message should be that all women are beautiful, otherwise they're just building up one group to tear down another and with that nobody wins.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm expecting this project to crash and burn. The creator is not a doll designer. He is a digital designer and researcher. There are no actual images of this doll used to sell this product, just 3-D renderings. And 3-D renderings can vary wildly from the final product. He has no experience making dolls both personally (not even sculpting anything with his hands) or with any type of company. His only consultant with experience with doll making can just show him which doll making company to use, nothing about the process of making the actual doll. And his inexperience shows. For example he keeps showing the doll with her legs bent back pretty far. Due to the dolls thicker legs, she won't have anywhere near that range of motion. Anyone remember the Rosie O'Donnell doll? She had thicker legs and you got one or two weak clicks if you're lucky from her legs. There's just too much material at the knees interfering with each other to make the legs bend deeply. So I am VERY curious to see what people actually get when the doll stars being produced. I bet lots of people will be disappointed.
I love novelty dolls and would definitely have gotten a Lammily Doll, if I wasn't curbing my spending this year.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1990's, I got myself a 'Happy To Be Me' doll. She has click-able legs and bendy arms. You can see information on her here.
I'll wager this new "Lammily Doll" has about the same life span /popularity rating on the commercial market as the "Happy to be Me" doll. ;)
DeleteInteresting post. I saw the article about the doll a week or so ago, and love the idea.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, I nominated you for the Liebster Reward. http://aprilperlowski-ofdolls.blogspot.jp/
Dear Terry,
ReplyDeleteThere are so many theories on standards of beauty and how they are determined. As a former history student I can say that one of these theories is that beauty standards are also linked to social and financial status - Botticelli figures are a good example - in an age when lack of food symbolized poverty and having a rounded figure meant your husband could afford to feed his family (i.e. was rich enough) and women can afford a lazy, luxurious life style without having to strain themselves for menial labor these women not surprisingly were considered beautiful (this beauty standard is still found in some cultures particulary poverty stricken communities - where women are encouraged to eat and look plump and well fed in order to "get a husband") in today's age the opposite is true - "fat" means not having enough money to go the gym, eat healthy foods, or have good medical care, and being a "couch potato" again beauty standards are linked to social and financial standing and of course being unable to afford couture fashion made for stick thin models.
Tali.
I dont know why barbie gets such a bad reputation and is being held responsible for all those tropes of people feeling unhappy with their bodies. That is abject nonsense. I can only speak from anecdotal evidence but I never grew up thinking to myself "oh i have to look like my barbies" and then when I saw I did not, get anorexic and/or hate my body. I know she is a DOLL. And i think most people do have enough brain matter to distinguish a DOLL from a real person. After all, no one looks at a Monster High doll with the huge head and grotesque make up and says ":gee, why i wish I had a head that was 5 times bigger than my body." And i have never heard any of my peers, be it when i was a kid or an adult, do the same.
ReplyDeleteWhat DOES get people messed up and self conscious, though, is exactly what you said, the models and photoshopped actors and what have you on the cover of magazines where they are either really that grossly, skeletal thin or half a thig and abdomen has been photoshopped away to make them thinner. THOSE are the culprits, not Barbie.
My Sybs just wouldn't accept her, not even as their servant!
ReplyDeleteI agree with pretty much everything that's been said here.
ReplyDeleteI find it difficult to understand why we, as a society feel the need to blame everyone(and in this case- everything) for own shortcomings. We've entered into the "not accountable zone" where every little, tiny thing that is wrong with us is someone else's fault!?
Man up America, like Michael Jackson's song stated ... If you want to make a change - start with the man(or woman in this case)In the Mirror!
No, I would not buy this doll. She's too ordinary looking. I prefer dolls with a touch of the unique to them. They can be skinny, curvy, or even overweight, but not ordinary.
ReplyDeleteThe doll is just plain boring so no I wouldn't buy her. In addition, she's part of a political agenda that doesn't make sense. To state that Barbie dolls are the driving factor for young girls self image issues is ridiculous. I had Barbie's when I was young and never once looked at their bodies and thought I should look like them. I knew the doll was a fantasy and just a doll. If the designer wishes to make his point, then go after the media with excessively thin models and young starlets or pop stars with their own body image issues. I know for a fact that a friends daughter keeps an old picture of Kate Moss on her wall back when Kate was the waif as an example of what she aspires to look like. And yes, she collects dolls but not once does she say, "Oh I want to look like the doll."
ReplyDeleteI didn't think the purpose of those ultra-bizarre fashion models and designs were to sell clothes, honestly. Who could wear that black Ferre model besides someone as flat-chested as the model?
ReplyDeleteI always assumed fashion dolls are proportioned the way they are so the scaled-down clothes would look right. The fabric seams look bulky at doll sizes, especially at the waist. I collect dolls so I can dress and play with them, not admire them as perfect nude sculptures. And I don't want a "realistically" proportioned doll that looks thick-waisted and stumpified when wearing her clothes and that ruins the look of a painstakingly created little miniature fashion.
ReplyDeleteNotice Lammily up there is dressed in a loose top, with no hint of a waistline. Proof that even the creator recognizes that the doll will look unfortunately frumpy in pretty much anything else. When I played with Barbie all those years ago and imagined myself looking like her, it was never naked Barbie! It was chic, fully dressed Barbie in her glamorous and perfectly fitting clothes. My grown daughter tells me the same thing--she imagined herself in Barbie's cute clothes and sparkly gowns, never naked with a mega-bosom and an impossible waist.
In addition, Lammily is pudding-faced, blank-eyed, and thoroughly homogenized. There isn't the slightest spark of personality. In my opinion this ghastly doll has just one purpose; to instill guilt in the hearts of mothers of young girls while simultaneously allowing them to ease that guilt by a quick swipe of their credit cards. Much easier than actually monitoring the media influences on their daughters and putting in the effort to raise girls who can think for themselves.
I think Lammily is cute. I'd add her to the collection.. hopefully she'll be mass market priced as a child's toy and that would make her a doll to pick up during the years when I don't have money left over for truly luxury purchases. The first time I saw her photo, did not like her at all. This time.. well, she's growing on me. I do dislike that she is compared to Barbie as being the more healthy choice. I grew up with Barbie, never had a problem with her, loved her dearly. Though the Barbies I see in the stores for child play lately.. poorly made, don't stand up to the abuse kids dish out in dressing them.. and oddly, it bothers me that their feet are proportionally too small. The rest I don't care about.. the feet... nah, she needs at least a size 6 in a foot. Current feet look like Mattel designers got tired at the end of the drawing and just did a quick sketch to kind of indicate where feet should go.
ReplyDeleteAnother thought, if I may, I do think we may be too quick to decide that body dysmorphia works only one way. Everyone worries that normally full bodied girls will try to hard to be thin, and it is a concern. However, there are also plenty of girls whose normal healthy body will be quite thin during their teen and young adulthood. They are active, they eat, but they will be the 5'7" 105 lb girl. And they too have every right to go through life without people asking them if they are sick, dieting too much or addicted to amphetamines. And trust me, as one of those girls, these are reactions you may well encounter unsolicited from strangers on the street. I think what we need is a celebration of diversity, not a drive to identify any one standard as more or less 'normal' or 'healthy' so long as is the person's daily behavior is healthy.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Mary. Thank you for adding that.
Delete