Color Therapy Vanessa

Finally! Some of my readers may know that Vanessa is my favorite sculpt of all the Fashion Royalty dolls. I spend more time and energy (read: money) on them than most of my other dolls. I don't stop until they look gorgeous. Color Therapy arrived on the scene with too much hair. No amount of combing or hair tamer worked. So I bit the bullet and boiled a pot of water and used it to straighten her hair. Believe it or not, the result - which looks like she has had a light perm - was the straightest I could get it! I think it's much better than before.

Here are two earlier photos of her. In these, her hair has been combed out but I couldn't get it into a pleasing style.

NDR: New Yorker Cartoon by Alex Gregory

Just because I think it's funny.

Picture of the Week Award ~ August 23, 2009

When I opened a post on Prego and saw the pictures of this doll, I thought it was a real person!

The photo is by Jackie Saunders who goes by the name of Jackie in Cincy or JinCincy on the boards. The doll's name is Callan. He is a limited edition Iplehouse EID SE version of Akando. Honestly, I have no idea what all those initials stand for but it must be something really good because this doll is as hot as it gets. The photos Jackie posted of him are beautifully exposed and composed. He is so easy to stare at. Jackie knows how to use a black background when her doll is dressed in black. She lights the background to make the doll stand away from it. The lighting creates a wonderful dimensional effect and outlines Callan's body. Well done!

This information regarding the dolls has been provided by Jackie:
Iplehouse does offer regular line versions in different skin tones, (white and normal) but the skin tone my guy has, called "real resin" (which is a mix of urethane and french resins), has only been offered as Special Edition dolls. The Iplehouse EID guys are 70cm tall and they are heavy, weighing in at close to 7 lbs. They are some of the most beautiful, realistic looking male dolls that I have ever seen though, and that was the draw for me. Their bodies are sculpted beautifully. They even have detailed veining in their arms and hands. They are truly pieces of art in my eyes. They range in price from about $640 for a standard doll without make up to $1000 for some of the limited editions.

If you would like to see more of Jackie's photos of her doll collection check out her Picture Trail album and/or her Live Journal. You won't be disappointed!

Congratulations, Jackie, on your Picture of the Week Award.

Dania Zarr "Red Zinger" Fashion Royalty Doll

The only doll I pre-ordered from this year's main collection was Red Zinger Dania. I did so mainly because she is a new character; however, her mold has already been used for Lana Turner. She photographs amazingly well or I was just having a good afternoon...not sure which. Usually when I'm not in love with a doll, the photos show it.

As to the quality of the doll, she passes with flying colors. I'm having a little trouble with the jewelry. The tiny jump rings holding the heavy elements together open easily and when I was removing the necklace from it's cardboard backing, two pieces fell off. Yesterday when I was posing the doll, part of her earring fell off. Annoying but not irreparable.
Dania came dressed with a plastic protector around her shoulders and neck. That's a warning if ever there was one. Do not leave this outfit on the doll for an extended period. I wonder if there is something one can apply to the interior of that area that will protect the doll. Saran wrap?
I removed the navy blue fabric belt/sash as I felt it was completely out of place and ruined the line of the outfit.
As you can see, under the jacket Dania is wearing a sleeveless top tucked into the skirt. It's like a bodysuit although there is elastic rather than fabric holding the top down between her legs. She's also got panties under that. The skirt sheds a bit so when photographing one must carefully blow any stray fibers away.

Let's talk about the hair. This is just my personal taste. I don't like the roll. So far in all the pictures collectors have posted, they have flattened it. In the promotional photo that Integrity posted (see below), the curl is flattened. So why have it in the first place?

Image Property of Integrity Toys

I have an on-going issue with manufacturers whose promotional photos look significantly different from the production dolls. This isn't a big issue with Dania. Please, show us the dolls we are ordering before we order them. 

I don't know what color the sash is supposed to be. Mine looks navy blue but the shoes are black. Am I missing something?

I hope lighter, more feminine shoes make a comeback. Ultimately each collector personalizes the fashions to his own taste. Some like painted hands and chunky shoes. My own taste in dolls runs to the softer-looking face with less exaggerated features. 

Personal preferences aside, this is a great doll although she is expensive at $135.

Cool Site to Make Photo Presentations

Maybe everyone knows this site already but I just discovered it. All you have to do is upload a bunch of pictures, pick a theme, a presentation format and some music and the program does all the work. I love the way the sepia film look like an old 8mm filmstrip. Very vintage.

I have un-embedded the video. Please click on the link below to watch.

http://www.moblyng.com/watch/i7LWVhYSk0

Picture of the Week Award ~ 8/16/09

Stratos Bacalis used the Vogue Magazine cover seen above as his inspiration to create one using Fashion Royalty dolls.


I asked Stratos to provide a little background on the making of the photograph. He wrote:
"It was difficult to shoot as no more than 5 dolls at a time could fit into my light-box do lighting and background had to be kept the same for the combined shoots. The black & white outfit choice was necessary to maximise the impact and keep it tasteful (I wanted to do the white and blue like vogue but I do not have enough blue items if any in my stash). Lots of thinking went into how the ladies would be combined. It was certain from the get go that they would all be FR ladies but not NU Face girls (they will get their own cover later, plus I do not have all the NU face girls yet). I tried to even the hair colouring - same number of blonds in both groups. The two African-American ladies ended up in the second group due to the dresses and not their skin colour - two white outfits are in each group but the first had both white dresses with a full short skirt that meant that the two black outfits with a short full skirt would have to be in another group and from that point everything fell into place. I tried to convey the feeling of the original Vogue cover as much as possible but it is not always easy, plus I have no ladders to use in this scale. In the end I think it still looks good."

If you would like to read Stratos' blog, see more of his photographs and learn more about the man, here is the link to the Fashion Doll Chronicles, his fashion doll blog: http://fashiondollchronicles.blogspot.com/


Congratulations, Stratos on the Picture of the Week Award!

~

Click to see pages and pages of Vogue Magazine covers.

Click here to see lots of Vintage Vogue Magazine covers.