L’Enfant Terriblé, with green eyes, bright red hair in a side-parted ponytail and black nails, has an incredibly daring look

The Cissy fashion doll by Madame Alexander was first manufactured in 1955 and was described at the time as “the doll with the figure and features of a debutante, is the newest and most exciting doll in the world.” She featured a more adult body shape, arched feet for high heels and articulation previously unknown at that time. She was, in fact, the forerunner of fashion dolls as we know them, including Barbie who came along 4 years later.

It was with great interest then that I learnt Cissy was to have a makeover thanks to uber-designer of dolls Jason Wu and his unique talent and vision. The collections he has come up with are divided into two: the ‘NEOCissy’, which is futuristic and edgy and the more classic, 50′s flavoured, ‘Cissy Collection’. Both collections consist of three dolls each possessing an increased level of articulation due to 15 joints. The dolls therefore lend themselves to more realistic poseability and are 16” and 21” in height respectively.

Both Jason Wu collections will be available at FAO Schwarz and online at MadameAlexander.com as soon as August 2010.

Some of those who took part in the fashion show

The main event on the Saturday of Paris Fashion Doll Festival weekend is the banquet luncheon and the silent auction that precedes it. However the day was getting off to a rather shaky start what with all festivities of the previous night at ‘Disco 3000’ and we were running, or rather shuffling, somewhat late. We needn’t have worried, of course, as according to custom the Luncheon was running even later! After a quick reconnoitre of the auction dolls on display outside the main hall (which were lovely but luckily nothing I wanted to put a sum down for) it was time to find our table.

The table centrepiece dolls comprised of the formerly mentioned Astronaut Barbie repro and silver clad Tonner Friday Fosters. The other eight guests at our table were perfectly fine and the chatter was suitably doll related. The food, however, was far from fine, especially for us vegans, despite a promising salad starter. When our main courses eventually came it was simply a plate of vegetables and overcooked ones at that! The rest of our table seemed similarly displeased with the duck, which largely went half eaten. One of the table gifts was a Superfrock fan, which came in very handy as the room became increasingly tropical!

The events were entertaining enough with a slide show celebrating 10 years of Silkstone Barbie. During the slide show each table had to identify the original vintage Barbie inspiration doll or outfit behind the Silkstones in order to win prizes. Who knew that such a simple premise would lead to lead to dollgate! As so many tables had top scores there was a draw to choose

Paris exclusive Ellowynne Wilde

an overall winner and the prizes were suitably distributed. However it turned out that Kathy, the event organizer, had read out the winning score and not the table number, quelle horreur! The excruciating process of reclaiming the prizes and redrawing a new winning table then took place. Although one of the Barbie hatboxes prizes didn’t make it’s way back. Oops!

We were then treated to the fashion show, which was great fun, especially with the very cute children who took part. It was great to see all the effort people had put into making the matching outfits to their favourite dolls. Eventually it was time to distribute the other festival exclusoe dolls, Ellowyne Wilde and Antoinette, to those who had reserved them. The centerpiece dolls were eventually raffled off to lucky winners on each table and it was time to disperse and reconvene later that evening for the Superdoll museum opening.

ToCK on display in the salesroom. Photo courtesy of a wonderful Flickr friend

The last day of the festival was the show and sale and delegates from the festival had early entry in order to bag those bargains. The sales room was huge and quite daunting at first glance. The infiltration of newborn dolls into a Fashion Doll event was somewhat surprising and one attendee was even heard to say, “let me look at a real doll instead of dead babies” whilst gazing upon a Sybarite! The Sybarite in question was the exquisite ToCK, the spiritual sister of TiCK the Superdoll event exclusive from Disco 3000. She was a limited edition of 100 and most were sold at the event with the remainder on sale at the Superfrock site for a very short time a few days later. Unfortunately I was unable to get my hands on her on both occasions!

Oh well there is always next year as I can see that this Paris lark will become an annual pilgrimage for this particular doll observer…

The exclusive museum Sybarite doll 'Slipper'

Last night was the official opening of the Superfrock exhibition at the Musée de la Poupée in Paris. All delegates from the Doll Festival Luncheon were invited, with a metallic blue wristband as the talisman of entry. A red carpeted entrance with champagne reception and DJ greeted us as well as the Superfrock creators themselves, Charles and Desmond.

The exhibition begins were Superfrock themselves began, the  OOAK outfits designed for other fashion dolls. These are superbly displayed, suspended in midair and secured in place with artery forceps and nylon thread. Clear dress forms, twisted and contorted, held the shape of these majestic costumes.

The exhibition then leads us to the Sybarite dolls themselves from the first studio hand made dolls, chalk whites and production dolls to the very latest, exclusive museum doll ‘Slipper’. Each piece is lovingly displayed and it is a great privilege to see entire collections all in one place. It is also rather sad, but never the less thrilling, to see the “ones that got away”. Those dolls and Couture pieces that I have thus far failed to secure.

Of particular note were the ‘Chelsea Girls’ and ‘The Fashion Victims’, which are perennial favourites amongst collectors, and dolls that I certainly covet! It was also wonderful to see all the pieces up close and to be able to see the extraordinary detail and craftsmanship that goes into them. They truly are works of art well worthy of such a place, in possibly the worlds most famous doll museum.

The exhibition runs until 19th September 2010 and I would encourage anyone who can to attend to do so. See the website here for more details.