12 Sept - 22 Nov & FANTASY 2015 21st century fashion dolls

The Devil rides a Ducati Real life Théâtre de la Mode who wants that! Rajasthan: On set with fashion from the Land of Kings Cersei Lannister

Over 500 dolls! Julie Manley’s Collection olls can be extraordinarily powerful little receptacles of meaning. Fashion dolls in particular induce anything from adoration to outright hatred. WhoD would have thought that a little plastic doll called Barbie, who first appeared in 1959, could arouse such strong emotions? She is adored by little girls (and big girls and boys) all over the world, and reviled by feminists for inducing crippling body image problems in young girls. She has starred in her own porn movies, and many of her body versions have been made to wear permanent underwear by the manufacturer to assure adults that she is not as dangerous as she appears. Not much is known about medieval to try it out on a doll first. After World Today Barbie can range from a dolls, mostly because they were War II French couture designers glamorous bit of eye candy to an made from perishable materials, sent the Théâtre de la Mode to astronaut, but even having a PhD in such as rag dolls. By the time of the Europe and the United States to physics is not enough to save her from High Renaissance however, fashion raise funds for war survivors and Fashion & Fantasy criticism. Meanwhile, as Barbie takes dolls had become a status symbol, revive the French fashion industry. the heat of feminist debate, since exchanged by kings and queens These fashion mannequins were I started collecting fashion dolls around for their children. These dolls were 1/3 scale, impeccably garbed, 21st century fashion dolls 2000 many other dolls have come usually adult females, dressed in silks and with all their accessories. Later onto the market that are far more and jewels in the latest court fashion. fashion designers such as Jason Julie Manley’s collection of fashion dolls ‘adult’ and sophisticated. Probably not things children actually Wu, have also designed couture combines her loves of sewing, fashion There is an amazing world of artist played with. The same applies to for dolls and gone on to achieve and women’s history. She started making dolls, small editions of resin ball-jointed elaborate doll houses, which were success in the fashion world. Much dolls’ clothes when she was a small child, dolls, movie, TV and popular comic mainly for instructing children in how of my own collection consists of dolls graduating to using patterns for fashion dolls out there these days. to run large houses. and fashion designed by Jason for dolls and making more complicated Integrity Toys. items as she got older. Julie trained There is very little literature on the Before the age of printed magazines There is now quite a large market as a potter at art school and also meaning or significance of dolls, but fashion dolls were important vehicles in America, Europe and Japan for has a degree in art history. according to Max von Boehn (1929, of fashion information between all kinds of dolls related to movies, 1972), there are at least 29 categories European courts. They were so comics and manga aimed at the She started collecting fashion dolls of dolls ranging from the prehistoric important that at the beginning of the adult collector. The high end fashion seriously in 2000. They have all been ‘Venus’ found in Europe, to votive 18th century during one of the many doll is ball jointed for posing and repainted or customised in some way offering dolls, fetish dolls and ancestor wars between England and France, far more realistic than poor Barbie by Julie; she repaints the dolls’ faces figures, just to name a few. Doll utensils the only things allowed into England has managed to date. Not only and has designed and made many of have been found in Neolith graves, were French fashion mannequins. are they vehicles of haute couture the outfits. She now travels to the annual and clothes for a doll in a Byzantine One supposes that English ladies were but also of fantasy, and one-of-a- Integrity Toys convention in the USA and cemetery. The adult doll has a very not about to be up-staged by French kind artist ball jointed dolls can cost won their ‘One of a Kind’ competition in long history. Baby or child dolls did fashion. Much later in the early 20th many thousands of dollars. Costume 2011. Her collection includes dolls dressed not come onto the market until about century fashion dolls were used by design for movies is often replicated in historical fashion, ethnic clothing and 1850 and up until then little girls had designers such as Madeleine Vionnet on fashion dolls; Gone with the couture and also features costumes from dolls dressed as adults. In fact, little to work out her new dresses, many Wind Barbie and Ken dolls by Mattel film and television. girls themselves were dressed as small cut on the bias and requiring yards of were just the start. Fashion dolls and adults, and childhood, as we know it, expensive fabric. It was much cheaper movie costumes are an easy fit. is a relatively recent cultural shift.

American comic strips and cartoon Why do I collect fashion dolls? I have asked myself that question many times

FASHION & FANTASY programs have also proved an inspiration for toy makers such as when contemplating the money I Integrity Toys. It is a very short leap spend on them, and have no suitable from a brightly coloured cartoon answer. I love fashion, I love the history character or comic strip hero/heroine of women in fashion, I love fabric and to a doll. The Tonner doll company I love painting. I guess I can combine makes lots of popular American all these loves together in the modern culture characters, some of which fashion doll. Clothing especially has skirt around the edge of the ‘fashion come to define women in a multitude of ways, and whatever one thinks of 21st century fashion dolls doll’, such as the 22 inch (55.88 cms) Avatar hand painted resin figures. fashion there is no escaping it. There has been an explosion of art Fashion defines gender, class, and fashion dolls in the last 20 years or ethnicity and time period, and I find so, everything from the larger 16 inch the nuts and bolts of how it does this Sybarites from Superfrock (designed by fascinating. It has been, and I presume Desmond Lingard and Charles Fegen to some extent still is, a way that men in 2005), and Kingdom Dolls, both define women as items of conspicuous from England, to the small art dolls consumption and symbols of power. called ‘The Enchanted Doll’ by Marina My collection is not so much about Bychkova, to George Gonzalez’s collecting every single fashion doll out JamieShow resin dolls in the USA (of there, but about a range of historical, which there are five in my collection). contemporary and fantasy/film costume fashions that interest me. The modern globalisation of the toy industry can also be seen as a subtle So, fashion dolls are not about form of cultural imperialism. To date childhood, they are about role play Mattel has made many versions of for children and fantasy objects for Barbie dressed in ethnic costume, adults. They are a miniature world of which around 60 are displayed where problems and imperfections here. Some are examples of historical are banished. One could speculate European court dress, but others about the psychology of collecting represent many different cultures fashion dolls, but that is not nearly as from around the world. Barbie is by interesting as the dolls themselves. no means considered a suitable Attempts have been made in recent toy for little girls everywhere but years to produce more ‘realistic’ modern media, particularly television, fashion dolls, but they are not nearly as is gradually changing this. This does successful as those perfect little plastic have implications for changing notions forms that would be seven feet tall in of body image among girls not real life. Real life – who wants that! of western origin, and where the ideal of feminine beauty is very Julie Manley different to western haute couture. September 2015 On the plus side, there has been a huge increase in ethnically diverse dolls, both male and female: from the cheaper African American and other ethnic dolls by Mattel, to the high- Mon–Fri: 10am–5pm, Sat–Sun: 12pm–5pm end resin models, such as some of Civic Square, Canberra City | 6207 3968 George’s Jamie Show dolls. www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au

Photography by Rob and Sandie Little