A
few months ago I discovered, and became really interested in 1920s
boudoir dolls. I love them because they had such a short run, just
though the 20's and 30's, and are so perfectly frivolous!
For
any one as late to the pary as me, boudoir dolls came about as part of
the many crafts coming into Paris from Russia at that time. Relativly
simple cloth bodies, painted faces, and at the time more Russian style
costume. They became more and more popular and soon they were being made
in fantastic18th century inspired costumes, as fashionable flappers and
seedy undesirables. Women would drape them around their bedrooms and
personal spaces. They represented the style of the times, and also the
fantasies and daydreams of the young women holled up in these rooms. The
dolls weren't only restricted to the house, some daring flappers would
carry their dolls out for a night on the town. More than just a fashion
doll, they were dolls as fashion accessories!
You can
spot them quite often in old movies, and they show up fairly regularly
in photos of film stars and flappers through out the 20's and 30's.
I
design clothing and accessories for a living, but also make and
customize dolls pleasure, so these have so much appeal to me as dolls
and as accessories.
from cute but beat up to "I can't believe it
stayed so clean for so long!" Trawling through listings and photos I
found myself more and more wanting to make my own so that it could be
just as personal as some of the dolls that appeared to be to their
owners in the old photos like the one above.
It
took a while, but after getting my hands covered in clay, and clothes
whited out with dust, I finally managed to steal some time the other day
to finish off my first boudoir doll! She looks like a Constance so
that's what she's called.
She went from a creepy head on a stick to a
(apparently still creepy) well dressed girl, swimming in ruffles, ribbons and art deco styling!
She has a little floss wig, picture dress, and lots of little ribbon trimmings, right down to mini knee level garters!
There's
whole line of projects to work on using this doll, and it's got me
started making old style dolls which is something I've been wanting to
do for a while.
A few things I might do differently
next time around, but over all she makes me smile, and a great starting
point for bringing yet another new old thing into my life :) More photos
over on
Dolly Daydream (including the dolly garters!!!) along with a lot of the other dolls I've made and customized over the years.