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…

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A selection of festival souvenirs including Superdoll fan!

Well dear reader, as I am now safely back in the UK I thought I ought to put finger to keyboard and right a review of my first Fashion Doll convention. So here we have part 1…

The Paris Fashion Doll Festival 2010 took place at the Novotel Paris Est at the end on the Metro Line 3 in Bagnolet. Which is somewhere you wouldn’t normally find yourself for a weekend in Paris, I shouldn’t think, unless of course you happened to be a fashion doll lover! However the welcome there was friendly enough and the hotel modern and comfortable. We arrived a day early due to my birthday falling on the night prior to the main events but nonetheless there were still some ‘doll people’ already ensconced. My companion was particularly sensitive to spotting them, despite (or because of!) not being one themselves!

The first day’s events began on the evening of the 12^th March with the Superfrock breakout event ‘Disco 3000’. Registration began that afternoon. This is were we discovered that the promised convention exclusive Barbie had failed to materialise due to some error or other at the Mattel end. Instead we got to choose from several of the newer Barbie repros and we ended up with ‘Student Teacher’ and ‘Astronaut’ respectively. The rumour later was that the convention exclusive doll was to have been a colour variation Astronaut. That would make sense, I suppose, given the theme of the festival was ‘Haute Couture of the Future’.

The Superfrock Venus D'Royce medallion

There was quite a wait for that evening’s event to begin but then this was France and it would be rude to be on time according to the local custom! However, with a suitable level of anticipation, it wasn’t long until we were issued with small pink packages and silver wristband. Theses were the keys to getting our hands on the exclusive Sybarite doll later on that night. The packages turned out to contain necklaces, medallions in fact, of the Venus D’Royce moniker. Venus of course being the most famous of the Sybarite head sculpts. Charles Fegan and Desmond Lingard, the chaps behind Superfrock Ltd, then made their entrance, suitably attired in futuresque disco garb.

The festivities were really on now and as well copious champagne and cocktails we were treated to metallic trunked go-go dancers on the catwalk. Let us just say that there was plenty of audience participation! Then the real meat of the evening came around and TICK, the exclusive Paris event Sybarite, was handed out. She came presented in commemorative shipper decorated with Superdoll motif smiley faces. Plus a welcome handle for the onward trip home! Many of the guests were soon seen scurrying to survey their doll in the privacy of their rooms. However I chose to head straight to the bar and drew quite a crowd as I inspected my new gal.

The Superdoll becomes a smiley!

She is quite a beauty, I should tell you and I will be making a detailed review and taking more photographs for your viewing pleasure very soon. One of her key points are the compacts concealed in the soles of her shoes which were pointed out to me by none other than Desmond himself. There were to be four dolls in all presented over the weekend, TICK, TOCK, Slipper and Librium. The rest of the evening continued as it began and I can safely say, a good time was had by all!

To be continued…

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.

Peep was the exclusive Sybarite at the 2009 Festival

The Paris Doll Expo site has been updated with an itinerary of the weekend’s events. Needless to say I am getting most excited at the prospect of the Superfrock “Disco 3000″ event on the Friday evening. Especially to see what the exclusive doll will be, given that the theme of the festival is “Haute Couture of the Future”. Charles and Desmond are bound to have a field day with it!

There will be 3 other exclusive makers dolls available, Mattel‘s Barbie, Robert Tonner’s Antoinette and Wilde Imagination’s Ellowyne Wilde. Again it will be interesting to see what other designers will come up with.

An added bonus is the recently announced exhibition at the Paris Doll Museum entitled “Nouvelles Icônes – Des Poupées Pandores aux Sybarites” which runs from 14 March to 19 September 2010. There will also be yet another exclusive doll available through the museum named “Slipper” and she will be unveiled at the exhibition opening. Find more information about the exhibition here.