Barbie goes Grey Gardens

We can sit on paper.

Grey Gardens is a documentary from the 70ies. It`s about a mother an a daughter living together for 20 years. They where part of the high society from NY`s upper class in the beginning of the 21st century, but lost everything, exept the house in the Hamptons, till the end. Edith Bouvier Beale, related to Jackie Kennedy, and her daugther called Little Edie became Hoarders over the time. They lived together with more than 20 cats and a raccoon. Little Edie lost all her hair due to illness and created her own fashion Style by wearing turbans. She inspires designers like John Galliano who did a whole collection dedicated to her. HBO made their story into a wonderful movie with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lang in the leading roles.

There is this one house in our street. Rumor has it that the people, who used to live there, left over night about 15 years ago. I found out that the neighbours have a key and i just asked if i could sneak in for an hour to take a few pics! So it turned out that it was not a rumor at all. Everything was exactly where the owners, who seem to have been Hoarders, left it. There is even a christmas tree. It`s very disgusting but the perfect Grey Gardens!

Enjoy!


Listening to: Drew Barrymore - Tea for Two

I used Paso Doble-Barbie and Sinatra-Barbie. Fashion is a Mix of New and Old!



Be kind to one another....


Axel

Best of 80ies / Day-to-Night Barbie / 1984

Frankie Says Relax!

I grew up in the 80`ies. My parents did not really want me to play with Barbie`s. It was the good old `Boys don`t do that. Boys play football and cowboy.` I had a lot of Playmobile and Lego.
But on special occasions, like my birthday or christmas, i always wanted to have a Barbie. So sometimes my parents gave in and said yes, since they wanted me to be happy.

Day-to-night-Barbie is one of this special-occasion-dolls that i got. Because her hair isn`t that long i was not so much in love with her at first. But i remember that later, i loved playing with her, especially in water. She got that great pink-glitter-bathing-suit underneath.
Barbie was supposed to go from office to  a date with Ken, as far as i remember. So her skirt is reverseble and there is also a little play-set, turning from an office to an apartment with bed and closet.

Like all my old Barbie`s she did not survive my childhood because i always cut their hair off and stuff like that. But in the 90ies, when i started collecting, i bought a few of my favourite 80ies Divas back. Some of them i left in the box (like my all-time favourite Rock Star Barbie) because when there will be timetravel invented, i will go right back to 1986 and give little Axel his Barbie`s.
But some of them i got out, so i decided to have fun and do some pictures!

Enjoy!


Listening to: Fancy - `Chinese Eyes`

Hope your summer is not so rainy like mine here in Austria,

Be kind to one another,


Axel

1875-80 Robe à la Polonaise/ Part 2

Marie Antoinette vous embrasse!

 So the Polonaise Gown is finished! I already showed you some pics i made in my last post, when the gown was still not pulled into the polonaise. Also i choose to do a more natural hairstyle for the first part.

 I got a lot of nice feedback on my account on flickr  from you, my readers and i´m very happy about it! I see that there are so many talented people out there in the doll-world!

Now for Part 2 Marie Antoinette is back in all her high-hair Rococo Glory! I added ruffles on the bottom and i had to play around a bit with the polonaise. Since everything is so much smaller in this scale the fabric moves different. But i´m happy with the outcome.
She wears the bumroll (to which i already gave the pattern out) and a very simple underskirt. There is a Corset worked into the Bodice with steel-boning. I find this to be necessary to keep the skirt into palce and the waist slim. Also it gives the gown a more realistic `Rococo`- look with a flat chest.


Enjoy!



Listening to: `The Key` - George Fenton (Dangerous Liaisons Soundtrack)

 The pics are taken with Hipastamatic in my little doll-foto-studio, which is basicly just a light box made out of cardboard. I got the floor and the wallpaper-pattern somewhere on the net and just printed it out. I used Barbie Basics Model Nr. 01.

So i don`t know when i will be back! My holiday is almost over and i have a lot of work to do.
Also i am into BJD-research right now (it`s like sience!)! I never wanted to get into it because i really expensive and i adore Barbie but when i did research about doll costumes on the Internet all the gowns and pics i liked where on BJD`s! I think i´m ready for the next scale...

So if any BJD addict is reading this: I would be very happy about a contact into this world! I have so many questions!


Be kind to one another....


Axel

1875-80 Robe à la Polonaise/Robe a l'anglaise/ Part 1

Marie Antoinette vous embrasse!


I finally finished the Rococo Gown!

Rococo is very hard to do. With the boning and double skirts and everything.... But the reason it took so long is because i could not find the right light-blue fabric for the petticoat. There where moments when i was so pissed off that i wanted to give up working on it.
Then, a person i admire very much, said `Don`t let your hobby stress you. You should celbrate finding the right material!` So i did and went to a fabric store where i never was before, but always wanted to go. I got in and saw light blue silk right in front of me. And i knew it would work.

So this is a dress that is inspired by a Gown from JanetArnold- Patterns of fashion 1. It always was my favourite dress and i am very happy with how it turned out.  It reminds me of Marie Antoinette right before the revolution so i made Barbie this kind of more natural hairstyle.

Since i have holidays this week i have more time to go out to take pics. Because i like the dress down, i mean without it pulled into a polonaise, i decided to do also a post like this. So for the first part, the dress is more like a Robe a l'anglaise. But there is more to come these days!


Enjoy...


Listening to:  Concerto in G - Vivaldi (Marie Antoinette Soundtrack)

The pics are taken in the castle in Halbturn/Austria(www.schlosshalbturn.com/), which belonged to Marie Theresia, mother of Marie Antoinette. I used Renaissance Fair Barbie and Hipstamatic on Iphone.


Enoy summer, go and have an adveture!


Be kind to one another...


Axel