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Doll Fashion Trends?

Jul 26, 2007

    1. lols my last thread I put out here wasn't good enough for a debate topic, so I hope I can do it this time XD

      How do you feel about doll fashion trends? The lolitas, the girly boys, the emo kids? Is there too much of such, or is there something more you want to see? Do you agree or disagree (or don't care? lol) with today's doll fashion trends?

      Well, I can't really judge on how people want to dress their dolls, but I like to go for different, less popular trends, just b/c I like it that way. Like, I have a Kiss, and you should say that it's more "girly" of the guy molds, but it's so cool to dress him manly and to be able to make that "girly" guy mold more into a manly mold (lols lots of m's...XD; ). Though when it comes to trends in a bigger degree, I'd like to see more variety in trends...buuuut that's just me...^^'
       
    2. I think that there are some fashions that are more popular, but I don't think it matters the slightest bit. Most of my guys look like pretty average guys. I do have one very femmy boy, however, I chose that look for him because it suites him and I enjoy dressing him. It has nothing to do with how many people are or aren't also into cross dressing boys.

      I see a lot of complaints everytime something becomes popular, but I never saw why it matters. If someone doesn't like looking at something, then they don't have to click on those gallery threads. I prefer to dress my dolls how I like, and not worry about what other people think. I got into this hobby for me, not for everyone else.

      Also as the board gets bigger, there are more posts to wade through to find what you like, but there are also a wider variety of people posting things which means, what you want to see is probably going to be there. Sometimes it's just a matter of beating the search function into submission and finding it. I would personally enjoy seeing more crossdressing girls (gender ambiguity is fun for me). There's a thread in the BJD picture request forum for them, but it seems that they are more in the minority.
       
    3. I like dressing my guys in basic jeans/pants with teeshirts/camp shirts or really nice kimono.

      I refuse to have my guys in anything with skulls or crosses because it is so over-done.

      I do get tired of what is offered by some of the companies, especially when the majority of the clothing is Gothlet/Emo. I have a Model Doll M and I want simple, classic and stylist clothing for him, not emo/goth boy clothing. The same for my Hound. And if I CAN find a suit or nice dress pants, they are outrageous in price.

      I wish the trendy stuff included more colour choices. I like red and black together but it gets boring after a while. And how about some different patterns for socks, instead of just pirate stripes?
       
    4. Where are the colors? Seems all I see is black, black and maybe a dash of white. Cameron likes bright colors, not sad droopy black :(

      And can someone point me out to a place that DOESN'T sell chunky black lace-up boots? They're EVERYWHERE!!!
       
    5. Having just bought a doll I don't know if I'm qualified to talk about fashion trends for the dolls. However, I perticularly adore older fashions of clothing. Not lolita perticularly, although I do think those are fun, I enjoy medievel clothing, ren clothing..edwardian clothing perticularly. I think I'm going to have fun creating clothing for my doll.
       
    6. There's no agree-or-disagree... fashions are what they are, and there are a very very wide variety of fashions going on up here on DOA.

      Whenever I see a post complaining that "there's too many goths" or "there's nothing but girlyboys" or "everybody in the world dresses their dolls in black"-- I HAVE to wonder, where are you looking? ;; Whenever I scan the Gallery: I see fluff, I see lolita, I see men in suits, I see girls, I see boys in regular-guy clothes, I see Barbie-style gowns, I see pink-pink-pink, I see historical costumes, I see goths & punks, I see uniforms, I see nudes, I see fantastical creatures, I see bad kimonos, I see good kimonos, I see a huge spectrum. I don't know where these "fashion conspiracies" are that others seem to be seeing.

      DOA Gallery trends also sorta follow the market-- whenever a company releases a new collection, you're naturally going to see a lot of that clothing/wig/accessories/etc. in the Gallery for awhile. Likesay, when a Unoa release is out, for weeks the Gallery is clogged with bigtitty girl dolls dressed in babydoll negligees, croptops, & maid-uniforms. >_< Whenever Ajumapama group-orders are in, everybody's in goggles & fabulous hats. Whenever DollHeart releases out new shoes, you'll see a lot of big black S&M boots.

      There are a lot of rock-star looks up in here, because of the availability of clothing/wig styles at the various companies. Most of 'em seem to favor more dramatic & androgynous looks-- so that's what's for sale. But it's by NO means exclusive, if you bother to look, & shop on any web-store past Page 1. Again, if you can't find anything else, I have to wonder where you're shopping: I always see plenty of non-black shoes and regular-kid clothes on big sites like Volks, Dollmore, Soom, Iplehouse, etc. (But I click past them, because *I'm* looking for the big black S&M-boots.)

      Personally, I prefer a hybrid of styles, with elements to suit each doll's personality separately. But when seen in the aggregate, my dolls are all sorta dressed like boy-versions of me. Since it's my collection, this makes perfect sense. :)
       
    7. Jenny has the right of it... There's quite a bit of variety out there. Sometimes you do have to go looking for it rather than just passively browsing, but it does exist.

      I dress my own dolls mostly in traditional or historical Asian and European outfits, not in black leather, punk plaids, or stompy boots, skulls and crosses... and sometimes it is a challenge to find things that are both appropriate to the doll's look and well made (It's nice when that sort of thing is also reasonably affordable, but that's usually too much to hope for. :sweat )... But it's not impossible. If you keep your eyes opened, eventually something will come along that works.
       
    8. Well, I have six dolls and they just happen to separate in two groups. One I tend to keep very modern. Jeans or leather for my boy, and outfits you would see outside on real folk for my girls (just not into Lolita). Summertime, light clothing colors and for winter black with red or greens.

      My second group I tend to dress more fantasy - between fairy and mother earth. Lots of layers, with lots of color.

      And as always, too many clothes. Need more dolls to wear them.
       
    9. Many people interested in these dolls are interested in them as a creative outlet. I think most of all people just want to use their dolls' clothes as a creative outlet as well.

      If someone timid was incredibly into hardcore punk fashion, but too shy to wear it themselves and attract all the attention, the next best thing is to have dolls wearing the clothes you would want to wear.

      Since dolls are supposed to let your imagination free, the more 'devious' styles of fashion go along with it.

      That being said, I think there is a reaaaally good even mix of all styles represented in the Gallery. Sometimes I even feel like I don't find ENOUGH lolita, punk, and emo to satisfy me. xD

      One more thing- I don't know if I'd really consider these styles a 'trend'. I don't think they're prominent because someone made it look good and everyone else hopped on the bandwagon. I think that it's just what most of the doll community leans towards. c:​
       
    10. Ah! Such a good point! How many of you dress those bigtitty Unoas in little teeny revealing clothes that you'd never ever ever in a million years try to put onto your own body? :sweat Heh. We dress our dolls nifty so that we don't have to wear that stuff ourselves. It's an extension of the self, into a place where we ourselves might not feel like going.

      However-- I also groove on people who dress their dolls exactly like themselves. That's a different kind of 'extension' of self, but I think it's just as cool. I especially love convention-photos, with people & their dolls dressed identically for Renaissance Faires, Star Trek cons, kimono expos, and all manner of wonderful cosplay.

      (For my own big-black-boot addiction, I buy them for my boys because I USED to wear that stuff every day-- and still love it-- but can no longer be bothered to dress myself up daily. Now I can still get my Fashion Ya-Yas out, for a fraction of the cost of getting those boots in my own size, and the tiny boots take up a fraction of my closet-space. :))
       
    11. When I first joined there seemed to be a lot of very girly Lolita clothing and some Goth/Vamp and a bit of traditional Asian. Then as the hobby grew more mature dolls became available (mini and SD size), there was a greater variety of clothing from a larger number of companies and seamstresses. Now there seems to be a large variety - Lolita, Waloli, Goth/Vamp, Asian, plain casual, Emo, Punk, high fashion (mostly for mature SD), fantasy and costumes. Particular new trends appeared to follow most recent the Tokyo pop fashions for teens (little skirts over jeans or capris, half skirts over the same, etc.). I would see the same Tokyo human clothes on Ebay around the same times as the doll fashion trends. And I think it's great the dolls get to keep up with fashion trends.

      There are some things I wish there was more of - airy Edwardian whites, folky clothes (Asian, European, etc), and more fantasy clothing.

      As for dressing boys in modern female clothes, I don't really get it. But I do understand dressing boys in feminine but historically/mythologically correct ways. And I love long hair on males and "pretty boys".

      Carolyn
       
    12. The most heavily-admired-by-the-masses fashion trend i've seen has to be 'dark look'. There's the gawth punk or the rocked out look which has lots of the black with red or grey, grunge skulls, chains, tears, plaid mini skirts, checkers, stud belts, patches and safety pins. And then there's the more girly dark look which would be the black colored loli stuff.

      While I have nothing against the punkish fashion trend, it just isn't my thing. Even the online stores that carry BJD clothing are saturated with the punkish and darker look to the point where it becomes really hard to find clothes that aren't of that style, especially when it comes to shoes when nearly all that's offered are platforms or punk'd out chunk boots. *_*...

      Personally i'd love to see fashions that experiment a bit more with color and different patterned fabric combinations.
       
    13. QFE:

      Random example, found without even trying: The front page of Dollmore.net's shoe section is almost entirely white, pink, red, lowcut, and/or open-toed.

      http://dollmore.net/shop/step_submain.php?b_code=B20050506094358

      Tip: Try actively shopping, instead of waiting the styles you want to fall out of the sky into your lap. Your dolls will be happier!
       
    14. Yes, Dollmore is notorious for selling clothes that aren't usually like the rest but like I said "NEARLY all that's offered", not all.

      Though when compared to the few shops that sell some non punk outfits such as Dollmore, Ajumapama, and some DOA seamstresses the amount of shops that do sell mainly only punk styled outfits far out weighs them.

      Now once again, i'm not saying that you wont find anything but punk outfits, i'm saying that you will have to dig deeper to find non punk outfits than you would have to dig to find punk outfits.
       
    15. I'm really seeing a negative attitude to punk/'visual' styles in this thread. I don't understand why. It seems like there's a lot of harsh undertones when many of you are talking about it.

      I honestly don't see dark styles reprented too much more than others. I think it's a lot more memorable, but I don't think it's because it's a lot more abundant.​
       
    16. I'm mainly seeing a lot of resenting undertones towards people who think that the style is a fashion trend. It is a fashion trend in my eyes, but I never once said that it was a negative fashion trend. *_*

      I think that a lot of people take the word "trend" in a negative light and are popping veins trying to defend some sort of honor. There's nothing to defend here because what is currently a trend is a matter of opinion based on what you've seen around.
       
    17. I wasn't talking about you specifically- Sorry if it came off that way. But I don't see much of a debate or discussion really happening here. More like people saying, "There's a lot of punk dolls. I don't like punk clothes for my doll."

      I will admit I think of the word trend negatively. To me, a trend means that, basically, someone did something different and everyone is ripping off their style. I mentioned this as an aside earlier, but other than that, I don't think anyone has brought it up.
      It's the wrong way to perceive the word, but it's just how I take it.

      I never mean to be offensive or defensive. I was just trying to direct the conversation in another way, and I'm sorry.​
       
    18. I think that's because, it tends to be used negatively. When most people talk about things being a trend or trendy, it's usually with the attitude that it's not to be taken seriously, it has less worth, or it's people jumping on a bandwagon. I've noticed that alot in some threads recently where cross dressing boys have come up, along with goth fashions. It isn't enough for somepeople not to like something, they have to put it down as well.

      So while you may never have intended to be negative, it may have come across that way to some of the other posters.
       
    19. I saw my first dollfie in a 'Gothic and Lolita' magazine several years ago, and thought that it would be fun to have a doll to dress like that because, even though I liked the gothic/lolita styles, there are very few I would ever wear (because, I am too old :sweat).

      As it happens, I have not actually dressed any of my dolls as a gothic lolita, but I still like looking at the styles.

      And, at this point in time, it seems like every style is available clothing wise, some more prevalent than others, but as has been stated, they are all there if you look.

      I think the gothic / visual style is popular with manufacturers because it still sells well.

      edit:

      And, I don't know if I'd call goth/punk a 'trend' since it has been a fairly popular style of dress among young people for 25/30 years... I'd say it has earned the title of full fledged fashion style.
       
    20. This is an unfortunate habit online, but a common one. Part of the bad blood that's going around here comes from the tone of people's questions/statements-- in a debate, tone matters.

      Asking a question that aggressively demands an answer, i.e., "What's up with all these girly boys?"-- it puts people on the defensive, and clogs up a debate with emotional reactions.

      A rhetorical question on this topic would be something like, say, "Do you think that any one style of fashion is more prevalent than others, here on DOA? If so, what does that indicate about our current population, and how we relate to each other on the forum?" It invites discussion, it invites dissenting viewpoints, and it requires answers to be qualified and explained. (Most notably, it doesn't point its finger at anyone.)


      Bottom dollar! :) That's another big facet of fashion/trends, which we haven't touched on yet: Money talks. A single mass-ruffle loligoth dress can cost $200. Of course they're gonna keep making loligoth, until they can't sell it no mo'. QED.


      :thumbup Hear, hear! 30-year veteran Nick Cave once said put it this way:

      "[Goths] are the most enduring and brave of the [subcultures]. There's something sweet about that. When the big bomb goes off, all that's going to survive are goths and cockroaches.''