Doll Trends

One of the trends I'm noticing now is the seemingly overnight rise in popularity of center-part wigs, both with and without bangs. I rarely care for them, I'm all about the sidepart or more commonly the all-over bangs styled slightly brushed to one side, lol, but this mirrors the same hair trend in the real world I think. I've also noticed that wigs are being made now that have a much more glossy/wet/plasticy look to the fibers, and the fibers themselves are thinner than wigs I'm accustomed to seeing. It makes them seem more costumey to me, more like a party store wig than hair on a doll, even if the smaller fibers are more in scale I suppose.

And voluminous curly tibetan mohair wigs, bright and colorful and fluffy, those were all the rage for a while too! Tinybear wigs in particular felt like a status symbol to me back in the day.

Canvas sneakers seem to have been replaced by huge chunky plastic kicks, another trend that seems to follow human-sized trends!

 

That's a good point actually, I hadn't thought about it before but it makes sense that a lot of fashion trends in dolls would have some parallels in real world fashion! When I was still a lurker, I remember seeing a decent amount of clothes in 2015 dolls that mirrored a lot of the human clothes I would see in my highschool- lots of thick framed glasses, white pleated skirts, and that kind of look~

 

I remember the high-key fairy kei style being really popular for awhile, with tons of candy-colored accessories and pink hoodies and stuff. I think the current "cute" trend has now morphed into a more muted pastel cottage-core aesthetic.

 

I feel like “anime” style dolls are trending big time right now. Lots of newbies on discord and Reddit interested in them.

 

That's nice for those of us who dress their dolls Victorian, but it's not like there weren't already plenty of those about (until Monique closed down, at least)

Teddy

 

Seconding dolls following real world fashion trends! I see a lot of faceups on insta mimicking douyin makeup

 

Oh absolutely, I need to have some self-awareness here and acknowledge my icon that's been sporting a doll in a center-part wig since about 2012, haha! It just feels like they dominate more of the market these days, though I didn't do a lot of dolly shopping for a few years so maybe it's less trend-based and more gradual than it appeared to me!

 

I only know about "Scene" fashion because of BJDs. It was just not remotely a thing in my area growing up. Fur wigs, "coon tails" hair, stripey strappy buckled everything... For a while in the Aughts you couldn't find much clothing that wasn't Scene or Lolita.
Taking Lir, the doll in my icon, to doll meets, was an Experience. He was the only Adult Male doll a lot of people had ever seen in person, and the beard was revolutionary at the time, when the most masc look was an Elf El from CP/Luts when they were still together. Weird times.

I have LOVED how hardcap, thinner, and short wigs have become more and more obtainable.

 

I am really loving this thread so many memories

 

I've noticed that too! Like, the amount of anime-styled dolls seems to have increased like ten times over in the past five years - I remember when I was a little younger, I really loved anime-styled dolls (still do lol) but I wasn't as interested vinyl dolls which made up most of them at the time. Now there's so many options to choose from in resin which is very nice for those of us who like 'em

 

I see more and more Smart Dolls on all the BJD sites I frequent on FaceBook. Smart Dolls have taken over. They kind of go along with the trend for anime-faced dolls. Since anime faces are not my thing, I can't enter into those discussions.
Of course, anime-faced dolls were the first BJDs. So I guess the tend is not that new.

A huge tend which does not seem to be losing any strength is Minifees. Its getting harder to find clothing on Etsy for my SDs because everything is for Minifees. Not really complaining, since I own several Minifees myself.

 

I've noticed that too! So many smart dolls on facebook and reddit and like, youtube even. They're not really my thing either (I just like the feel of resin a little more than vinyl, they both have their pros and cons though) but it's interesting to see how big they've gotten in the past couple years.

 

Oooh trends are always an entertaining one.

1. Vampires with pointy ears. As an avid elf collector who has a preference for no vampire teeth it has been entertaining.

2. Agree on the anime styled bjds. They are very cool but not for me.

3. Agree on the modern fqshion emulation. It is less scene/visual kei/lolita etc and more tech wear/high fashion/modern styles.

 

I still do this They make for fantastic sweaters and sweater dresses if properly deconstructed and reconstructed! They also make for fun little hand sewing projects

 

I can see a trend in prices. The price of clothes has become more and more disproportionately high compared to the price of a doll. Same goes for face-up. I agree it depends on the style too. Is it just my perception or do you feel the same?

 

The current trend is definitely Minifees and artist dolls! I've actually seen less Minifees as my time goes on in the hobby though. More and more people seem to be patronizing smaller artists and companies which is very encouraging.

 

Luts El and Lishe were very very popular when I started in the hobby!

 

DoD brings back memories... I remember admiring Ducan/Ducan Black, Shall/Shall Tender, Sha and maybe Delphine? Along that same line, Tan resin, elf ears, and vampire teeth sculpts being super popular and only limited releases.

 

Something I've noticed more recently is artists creating head sculpts that are very classically inspired. I'm talking features like paintings.

Some examples are DLace, NakanaDoll, Joy Doll, etc. Those are just off the top of my head.
They are really lovely, so I'm enjoying this new little blossoming trend.

For fashion, I'd say that K-pop is a big influence on doll clothing right now.

 

Vampire dolls (the ones with sculpted teeth specifically) as a whole seem to have died down a bit, but they used to be super popular. It seemed like a rite of passage to have a vampire doll in your collection. My grail used to be SoulDoll's Isabel Vampire ver, a shame they got rid of her. I honestly miss all of the sculpted teeth vampires. I suppose they loosely followed the Twilight craze for when they were popular?