Fashion Sense and Dolls

I'm a maximalist, more is more , John Galliano / A Mcqueen is my favourite style on my dolls. I know It's mad to put it on myself , but I just love it to heart, so I generally do the sewing myself and spend a hell on fabrics (just can't help it T T )

My dolls have personalities, but that to me have nothing to do with the style. I can't stand casual clothes on my dolls, no offense , I just have enough of them in my life, so I put something different on my fills, more of a fairy tale dreaming feel, something I don't ware daily but definitely love to make. I guess the color and the built up would be my way of showing a character rather than style .

 

How do you decide what style of clothes your dolls wear?
Hmn... well while I don't have my dolls yet, they are going to be based on characters.

Is it based on their personalities and/or story/universe? Whatever's cheapest?
The characters my dolls will embody have a fashion sense based on the world/time they live in. I also tend to look at my own preferences in fashion and compare and contrast the character to me in terms of appearance and personality.

Do you ever find it difficult to be fashion-savvy with your dolls?
I'm not very fashion savvy, and I don't try. I will dress my dolls in clothes that can at least go together in some way, but when you have an out there fashion sense like mine... you never know.

 

How do you decide what style of clothes your dolls wear?
Is it based on their personalities and/or story/universe? Whatever's cheapest?

I like things that are girly, but not too lacy or poofy (like EGL or Victorean). I guess what I like on my girls is pretty much what most Dollfie Dream owners like; Japanese fashion, cute, revealing outfits, the kinds of things girls wear in anime~ I try to make as much as I can, so cheapness isn't so much a factor as simplicity.

As for personailty, all my current and planned girls have personalities of wanting to wear these clothes in the first place, it's part of why I gravitated to Dollfie Dreams in the first place!

Do you ever look at other owners' pictures and base your fashion decisions on those?
I get inspiration and ideas from what I see other Dollfie Dreams wearing!

Do you ever find it difficult to be fashion-savvy with your dolls?

I don't really care whether what my girl wears is fashionable or not. I make for her and dress her in what I think is cute and what I like to see. Which is what many other DD owners also like. So the cute anime fashions and revealing clothing popular on Figure.fm is not for everyone, but I love it! ^_^

A lot of DD clothes I like and/or want to make are things I wish I could wear myself, if I had a perfect body like them! So I still get to make the outfits, and in many ways it's even better than making things for myself because I can have them wear it all the time, and it's easier and cheaper to make!

 

How do you decide what style of clothes your dolls wear?
For the most part, I go with the same philosophy choosing my dolls' clothes as I do my own. I pick out items that a) I find visually interesting, (unexpected fabrics, cuts, texture, layers etc) and b) entertain me, (does what they're wearing make me smile?). So I don't generally stick exclusively to one style, but seem to adhere to a similar aesthetic that spans a few styles lol

Is it based on their personalities and/or story/universe? Whatever's cheapest?
A couple of my dolls are based off of anime characters, so, yes, their dolls reflect those designs. For my OC dolls, I have a couple whose personalities seem to demand certain things, so I generally go in that direction, but even then I'm open to experimentation.

Do you ever look at other owners' pictures and base your fashion decisions on those?
Not really. I sometimes see outfits I like on other owner's dolls and look up the company where they got them etc, but I tend to enjoy tweaking and styling my boys and getting creative with how they look

Do you ever find it difficult to be fashion-savvy with your dolls?
I did have some issues with my first boy, I suppose. He was a strange size and had very little that was ready-made available, (and I wasn't much of a seamstress at the time lol). He seemed to lounge around naked a lot for those first few months lol

 

My dolls (that I have in right now anyway) are characters, and therefore they wear the outfits I envision them wearing in my head. My planned dolls will be about the same. Most of the time when I do design a character, I do base their outfits off of styles I personally enjoy, and not necessarily others' outfits. However, I have found myself looking at human (not doll) clothes as inspiration. And finally--I haven't had a problem deciding what sort of clothing style my dolls will wear. Ideally they will have their 'signature outfit' and maybe one or two others, so the only thing I need to worry about is where the heck to find or commission the outfits I want!

 

How do you decide what style of clothes your dolls wear?
I usually create a mini back story for my doll after I buy him/her. I consider the name a lot, then decide the "time period" they're supposed to be in. I usually dress my dolls on how I would want to be dressed actually... a lot of casual European wear is a personal favorite of mine (but so expensive and wouldn't be able to wear it in my hot State T_T), and my dolls usually reflect that. Although the "younger" my dolls are, the cuter their clothes will be! My SD's usually reflect an adult European style that I love, my MSD's a more teen Korean/Japan casual wear (usually a blend of European and American wear), and my Yo-SD's will move between cute stuff like Lolita and casual things like Play Clothes that you buy for your own kids XD...

Is it based on their personalities and/or story/universe? Whatever's cheapest?
I base all my dolls clothes off of their personalities - I window shop a lot and always ask myself, "Will I see Izarra wearing this?" (my SD boy) or, "Will Abby wear this?" (my Yo-SD girl) and occasionally I will stumble across something that my dolls will defiantly not wear, which is usually the Visual Kei, Goth, Steampunk, etc. I tried having their own clothes in their own universe, but I realized I would have to do a lot of personal sewing and it seemed kind of a hassle to me lol -lazy- XD! I avoid "cheap" things (I'm talking about cheap looking materials, not like Dollmore cheap), if you buy cheap looking things, you'll have a cheap looking doll; no matter what company you bought your doll from. I always go by this theory and it may make myself look stuck-up or rude (which I don't, btw), but if in real life, would you buy cheap looking clothes to wear?

Do you ever look at other owners' pictures and base your fashion decisions on those?
Sometimes, but I usually use them as a ballpark idea~ I like looking at others dolls and their own fashion tastes, but in reality I can't see myself having my own dolls dress in the same style for some reason. It has to be my own style that I want my dolls to have, not someone elses!

Do you ever find it difficult to be fashion-savvy with your dolls?
A doll that I have a set style in mind usually rejects the style (like how they reject eyes, wigs, etc XDDD).. so they usually sit in a casual shirt, pants/skirt, and shoes until I've figured out a style. I'm currently in a fashion crisis right now with a Yo-SD - she's rejected all the cutsey styles, so I'm going to attempt a casual style and see if she seems satisfied with it (but she might alternate between the styles like all my dolls do).

 

How do you decide what style of clothes your dolls wear?
Everything from casual shirts and jeans, to bathing suits, to sleek business suits and pencil skirts to cute flow-y dresses to very formal gowns.

Is it based on their personalities and/or story/universe? Whatever's cheapest?
Mainly, I do buy cheaper things, but I always put a personal touch on them. I like modern clothes, and since my doll has no backstory/universe and not much of a distinct personality (she's an everything girl) its whatever I envision in my head, since I like to design clothes.

Do you ever look at other owners' pictures and base your fashion decisions on those?
Sometimes, I'll be looking through etsy, ebay, or DoA and go "wow, that's a cute outfit" and design one similarly to it, but with changes. I don't copy exactly, I'm influenced though. I'm not all "I want my doll to look like your doll!" I have a folder on my computer of clothes I'd like to create for my doll.

Do you ever find it difficult to be fashion-savvy with your dolls?
Never, its my one chance to make all my fashion designs reality without a) using up a ton of money for lots of materials and b) having it look better on them than me!

 

How do you decide what style of clothes your dolls wear?
I decided a long time ago that I'd dress my doll with the Mori Girl aesthetic in mind, so I try to get her clothes that would fit that fashion style.
Is it based on their personalities and/or story/universe? Whatever's cheapest?
It's based mostly on my taste haha. XD But I do try to get stuff that's priced reasonably.
Do you ever look at other owners' pictures and base your fashion decisions on those?
Actually, I look at photos of real people wearing the Mori Girl style since there's very few dolls who dress that way.
Do you ever find it difficult to be fashion-savvy with your dolls?
Sort of. There are several dolly dress makers who do Mori Girl style clothing, but most of them design for bigger dolls. :P

 

All of my dolls have very distinct personalities and backstories and are dressed accordingly, so the decision isn't really there to be made tbh, it's just another part of them. That does mean they're AWKWARD to dress tho because my own scale standards are very high and I can't stand badly fitting, obviously cheap things on them when I'm trying to shoot them in a realistic setting/pose. It just seems a bit pointless to me to stint on that when everything else was such a labour of love.

I don't base any of my decisions on those of other people, but if I see something in a style I like on someone else's doll I may look up where they got it to see if the place in question sells things that are of use to me for someone, it's often easier than trawling through reams of sites to find that one perfect suit!

It's always difficult, but nothing worth having comes easy, does it, so if that lolita dress takes me a week to make, at least I'll know every stitch on it's where it should be and all the fabric/trim is of a quality I'll be happy with. The clothing is a seriously good chunk of the joy of this hobby for me!

 

How do you decide what style of clothes your dolls wear? Is it based on their personalities and/or story/universe?

Sometimes it takes time to choose the doll's clothes as the idea and reasons for buying it may change with time. I tend to think about the character the doll has to represent and where I am going to make photoshoots with it (I'm mostly into doll photography, this makes my life so much easier)). This way I can choose the best fabrics and styles.
I also try different types of clothing (i.e. a doll may have everyday, period, and Asian garments in her wardrobe) to see what fits my needs best.
If a doll is a set character (meaning that there was a written piece waaaaay before I found out about BJDs) then I will definitely dress them into the clothes they are used to wearing in their world.

Whatever's cheapest?

The years spent in this hobby have taught me that if I want to make a good photo I need to make good investments. Sure, there are seamstresses that ask moderately for their services, and there are some companies that offer relatively cheap clothes of good quality, but you have to be very careful and choose wisely. We say "the greedy pays twice", so I prefer to go and buy what I need rather than get something for a low price but with seams sticking out and clothes not really fitting properly.

Do you ever look at other owners' pictures and base your fashion decisions on those?

I look at fashion magazines (:

Do you ever find it difficult to be fashion-savvy with your dolls?

Sometimes yes, as it is not always easy to imagine how clothes would fit the doll IRL. Also, it might be hard to actually start thinking "outside the box" - I have a set variety of styles that I myself enjoy, and suddenly getting a doll that "thinks differently" might pose a problem. Sometimes I cannot buy an outfit because I feel that it is just "too much", or I immensely like it but cannot imagine what I would do with it (Soom Cass' and Amber's dresses are a good example).

 

How do you decide what style of clothes your dolls wear?

I always start with a preconceived notion of their place in "my little dolly universe" and proceed from there. How they'll fit into the storyline dictates their specific style, so that makes it much easier for me to choose clothing styles for them. From there, I'll construct an elaborate display area for them to live in, so their clothing styles then become part of the overall "scene" which helps to dictate color and details.

Is it based on their personalities and/or story/universe? Whatever's cheapest?

My dolls inhabit a sort of urban fairytale in my mind, so I only purchase a new doll once I have a character already in mind and along with that, a firm notion of the kind of clothing they'll wear. Fortunately, I'm able to make my own doll clothing so cost doesn't really come into it...I only need to add a few accessories from time to time, making it easier to afford what I really want.

Do you ever look at other owners' pictures and base your fashion decisions on those?

Fashion decisions? No, not really, but "inspiration"? Yes, definitely! For instance, I discovered Mori Girl fashion here on DoA after someone mentioned it in one of my threads. This made me want to do further research and before you knew it, I'd added a couple of Mori Girl characters to my little urban fairytale.

Do you ever find it difficult to be fashion-savvy with your dolls?

Not at all. My characters are pretty quirky as it is, so they just seem to flow into a particular style naturally with ease. And if I come across a new style that peaks my interest, I'll explore it and see if it's something I want to add to a pre-existing character or develop into a brand new character to wear it.

 

How do you decide what style of clothes your dolls wear?
Whatever happens to fit my idea for my dolls or what I happen to like at the time. So sometimes it will be gothic-lolita, or Punk. Other times it would be a pretty period costume or a theme set (like Alice in Wonderland).

Is it based on their personalities and/or story/universe? Whatever's cheapest?
It is most certainly based on their own little stories. My girl Tomoe is currently the model for a story about a girl I'm writing for class. I bought her a whole new look so I could imagine her perfectly. Of course it helps if the clothes are inexpensive but I would always buy good quality things for my girl.

Do you ever look at other owners' pictures and base your fashion decisions on those?
I would say yes and no. I love seeing what people have done with their girls and what looks the owners have created. But at the same time I know that even though they are the same sculpt my doll is completely different from all the others out there. So I suppose it serves more as an inspiration and knowing what would would with that specific sculpt.

Do you ever find it difficult to be fashion-savvy with your dolls?
Certainly, It's hard buying what's in with a doll but then again I doubt that people actually decide what's "in", in the world of dolls. Like a dolly cosmopolitan! (Wow I would so buy one if they published one for the UK residents!) But it's impossible to stick with trends because there is such a variety. Like the Succubus doll from "The Old World" and the Volks BTSSB range.

 

No i never found it difficult for be fashion savvy with my dolls, i have always found something
My dolls wear clothes i really like and so it has nothing to do with the character, it have to fit the body and the doll itself! No i never looked at other owners pictures and bought something, that they had,too! I hate it to have the same things as others all the time! It's not special enough then^^