How To Come Up With Doll’s Fashion Sense

Hey, this is such a good question. Most of the doll outfits I currently have are what I would say is my aesthetic, and too cutesy for my actual characters.

I personally believe to fully understand your doll’s fashion sense you have to think about the character you made for them, where do they come from? Maybe search images of that place to get an idea of what people wear there. What is the setting of where they come from? Future, past, modern day? This all will heavily add to what they wear and I would suggest looking into fashion history, you can find videos on YouTube. Are they rich, poor, middle class? This will affect their clothing as well. :0)

It also helps to make a Pinterest board for them while scrolling through the fashion tag and anything that makes you think of them save it to their board and you’ll start to see similarities of their style.

 

I agree with DearRabbit, if a doll is shelling a specific character with a specific look then buying clothes is a matter of realizing their character. But I also have a couple of dolls for more aesthetic reasons and I just try to have fun building different looks. I might go all in on a pastel goth or a rockabilly pinup or whatever else just looks good to my eye. The most important part about a tied-together look is that it does get tied together.

 

My dolls are characters before I even start looking for a sculpt to shell them, so I usually have a fashion sense planned ahead for them.

Sometimes though, I have a rough idea but not specific. Like my Volks boy, Ady, is a young teen with strict parents who want him to dress nicely and ‘normally’, but he wants to be goth, so I’m trying to balance his wardrobe between what he wants and what his parents would choose for him. It’s so hard for me to find stuff he’d wear, the boy has almost nothing. Similar issue with Lawrence, my Charm Doll Ethan. He needs southern rock/metal inspired clothes and it’s just next to impossible to find what I want for him.

Sometimes, it might be better to not have a style in mind and just go for what feels right!

 

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I agree with those who commented above. I think it helps to let your doll’s personality speak to you. Even if you don’t have a specific character in mind for your doll yet, sometimes taking some time to think on who they are and what they’re personality and thoughts are can help. Clothes can be difficult to figure out sometimes, so I also recommend taking your time to search for the right items. It’s definitely worth it!

 

Mine just kind of... Tell me? Idk how to explain it haha. I've gotten one that I thought would be soft and shy and comfy clothes and she ended up being full on goth queen. I guess I start by sewing something I like for them and then let them decide if they want to wear it or not.

 

I think I’ve only successfully decided the wardrobe for one of my crew, whereas the rest have revealed their style through trial and error. I usually start identifying their style by color palette and then moving into cut. To me color is most important because it’s easier to change an outfit than a faceup.

 

Basically, as I get to know the doll, I get to know what they like/don't like, will wear/won't wear etc.

Sometimes it comes straight away (my planned super-sleek fashionista secret agent, insisted on being a laid-back hippy from the moment I opened her box), sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it takes another doll becoming part of the group for another doll's character and tastes to become apparent (my Victorian snarky-older-sister and my little peacemaker sister didn't really come into focus until the Tomboy sister arrived and gave the snarky sister a target, and the peacemaker two combatants to mediate between). I know that The tomboy hates skirts/dresses but as a girl in Victorian times hasn't got a choice in wearing them, she dispises the frills and ruffles her girlier siblings delight in. The Snarky sister dispises the tomboy's lack of interest in fashion and clothing, and would probably wear almost anythign if she were convinced it were fashionable to do so. Their "princess" of a cousin is attracted to anythign pretty and ruffled, with bows, whether fashionable or not. Nearly all of them have refernces for colours tey like to wear, notnecessarily what suits them, but what they like (that's probably where they are most like me, I'll wear any colour I love, whether it suits me - royal blue - or not - yellow).

None of them really reflect my own clothing style (but then,I'm a middle aged man and most of my dolls are Victorian/Edwardian children, so that's hardly surprising). Even the (more) modern boys don't dress as flamboyantly as I do so, none fo them really follow my fashion preferences except for the absence of anything grey (I'm unreasonably biased agaisnt the colour and won't have it in the house - s if any of my dolls were to lean toward grey clothing, they'd be out of luck). I'm not keen on pastel pink either, but a couple of my girls insist on it, so some pink clothing has snuck in.

Teddy

 

Time to sound like a crazy doll person. They usually don't give me choice. If I put something on them that they don't like, all the poses look awkward, or they refuse to stand, or they knock the wig off, or something else crazy goes wrong when I try to take pictures. On a few of them I can plan the look and style before they get home, and they are fine with it, but the majority have completely different ideas about what they should be wearing.

I really wish I knew the secret to planning them all out ahead of time, but instead their wardrobe is a bunch of trial and error. It's a good thing that what one doesn't wear another doll is willing to wear.

I am really curious about this great question, and want to see how other people answer.

 

I have loved fashion since I was a young teen, and it’s been a life-long research passion of mine. One of the things I love most about this hobby is that my dolls are perfectly happy to wear any of the more exuberant styles, flashy fashions, unusual or uncomfortable outfits I’d never be able to wear personally. It’s a pure joy to me to get to explore unique fashion in this way! So when I come up with a character for a doll, one of the first things I like to do is to begin looking at whatever fashion styles (in whatever era) catches my fancy. I’ll collect photos of different styles and individual pieces online, and then begin the process of narrowing down what I feel that character would actually choose for themselves. This being said however, I did have a character recently “jump” style on me when he suddenly and completely refused the initial style I’d chosen for him, and I had to adjust accordingly on the fly. But this is rare, and trust me...if they don’t want it, they won’t hesitate to make it clear it’s time to move on to something new!