Origin of the term 'face-up'?

I think it was some Engrish somewhere that we picked up on as a community, but I'm not sure. I don't remember that far back very well XD

 

I was wondering about its origins, too. Most Japanese websites say "make" to denote the face-up.

 

I just figured it was like "make-up", but since a dolls features are reduced by a lake of colour ir went to "face-up". I don't know who started it tho. Phases like, "She's gone to go make her face up", or "I'm going to go make up my face." Are things I've heard people actually say about putting on make-up, though (I'm refering to aunts and grandmothers that have nothing to do with ABJD). So, it never seems to far off the mark for me.

 

I was actually wondering about this the other day too. ^^; I'd always just sort of assumed it was something that Volks had made up or accidently created via engrish, and it had just become BJD law. It'd be interesting if anyone knew for sure though!

 

I always thought it came from ''face make-up'' and then people just left out the word ''make''. to shorten it.

This made sense in my head,but written down it sounds silly. :P

 

Well, Volks uses the term "style up" for their smaller Who's That Girl line, if that makes any difference. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine they also coined the term "face up", I suppose. Not sure if I can recall a time that they've ever used it themselves, though.

Sometimes Yahoo!Japan auction photos will include terms like "lip up" as a caption for a close-up photo of the doll's mouth. Most likely that's a derivative of the "face up" term, but I think whenever I've seen "lip up", it's been from a Korean artist.

 

Perhaps it is because you're not doing the "make-up" of a doll (which is removable and only for the beauty) but the "face". You're making the face so not only nice lipcoloring but also blushing etc. ánd permanent?
Just trying to help. . . XD ^_^"

 

It would be nice if someone knew where this term came from. I had to ask someone what it meant and of course they just laughed. I like the explanations that it is just an abbreviation for face make-up. Barb. (in L.A.)

 

Thanks for the helpful info, Dezarii! It kind of makes sense that it's a term probably of Volks origin which fell out of use. I remember when I first entered the hobby in 2003, I was told that face-up was the term the Japanese used. I only noticed about a year or two ago that the Japanese websites mostly used "make" when describing the face-up.

Isn't that Saito Kaori's website? Her clothes are so beautiful! I would buy everything MSD-sized on that page. *__*

 

i assumed it was a version of makeup, somewhat lost in translation. my mother used to say she was going to 'put her face on ' when she went to do her makeup. diane

 

I heard people say I'm going to put my face on. So when I heard face-up it didn't that much to me. But now that it's been mentioned it doesn't sound interesting.

 

I think you guys are right, it's Japanese origin.

Make-up in Japan is called "meiku" (make) and probably face-up was created to denote painting a non-human "face" rather than a person (face =kao). I think as the dolls became more and more popular, the fans thought of painting their faces more as doing their "meiku" and that is why you see that term used a lot.

I also agree it's most likely of Volks origin, since Volks uses "-up" English terms such as "list-up", "style-up" etc.

I think "face-up" is a little confusing for new people, so I use the term "facepainting" instead. And when I think of make-up, I think of something washable and temporary... so I try not to use that term because I think new people would wonder if it were something that could wash off.

Ja, ne.
Catrina

 

Wow, that's really interesting! Did you find anywhere that Volks used the term to apply to SDs as well? I know that looking back over their pages at their site, even the pages for the much older dolls, like from 2002, 2003 etc still say "make" -- this is the same term Volks have been using for SD "faceups" for as long as I can remember. ETA: Oh, and the ones with the newer faceup version that came out in 2002 were "new make" not "new faceup".

But I also remember I wasn't paying as much attention to the Japanese pages when I first joined the fandom (2001?) because my Japanese wasn't as good then as it became later. And Volks' site had very minimal info about SDs.

I remember that we always used the term faceup in the SD fandom, from the beginning.. but I don't remember where we picked it up from. However, if it came from the Dollfies originally, that would make a LOT of sense -- many of the pioneers and early members of the SD fandom in the west came out of the 1/6 scene and there were a few who we relied upon to translate info and the like for us. If the 'faceup' phrase came from the Dollfie scene, it's very possible they imported it across because it already made sense to them, and the rest of us just picked it up and assumed it was from the Japanese.

 

An idea as to where the original word possibly came from... Japanese advertisers just seem to love that word UP. XD

So many adverts you hear "Beauty UP!"; "Diet UP!"; "Body UP!"; "Slim UP!" and so on, and it tends to never make sense as it is - but perhaps that's a link to how the original term Face-Up was coined. Just a thought.

 

Yes, I'm pretty sure it is, though I know she moved to at least one other website post that.

Kaori use to use the name "Left Thimble" for her clothing. Her work is so amazing.

 

I like this explanation Thanks
Ingie

 

I thought it was because faceup isn't just lip color, eye liner, and blush but other things on the face like freckles and moles. I didn't know there so much to it.