Tropicalia? What is it?

Image from FlyGirlBlog.com

Based on the Integrity Toys upcoming convention, I found the following article on Tropicália from Wikipedia:

Tropicália, also known as Tropicalism, is a Brazilian music movement that arose in the late 1960s and encompassed theatre, poetry, and music, among other forms. It came under the influence of avant-garde artistic trends and pop culture and foreign (such as pop rock and concreteness); mixed traditional manifestations of Brazilian culture to radical aesthetic innovations. Tropicália was influenced by poesia concreta(concrete poetry), a genre of Brazilian avant-garde poetry embodied in the works of Augusto de Campos, Haroldo de Campos, and Décio Pignatari, among a few others.^[1] However, Tropicália is associated almost exclusively with the musical expression movement, both in Brazil and internationally, which arose from the fusion of several musical genres, like Brazilian and African rhythms and rock and roll. 

Additionally, I found more information on The Barbican's website. Apparently, this movement was formed in response to the military dictatorship in Brazil at the time. While it only lasted from 1967-1972, its influence can still be seen today in musicians such as David Bowie, David Byrne, Beck and The Bees.

In doing an image search for "tropicalia," I came up with quite a range of images, which I'm including with links to their original sources here as well. Psychedelic colors, flowing fabric, large prints, fruit hats, beads and feathers seem to be recurring themes--just from my short searches.

Image from www.barbican.com

An example of Tropicalia inspired shoes - for kids today - just adorable and cute:

New Year's Resolutions for the Fashion Doll Review

Shirred Not Shaken Vanessa, a photo by alington on Flickr.

I know, it's already nine days into 2012, and I haven't posted any New Year's resolutions for either the blog or myself. My first one is to be more timely and to give you fewer excuses.

I do have a few plans for this upcoming year. I'm a fan of National Public Radio--I know, I know--and one of my favorite shows is On The Media. In the December 30 episode, there are two interesting articles, in which Bob Garfield interviewed Rebecca Rosen (The Atlantic) and Ta-Nehisi Coates (senior editor) about the world of on-line comments. Inspired by these two interviews, I've decided to upgrade FDR's comments section, and change them to moderated comments. I welcome your comments, but I'll expected them to be courteous to our author and relevant to the post at hand.

Second, I've got a new project in the works for you, dear readers, which should be completed soon. I'm aiming for a mid February release date, and I'm also hoping for a multi-platform release at some point in the near future, if I can swing it. More details to come shortly!

Third, I promise to leave the way the website looks alone for a while. I think we've got the background set the way we like it, and I'm pretty happy with it so far. While I adore the more interactive style, I simply cannot work with a site that doesn't let me use my own site on my iPad. [Insert geek alert here]

Finally, I'd again like to thank you for your loyal readership. The Fashion Doll Review has been publishing since February 11, 2008. Since I've been tracking readership in May 2009, this blog has received 683,012 views. We've had 1,720 posts within that amount of time--here's to many more!

Barbie A Rare Beauty by Sandi Holder

This new Barbie collector book is loaded with over 500 gorgeous photos of vintage and contemporary Barbie dolls, many of which have never been seen before. This is a great coffee table book which you will want to sit back and enjoy with a nice cup of coffee or tea.

Chapters topics include:

• The history of Barbie and her creator, Ruth Handler. 
• How Barbie doll's style has changed with the times.
• Barbie through the decades.
• Barbie's world of careers.
• Barbie doll's friends and family.
• Rare, sample, and prototype Barbie dolls with prices dolls have sold for at auction.
• Barbie licensed products.

The book is 224 pages, hardcover, and would make the perfect Christmas gift for the Barbie lover in your life. Available directly from the author at dollattic.com, Ebay, or Amazon.com.

Guest post: The Role of the Doll in Society Throughout History

by Caity Collins

Caity Collins is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on online schools for Guide to Online Schools.

Dolls have served a role in societies around the world for thousands of years. Whether as a plaything, religious icon, or medicinal prop, cultures throughout time and across the globe have considered dolls a source of utility and enjoyment. While our modern conception of the doll is as a light source of entertainment for young girls, their history is actually quite varied, just as the materials from which they are made and the variety of types found.

Style Setters: Vidal Sassoon

Sassoon was born on born January 17, 1928 in Hammersmith, London. His father was from Salonica in Greece, and his mother, whose family was originally from Kiev, was born in London. Vidal Sassoon spent six years in a Jewish orphanage in London after his father abandoned the family. When his mother remarried, the family re-united. Although too young to serve in the Second World War, Sassoon became a member of the 43 Group, a Jewish veterans' militia organization that broke up Fascist meetings in East London after the end of the war. In 1948 he joined the Israeli Defense Forces to fight in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Focus On Fashion: Mary Quant

If there is one name that comes to mind when thinking about 1960’s fashion and the British invasion, it has to be Mary Quant. Mary Quant typifies all things British and what was happening in 1960s swinging London.

Mary Quant was born February 11, 1934 in Kent, England. She went to Blackheath High School and then studied illustration at Goldsmiths College before taking a career with a couture milliner. She went on to be instrumental in the mod fashion movement and one of the many designers who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants. She is also famed for her work on pop art in fashion.

Focus On Fashion: Rudi Gernreich

Another of the great 60’s designers is probably one of the least known but certainly no less of an icon of the swinging 60’s, Rudi Gernreich. 

Rudi Gernreich was born on August 8, 1922 in Vienna Austria. He was the son of a hosiery manufacturer, and came from an intellectual Viennese family. He fled the Nazis with his parents in the late 1930s and the family settled in Los Angeles. He became an American citizen in 1943. He would become one of the most revolutionary designers of the 20th century.

Gernreich studied dance and was a member of  Lester Horton's modern dance troupe before entering the world of fashion. He moved into fashion design via fabric design, and worked closely with model Peggy Moffitt and photographer William Claxton. He would push the boundaries of "the futuristic look" in clothing over three decades and, using a dancers practice clothes as inspiration, particularly leotards and tights, he produced pared down body-clothes in the 1960s.

Style Icon: Jean Shrimpton

When I think of the 60s,there are three faces that always come to mind.  Twiggy,  Veruschka and Jean Shrimpton.  I believe that they are most representative of the decade known as the swinging 60s, but to me, the absolute definitive face of the era is Jean Shrimpton.

Jean Rosemary Shrimpton was born on  November 7, 1942 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.  She was an icon of Swinging London and is considered to be one of the world's first supermodels. During her career she appeared on the covers of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Elle, Ladies' Home Journal, Newsweek, and Time magazines.

Focus on Fashion: Pierre Cardin

I’d like to continue our look back at the 60s with probably the most prolific of the 60s designers: Pierre Cardin. His career went well beyond the swinging 60s and spanned fashion, fragrance, house and home and food service. He is still going strong today.

Pierre Cardin was born in Venice on July 7, 1922. In 1926, his parents moved back to their native France where Cardin grew up in the industrial town of St. Etienne in the Loire Valley of southeast France. His parents were wealthy wine merchants who had always hoped their son would become an architect, but by the age of eight Cardin was showing an ability and aptitude for fashion design. In 1936, Cardin began apprenticing in for a tailor named Manby and would stay on until almost the end of World War II. At Manby's, Cardin learned the art of tailoring suits that would show in the rest his work.

Focus On Fashion: Paco Rabanne

I'd like to continue our look at the swinging sixties with probably the most outlandish and controversial of the 60s designers: Paco Rabanne.

Paco Rabanne was born Francisco Rabaneda Cuervo on February 18, 1934 in Pasajes, Spain. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he and his mother fled Spain for France. In 1952, while studying architecture at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, he met intellectuals and artists. To finance his studies, he produced accessories for the couturiers of the day such as Givenchy, Dior, and Balenciaga and became involved in all forms of artistic expression. Attracted by the tremendous energy stimulated by artistic research he decided to create Haute-Couture clothing. In 1965 he presented his first collection of 12 contemporary dresses called "the Unwearables." These included his first plastic dress.

Couture Customs: The History of the Bridal Gown

A wedding is a rite of passage, a shift from childhood to adulthood, and most western wedding traditions can trace their origins back to ancient Rome.

The wedding ring on the third finger of a girl's left hand symbolizes engagement. At the ceremony, the bride wore white robes as a tribute to Hymen, the god of marriage and fertility, and was accompanied by her bridesmaid.

In Latin, the female verb "nubo" or marry - means literally "I veil myself." Hence, a bride was "nova nupta" and the wedding--nuptials. The bridal veil or "flammeum" was rectangular, transparent and worn off her face. Flame-colored, it matched her shoes. In her hair, she wore a wreath of fragrant flowers. Her gown was a white flannel or muslin tunic with a "cingulum" or girdle. Around her waist she carried the "knot of Hercules" to ward off evil spirits, and undoing this complicated knot was the groom's first order of business on the wedding night.

Focus On Fashion: Andres Courreges

With the popularity of Poppy Parker and a resurgence of interest in 60s fashions, I thought it might be interesting to do a series on some of the designers that help made the swinging 60s swing. I'd like to begin our look into the 60s with the king of the mini skirt, Andre Courreges.

Andre Courreges was born in Pau, in the Basque country of France in 1923. Although he became a civil engineer, he was always interested in architecture and textile design. He found work designing footwear and men’s clothing for a tailor, while pursuing his hobbies of Rugby and mountain climbing. During World War II he was a pilot in the Air Force.

Style Icon: Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Carrie McDonald and vaudeville drummer, Eddie Carson. Eddie abandoned them shortly afterward, and Carrie married a kind but perpetually unemployed man named Arthur Martin. Their family eventually grew to include a son and two more daughters.

Josephine dropped out of school at the age of twelve and began cleaning houses and babysitting for wealthy white families. She got a job waitressing when at thirteen, and while waiting tables she was briefly married to Willie Wells. While it was unusual for a woman at this time, Josephine never depended on a man for financial support. Therefore, she never hesitated to leave when a relationship soured. She was married and divorced three more times, to American Willie Baker in 1921 (whose last name she chose to keep), Frenchman Jean Lion in 1937 (from whom she attained French citizenship) and French orchestra leader Jo Bouillon in 1947 (who helped to raise her 12 adopted children).

Focus on Fashion: Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli was born in 1890 into a wealthy, distinguished Roman family and grew up surrounded by scholars and artists. She was a headstrong girl and loved shocking her staid family. She rebelled against her Catholic upbringing and studied philosophy; she scandalized her family by publishing a book of sexually suggestive poetry; and she caused outrage by attending a ball in Paris wearing only a length of fabric wrapped around her body--which promptly unraveled. 

In her early twenties, she traveled to England to work in an orphanage. In London, she met and married Count William de Wendt de Kerlor. When World War 1 broke out, William's income from his philosophical talks dried up, and the couple lived on Elsa's dowry on the French Riviera before moving to New York in 1919. William couldn't settle down, and his affairs continued. When she was 29, Elsa gave birth to her only child, a daughter, Yvonne, nicknamed Gogo. A few months later she divorced William, and supported herself working as a translator and scriptwriter. She returned to Paris in 1922, and quickly fell in with the city's artistic elite, befriending artists such as Cocteau, Picasso, Picabia and Stravinsky, and she resumed friendships with artists she had met in New York, including Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. 

Focus on Fashion: Coco Chanel

Gabrielle was born on August l9, 1883 in Saumur, France. Her mother died when she was twelve, and her father, a traveling wine peddlar, left her and her sister in a convent, where she remained for six years. The poor girls were kept apart from the paying girls and wore a uniform consisting of a black dress with a white collar. It has been said that with her later designs, Chanel was trying to put all the world's women into the uniform she wore in the convent.

She left the convent at 18 and worked in a tailoring shop. But her true passion was to be a music hall performer and she tried singing. Her nickname "Coco" came from a song she sang about a little dog, though she later said it was a pet name used by her father. The small town of Auvernois where Chanel tried to launch her singing career, had a fashionable and aristocratic cavalry regiment. One of the regiment's officers, Etienne Balsan, a sportsman and horse breeder, soon noticed the young "Coco" and she became his mistress and went to live in his chateau at the age of 25.

Bobobie Lan as the Duchess of Devonshire

Allow me to present Lan, a BJD by Bobobie, to you. As you may recognize, she is approximately the same size as Tyler Wentworth by Tonner Doll, though her measurements are closer to Antoinette's.

Here, she is dressed as Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire. She's wearing Court Gown, Elizabeth Swann's outfit, from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection by Tonner Doll.

Her wig actually belongs to one of my daughter's dolls, and we picked it up at a doll show from Bearzabout. It's called Angelic Romance in Golden Fire, and I pinned it up in the back and added a bird from Michaels. (I need to find a ship!)

More photos on Flickr, including close-ups and full-length shots, for the interested.

A note on Bobobie MSD dolls: The only ones I know for sure can fit Tonner Tyler/Antoinette clothes are Lan, Fei, Mei and Ju. Lan is the only one without elf ears.

Theatre de la Mode: Rebuilding Parisian Haute Couture

“Theatre de la Mode”, the theater of fashion. The name promises images of grand staircases and plush velvet curtains and delicate women adorned in exquisitely beautiful clothes. It certainly delivers on that promise, but it represents much more than just beautiful clothes. It represents hope and struggle and rebirth.

Imagine Paris, once the center of fashion--now after four years of Nazi occupation and war--a bombed out shell. Fabric shortages, lack of heat, electricity, food and materials left the fashion industry in ruins. Many designers closed their houses, some never to open again. Many of those who did reopen never again enjoyed the prestige they once had. Still others fled Paris altogether. In the end it devastated France, a nation where fashion was the second largest national industry and employer. Materials were in short supply as were the rich clientèle who patronized the haute couture houses. Once Paris was liberated in 1944, there was still the nagging question, how was the industry to recover?

Focus On Fashion: Christian Dior

I’d like to finish up the series on post war designers with probably the most well-known and well-regarded of the big three postwar designers, Christian Dior.  Christian was born in 1905 in the town of Grenville on the French coast.  His family made their fortune from the manufacture of fertilizer, which allowed a young Dior to live a rather charmed life.  After graduating from school and serving his required military duty, Dior received money from his family which he used to open a small art gallery where he sold art from such artists as Picasso.  

In 1931 Dior's mother and brother died, and his family lost the family business. Dior was forced to sell his art gallery and began selling his dress designs to fashion houses.

In 1938 Robert Piguet opened a fashion house, and Dior took his first job as a designer there.  Once the war started, he left Piguet and joined the military. In 1941 after completing military service, he returned to Paris and took a job as a designer at Lucien Lelong.  At Lelong, Dior worked as a primary designer with Pierre Balmain.

Why we love some dolls and not others, Part I: Purchase decisions by guest blogger Milady Blue

Guest blogger Milady Blue begins a new post series on her "years of yore": what young doll collectors once had to do in order to bring a new doll home into his or her own collection. How she may have discovered a new doll or new manufacturer, and the actual process of shopping for, and the decision to buy the doll are covered here.

Why We Love Some Dolls and Not Others
Part I: Purchase decisions
Special Guest Writer Milady Blue

Focus On Fashion: Pierre Balmain

I’d like to continue the series on designers by talking about the second of the top three post war designer Pierre Balmain. Balmain also claimed that he had inspired Dior's New Look. Certainly, like Jacques Fath, his work featured narrow waists and wide bell shaped skirts and narrow shoulders. As contemporaries, it is only natural that these three men would have inspired each other's work, and it appears that Dior just happened to release his look at exactly the right time to claim the prize of the New Look.