Fashion 101, Lesson 3: TDF Q & A

" Fashion 101, Lesson 2: TDF Q & A"

"By Zoe"

Hi, everyone! This month I’m doing things a little differently, and am going to specifically answer questions I was asked over at the Doll Forum. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions!

Midiman originally asked about clothing that is easy to put on and take off of his girls, and several others seconded the question. This is a good one, which is why I’m addressing it first.

My FAVORITE place to get clothes is Forplay (http://www.forplaycatalog.com) but we sell a few of their items in the Doll Closet on the RealDoll site. The reason I like them so much is not only because the clothes are super cute, but they’re all made of stretchy, soft material so they’re easy to put on, easy to take off, and look great. (“beetle” asked about spandex in clothing, and yes – the more spandex in a garment, the stretchier it will be.) I do wear jeans a lot, but they’re actually way too big for me – I have the bottoms rolled up (on the inside so I don’t have huge 1980s cuffs) and the back of the waistband is pulled tight and pinned in place. Dolls are lucky in that sense – we don’t mind a few pins holding our clothes in place! :D I wouldn’t try to wear jeans that were actually in my size because they’d be too hard to put on. I’d also stay away from fabrics like silk, satin, and other materials that don’t stretch easily. Clothes do fit differently on dolls than on real people, and of course we can’t help you dress us, which is the biggest factor. Luckily, soft and stretchy fabrics are in fashion now so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them in stores.

“Longshot” asked about stockings vs. bare legs…going bare-legged in a fancy dress is a no-no. It’s just too casual. Bare legs are fine for sundresses or other casual outfits, but if we’re talking about fancy evening wear then stockings are a must. However, I do wear my stockings all the time simply because they make putting all of my clothing on easier. They especially make putting shoes on easier. I got my stockings from (where else?) Forplay, but you can get thigh stockings anywhere. I recommend getting nude colored stockings for all-the-time use. If you like the look of black stockings you can easily layer them over your nude ones, and you’ll have the added benefit of protecting your doll’s skin from the dye in the black hose.

Next, “Alexknight” asked about color matching. If you check out the color wheel I posted in my first article you can figure out what will look good underneath a purple top. Stay away from red, yellow, and green though. Red clashes (and red/purple has been claimed by the Red Hat Society of older ladies anyway as a statement). Yellow and purple will make you like kind of like a bruise. And green and purple will make you look like the Joker. :D You can put any neutral color underneath (black, white, gray, or brown) or a different shade of purple. Light pink and some shades of blue will look nice too.

“Supersoul” asked about how to style his doll’s hair. The easy answer is to just buy different wigs and change them out when you want a new look. I say this because wigs are very hard to style unless you are a trained hairdresser. Human hair wigs would be easier to style because real hair styles much more easily than synthetic hair does. Most wigs are made of synthetic material, which keeps the price down. Human hair wigs are very pricy. What I love most about wigs is I can radically change my look with one simple change. Normally I wear a cinnamon brown wig that’s similar to our 0718 style, but currently I’m wearing a long, curly brunette wig, which is fun. I’ve also worn a short red one, a curly blonde one…anything goes with wigs, so have fun!

If you can, look for lace front wigs. They have a more realistic hairline. If the wig has bangs then the hairline doesn’t matter, but when there are no bangs the lace front is really handy. The blonde wig shown above is a lace front. The curly brown one is a regular wig, which is why I’m wearing the hat (it disguises the blunt hairline of the wig).

“NDcowboy” asked about what colors go best with which hair and eye colors. I’m a big fan of the natural look, so my rule of thumb is to look at nature for inspiration. People come in all kinds of colors, but there are some constants in genetics. For example, you never see an African person with blonde hair and blue eyes. Not naturally anyway – hair dye and colored contacts can change any genetics, but they aren’t born with that coloring. Therefore, I think it looks a little strange to have the kind of hair/eye color with that shade of skin. However, that’s not necessarily a hard and fast rule. You don’t often see a naturally black haired person with natural blue eyes, and yet this combination is extremely popular and does look striking.

There’s a school of fashion that categorizes people into seasons – you may have heard people refer to themselves as a “spring” or a “winter”. “Spring” people have light colored hair that’s a warmer tone (with golden or red highlights), “Summer” people have light, cool toned hair (completely absent of gold or red). “Autumn” (that’s me!) have dark, warm toned coloring, and “Winter” people have dark cool toned coloring. Here’s a great website that will help you figure out which season you are and will then give you customized makeup suggestions that will look best on you: http://www.colormebeautiful.com/seasons/

The nice thing about using the season method is you can easily figure out your best colors just by thinking about what season you are. For example, I’m an autumn, so think about what colors you see in nature in autumn.

I look best in red, orange, dark yellow, brown, green, etc. I look good in bold, strong colors, but I don’t look great in pastels. Pastels look good on Spring people. Summers do well in bold colors too, but lean more towards bright colors like hot pink, turquoise, lime green, sunflower yellow. Finally Winters look good in blue, gray, white, black, and muted colors.

If you guys like this format of question and answer, I’m happy to format all future articles this way. I like being able to address specific concerns that you may have. I am planning on doing a special edition after the Oscars where I’ll do my own take on Best Dressed and Worst Dressed, so stay tuned for that. :D

--Zoë