I would like to leave the Fleur world for a while and talk about other doll subjects. Besides Fleur I also collect all kind of fashion dolls and today I write about fashion doll history.
You might be surprised, but teenage model fashion dolls didn't start with Barbie, as many might think. No, actually it started long before her!
What is a teen fashion doll? It's a doll with the body proportions of an adult woman, which has a big variety of clothes that she can be dressed in. Dolls used to look like babies or toddlers for a very long time. Some dolls were supposed to be adult women, but they still had toddler proportions with a huge head and a baby face with sleep eyes.
Paperdolls
But children loved to play dress up with dolls... as fas as we can think. And because there were no real fashion dolls invented yet, they played with paper dolls.
Paper dolls pictured woman in underwear to be cut out with seperate fashions. The fashions could also be cut out and put on the paper dolls changing their look.
Here you can see examples of fashion paper dolls from 1910s, 20s and 30s. So the idea to have a doll with an adult woman body wasn't as new as some might think.
Sewing mannequins
The real first fashion dolls were created in the 30s. It weren't dolls to play though! It were sewing mannequins, which were used to help young girls learn how to sew. The 12"-15" dolls made of composition or a latex material were part of a sewing kit that contained the mannequin, along with sewing patterns for doll clothes.
They had no articulation but the arms of the mannequin were made to come off, so that doll clothes could be fitted on the mannequin.
The dolls had molded hair and shoes, heir faces were handpainted.
The dolls were made by Latexture Products Inc. and were branded with Singer, Simplicity, Buttericks and McCall pattern brands. They had names like Patty, Susanne, Marianne or simply Fashiondol...yes, FASHIONDOL, you read it right!
So we can say, that these are the first fashion dolls and it's easy to see how they influenced the later created Bild Lilli.
Bild Lilli
In the year 1955 something revolutionary happened! The first fashion doll with an adult female body made for play was created by the german company Hauser and her name was Lilli.
She was based on a sultry comic figure that appeared in the tabloid called Bild Zeitung created by cartoonist Reinhard Beuthien since 1952. It was a comical cartoon about a young sassy woman named Lilli, who was a single working woman as secretary and who had fun flirting with men. It was quite progressive for that era.
The Bild Lilli doll was introduced to the world in 1955 at the toy fair in Nürnberg. Yes, you read it right, at a TOY fair. There is a lot of false information on the internet regarding Bild Lilli. She was not a sex toy, she was not sold only to men in smoky bars secretly behind the counter and the cartoon was not about a prostitute.
The truth is that the main audience at the beginning were adults. She was supposed to be a fun mascote. But very soon Hauser realised that kids would love to play with her, so she was marketed also to children. Lilli was available in two sizes (11" and 7") and was sold at kiosks which also had the tabloid Bild Zeitung, but also in toy stores as confirmed by contemporary witnesses.
Many seperate fashions were available for Lilli manufactured by the company 3M, so Lilli could be redressed like a real fashion model. Other german toy maker joined the game shortly after and created all kinds of props for Lilli like dogs by Steiff and furniture in Lilli's scale.
Lilli was produced untill 1964, that year the rights for Lilli were sold to Mattel after years of ligitations and her production ended.
According to Wikipedia there were 130 000 Lilli dolls sold all together (big and small ones) in the decade she was produced. Not many dolls survived untill today due to their delicacy and the fragile materials.
The dolls were sold dressed in various outfits made by the company 3M. She was sold with a stand, that was made with a prone that would stick into a hole in her legs and a miniature Bild Zeitung in a clear plastic tube. The Lilli dolls sold in Germany had "Bild Lilli" written on the stand, exported Lillis to other countries had only a 'Lilli' written on the stand.
Lilli was made of elastolin, a hart plastic material and her limbs and head were attached by a string. Her legs were attached in a revolutionary way which was patented, so her legs wouldn'tstay alligned when she was sitting. Her head was made of two parts which were connected by a screw. Her hair made of viscose was inserted between the two parts around the perimeter and tied into a high ponytail with a quirly single front curl. The ponytail was secured with a thread at two parts and was forming a hard curl at the end. The bow was made a black vinyl ribbon. Most Bild Lilli dolls were blondes, but as special order she could be made with any haircolor.
Her body is hollow, the skin of the 11,5" Lilli was completely painted with a flesh tone, the early Lilli dolls have a more grey skin tone, the later Lilli dolls are more pinkish. The skin of the small Lilli was unpainted. Her shoes are molded to her feed and painted black as well as her earrings.
Her facepaint was made in the likeness of the cartoon. She has molded lashes and bold black eyeliner. Some Lillis had smoley eyeshadow. Her eyes are black with a single white dot side glancing. Her brows are thin. Her little lips are red as well as her fingernails. She has strong blush. Every doll was handpainted, so there are no two dolls that look exactly alike.
As mentioned above, seperate fashions were available for Lilli, so she could be redressed. The fashions are of very high quality designed and manufactured in Germany by Martha Maar's 3M company. They are very colourful and playful. The fashions close with PRYM snaps that are painted in the colour of the fabric, the zipper on Lilli's fashions were are marked ZIPP. The fashions were sold in a clear cellophane bag attached to a cardboard.
After Lilli was discontinued 3M continued to make doll fashions for Schwabinchen, another fashion doll based on a cartoon by Reinhard Beuthien. But Schwabinchen was looking very different and was much shorter, so Schwabinchen outfits wouldn't fit Lilli very well. Schwabinchen's mold was sold to the dutch comany Wildebras who made an identical doll for the Netherlands called Willy. Willy's clothes weren't made by 3M.
BIld Lilli clone dolls
Lilli was not only a sucess in Germany, she was known worldwide and even exported to the USA. Very soon other doll maker started to produce dolls in her likeness and produced her mostly in Hong Kong and the so called Hong Kong Lilli was born. Some, like the toymaker Marx got a license to produce Lilli for the Asian and US Market, or FEJ for Spain, but many just ripped of the design .
The Hong Kong Lilli by Marx was using the original molds from Hauser, and the doll can be identified by the identical body to Bild Lilli and the typical curl that is glued to her forehead. These dolls were also made out of hart plastic with the same stringed limps and attached hair like the original Lilli had. Although some of the Lilli clone dolls are amazingly pretty and of good quality like the early Marx Lillis, most of them, especially the unlicensed ones, were cheaply made. The biggest difference between the original Lilli and Hong Kong clones is a more sloppy painted face and no painted skin. The unlicensed Lilli clones often have a different body shape, later in the 60s clones came even with molded feet.
Some Lilli clone doll maker were: Fab Lu, Marx, Agrespoli, Alic Corp, Dura Fam, Cragstan and many more. They were sold under many names and brands.
The unlicensed Bild Lilli clones would have a different facemold, you can recognize them on the more sharp looking nose when looking at the profile, the mostly pointy shoes (original Lilli had round shoes) and the visible seams where the plastic parts were put together. This Lilli clone would spread her legs when sitting as opposed to the original Lilli.
Hong Kong Lillis were made in many different sizes, next to the original 11,5" and 7,5", some companies made 8" dolls (Marlene) and 15" (Miss Seventeen). In the 60s some Hong Kong Lillies had a facepainting that resembled more Barbies later face with blue eyes or/and blue eyeshadow. Here you see some examples of Bild Lilli clones. There were fashions sold seperately for some of these dolls, the most known fashions belong to Babs by Fab Lu.
Barbie - a Lilli clone?
In 1959 the US company Mattel relased the very first Barbie doll on the US market. You may be surprised, that her look is quite similar to Bild Lilli. But that is no mysterious coincidence. Ruth Handler, the owner of Mattel, found a Bild Lilli doll when she was traveling in Europe in 1956 . She bought several Lilli dolls and brought them back to the USA, handled the dolls to her designer and Mattel created the first Barbie in the obvious likeness of Bild Lilli. However, although the appearance of Barbie was nearly identical to Lilli with molded lashes, side glancing black and white eyes and red lips, hair styled into a high ponytail with a curled fringe and the exact same body proportions, she was made of a different, more sturdy and heavy material. Her body was not hollow and she was not stringed. Her head was sitting on a small neck knob, her hair was rooted into the head through small holes. Her quality was outstanding and still is. The first Barbie was sold in a bathing suit and there was a wardrobe released for her that could be bought seperately. Soon, in 1960/61 her eyes became blue and she was wearing thick brown or blue eyeshadow... the so called #3 Ponytail Barbie and after that Barbies appearance was changed numerous times untill today, always refelecting the look of a modern young woman.
Barbie doll was a huge success in the USA and soon was also exported to other countries. In 1964 the first Barbie doll was sold in Gemany.
Due to the huge success of Barbie, many toymaker decided to also launch a 11" sized doll with similar proportions in the early 60s. Most of these dolls are considered Barbie clones, however I would rather call them Barbie competitors.
The so called Barbie clones which are no clones
With the huge success of the Barbie doll in the early 60s other toy brands also recognized the potential of the slim teen fashion dolls. Most toy brands were producing dolls since decades, mostly baby or toddler dolls.
The toy brand Ideal, which was in the toy and doll business since 1903 created in 1961 the Mitzi doll. She was 11,5" high with a female body and had a beautiful elegant face similar to Babie. In 1962 Ideal released another fashion doll called Tammy, a teenage fashion dolls slightly bigger as Barbie with more realistic body proportions of a teenage girl with a completely new facemold and in 1965 her older friend Misty, a glamorous doll with a more adult looking body.
American Character, a toy brand that was founded in 1919 released a fashion doll called Tressy, 11,5" in size with woman body proprotions in 1963 which was a huge worldwide success.
Uneeda created Miss Suzette in 1962 (more about her in my next article).
All these dolls were of amazing quality and came with their own wardrobe that was sold seperately. They had unique facial molds and bodies, are marked by the company and are easy to identify. These dolls are no clone dolls!
The so called Barbie clones which are clones
With Barbie's success other brands also wanted to jump on the bandwagon and the real cloning started. The difference between the clone brands and the toy brands mentioned above, is that clone brands didn't create any dolls or fashions themselfs.
These clone brands often bought generic doll heads and other parts from Hong Kong factories, dressed them and put them in their own boxes and sold them under various names. That's why many vintage clone dolls look very alike. For example the Hong Kong manufacturer Unique made generic doll heads marked with an U at the back. These heads were bought by toy brands like Elite, Eegee, Davtex and many others, put on generic doll bodies and sold under various names. Wendy by Elite is just one example of such a clone doll with a Unique head. This U is often confused for Uneeda and some established web pages still share this false information.
Some respectable toys brands also released cheap clone dolls in the 60s like Eegee or Elite, probably to be able to concur with Mattel and the ever growing fashion doll market.
Some typical and well known brands who sold clone dolls are Elite, PMA, Plasty, Davtex, Camay, and many more. Many clone dolls are marked with Hong Kong at their backs, but not all. Many of the clone dolls have the same facemold and body, which makes them often difficult to identify.
Many clone dolls were cheaply made and sold for much less than the Barbie doll. Their faces were often painted more similar to Bild Lilli than to Barbie, but there were also clone dolls made in the likeness of Barbie. Most if not all clone dolls were produced in Hong Kong, often several brands shared the same factory, that's why some clone dolls are identical even though released under a different name by different brands. Most of these clone dolls had an own wardrobe that was often inspired by the clothes that Barbie wore or by other fashiondolls.
Clone brands copied other dolls, they copied the facial painting of Bild Lilly, copied the wardrobe of Barbie, copied illustrations, logos and even names. Clone brands also copied each other.
Click on photo to expand.
Suprisingly, clone dolls are often cheaply made, but the corresponding fashions are often of great quality and look simply beautiful. That's why clone fashions are highly collectable these days.
Fashion dolls are produced till today. Barbie is still the queen of fashion dolls and Mattel is riling the toy market. Some clone dolls, that started their life in the 70s are still made untill today like Steffi by Simba.
A new line of dolls started their life in ... by Integrity dolls targeting the adult collector. These dolls are true fashion models with the most beautiful high fashion wardrobe.
The usual size of fashion dolls is still around 11-12" which is quite interesting, as it goes back to the sewing mannequins of the 1930s. Who would know this fun fact?
Write a comment