Sunday, January 02, 2011

Retrospective

Let's talk about paper dolls for a minute.
Remember them?
Some may, and some may not.
I think paper dolls are definitely not as popular now as they were when I was a child.
For one thing I don't think children now have the patience to actually cut, or punch out, all the dolls and clothing.
And for another reason, they usually want something a bit more tangible.
Fortunately my mother has kept all of my paper dolls, and I like to pull them out every once in a while and look at them.
They are so dated, but I love them. One set of paper dolls that I absolutely love is mostly because their clothes epitomize high fashion to me: my Dawn paper dolls.
Do you remember Dawn Dolls?
Here's what one of the paper dolls looked like, and this is the dress that came with the Dawn doll:


Dawn Dolls hit their height of popularity in the early '70s, and then died.
Probably because they weren't as big as Barbie dolls, and by that I mean in size.
(Another reason no one plays with paper dolls anymore is because they're so prone to ripping, as evidenced in the above photo.)
The dolls were much smaller in size than Barbie, but they did try to market them.
In another instance of "It's amazing what you can find on YouTube", here is a video of some Dawn Doll commercials and infomercials:

 

Watching that video makes me want all those Dawn Dolls!
Should I check out eBay?
You have to remember, I was only 7 years old when they came out, so to say my fashion sense is often stuck in the '70s would be an understatement.
Now one thing I've always said, or at least in recent years, is that if I ever won the lottery I would get an entire wardrobe made from the clothes my Dawn paper dolls have.
I love the look of them that much.
Some of the clothes would work in any era.
Take this snazzy little mini-dress:

 I could totally rock this outfit - maxi coat anyone?

And then some of the clothes just don't work....in any era.
Can't you see yourself heading towards your harvest gold refrigerator in this outfit?

And this one might work if you stopped trying to wear draperies for clothing:
 And I can't even figure out what to do with this hot mess:

So yeah, if I EVER win the lottery, and you see some hot mama walking down the street wearing new/vintage 1970's-style clothing, well you know it will be me.
Anyone want to come over and play paper dolls?

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

Ha - I think I had that one. Thanks for the memories. This is priceless!

Unknown said...

I LOVED paper dolls, but sadly, I think mine are gone. I probably had the same dolls.

xbmill said...

Betsy McCall is the one I remember best. Also cutting up catalogs and creating families of my own, complete with furniture for the homes.