Fashion Royalty: Going Places Vanessa

The Fashion Royalty convention this year was very successful for everyone involved. Integrity and Jason Wu managed to present a well coordinated glamorous event and the attendees had a blast attending the various events and picking up lots of dolls: this was the convention with the most dolls released ever. The theme was The Royal Life. And here we will start a series of articles presenting some of the convention dolls. First to arrive, the beautiful Going Places Vanessa.


Vanessa Perrin is considered the most sought after face of Fashion Royalty dolls. Each one of her re-incarnations becomes an instant collectible, its value rising much higher than the retail price. The reason? It is not the number of dolls being produced for sure; even the Vanessas on big releases have become collectibles. I guess it is the face mold: she's the best looking Fashion Royalty lady ever made. My personal preference may be Kyori, but every Vanessa doll released is looking great, a thing not easily said about Kyori Sato dolls.


This Vanessa is no exception. Dark haired, with smoky eyes and sensuous coral lips, she is simply stunning. The hairdo, a double French twist, gives her an air of hauteur, befitting the royal theme of the convention. There were again complaints of badly painted eyes, but far less than Pale Fire Vanessa (see previous post here).


Her jewellery set is impressive but not anything unusual. Filigree "gold" chandelier earrings with coral and black "pearls", with matching necklace. A bracelet would have been a nice addition, after all, she is a convention doll.


Her dress is the classic mermaid style gown that Jason Wu has given us countless times until now, especially in event or special dolls. This one looks even a bit like the Lights, Camera, Royal Veronique gown. Here we get it in a blue/black fabric with tulle and lace overlay. I love the draping on this gown, especially around the hips, pity it gets lost as it is black on black. The lace is gorgeous, with a lovely eyelash finish:


Underneath, contrary to expectations, she is wearing only flesh colored panties. No elaborate garters and stockings here. Her shoes are not much better than Pale Fire : black strappy shoes again, nothing to brag home about and certainly not royal looking.


So, while the doll itself is lovely, as all Vanessas usually are, the total package leaves a lot to be desired: un-original dress, less then stellar shoes and underwear, incomplete jewellery set for a royal lady (the crown given with her at the convention only does not justify the title by itself). The advantage is in that she makes a very good substitute for those like me who do not have a dark haired Vanessa and especially the raven A Fashionable Life Vanessa FAO special doll.

Fashion Royalty: Pale Fire Vanessa

This year's Fashion Royalty main line, Cult Couture, had Asian as well as Gothic influences. The best doll from the whole line up is by far Pale Fire Vanessa, combining a beautifully done doll with an interesting outfit and accessories. Things are far from perfect though, as we shall see.



Her face is painted in dark plum colours, especially the lips. Heavy lidded and with real lashes added, her eyes look sultry - although many people got dolls with wonky eyes (either cross-eyed or looking too much upwards or both), a fact prevalent among recent Fashion Royalty produced dolls. Lets hope this gets fixed in future releases.



Her hair is dark brown, almost black, swept up and away from her face into a big chignon with a "knot" at the lower back. It looks elegant and graceful and it is the perfect setting for her hair ornaments: a mass of purple flowers at the crown of her head, with additional colourful jewels on each side of it - her right side, where you can also see her jewellery set:



As you can see, she has a big colourful stone and wire necklace, with matching chandelier earrings and bracelet. They are matched to her hair ornaments, adding a dash of colour to the monochromatic ensemble. Here she is from her left side:



Her dress is a big ball gown. And when I say big I mean BIG! Made of a gunmetal taffeta (synthetic) in two layers (both lined) with an overlay of iridescent transparent synthetic fabric, it looks glamorous but feels a bit cheap to touch. The skirt consists of a base full skirt, over which are sewn two panels of the same fabric, starting shorter at the front and cascading in waves to the back, where they make a train and end in points. Some collectors reported that the skirt panels did not match at the front. Mine do, but one seems to be jutting sidewards more than the other. The iridescent over-skirt falls over these panels in the same way. Here are the three layers exposed:



The bodice, shaped like a corset, has side panels embroidered with micro-sequins. They look nice for scale and are dark, fitting with the overall look of the gown.



And here is a back view of the gown. It closes with a tiny zipper:



Underneath the skirt, there is a petticoat made of tulle and lace, to support it. Unfortunately, it is too small and soft to be of any help with the massive layers on top of it.

Underneath all those layers of fabric, tulle and lace, she is wearing undies! Yes, a rare treat for dressed dolls, she has black panties, garters and mesh black stockings on:



Her shoes, disappointingly, are of the rubbery molded variety. They are black strappy sandals that slip on her stockinged feet. Some people mentioned that they were hard to put on, although mine slid on easily, without any hassle. They are sturdier than FR Eugenia Frost Face Time's but still they look and feel cheap.



Overall, Pale Fire Vanessa is a beautiful doll, although her outfit could have been better made. A sore point for me is the repetition of shape for FR gowns. All FR dolls wearing a gown seem to fall into two categories: the big ball gown and the mermaid skirt gown. I bet Mr. Wu, as a fashion designer , can design something different for his doll line. Also her shoes should have been of better quality (why not leave these for cheaper lines?). I hope details like these are taken care of in the future, as this line keeps getting more expensive by the season. Time will tell.

Tonner - Women In The Media Awards Layne

The dressed doll release of Layne has a different coloring than her Basic Black counterpart. She has thick black curly hair cascading down her back and a slightly stronger face paint: more intense eyeliner, darker brows and stronger blush. See her in close up here:



She is part of the Haute Couture dress line of the Wentworth dolls - a limited edition of 1000 pieces. While the quality of the fabrics is excellent, and the three layers of the dress are excellently made (silver "Chantilly" lace on top of silvery fabric on top of white satin)the scale of the lace in her dress is too large for a 16" doll - almost human size lace here. The finish of the edges in rough cut organza strewn with beads and pailletes is poorly done - the description of the doll said layered organza, we only get a trim. The beads and paillets are OK but get lost on the hem of the dress, while show better on her off the shoulder "sleeves". And the major faux-pas- the dress is shapeless. It looks like an A line dress but after the hips it looses shape and due to the nature of the material, does not fall gracefully to the floor.



For a dressed Haute Couture doll she has surprisingly few accessories. Supposedly she is a famous anchor, receiving an award in a ceremony. Imagine one such modern woman going to a gala without an evening bag. Or not wearing any jewellery other than a pair of earrings with this dress - a diamond bracelet would have been sufficient. Or not having a chiffon or organza wrap to anchor the dress. She does get an excellent pair of silver leather strap high heels though. She does wear them with tights, which is a bit strange - I do prefer strappy shoes on a nude leg. See her proudly showing them off here:



And a close up shot here:



Her final accessory is the award she is carrying, a badly designed and made clear plastic pyramid on a painted metallic base. I would have preferred a nice silvery leather or lace covered bag instead of this.

Both Laynes together - which one do you prefer? I like both the same- each for different reasons. Hope to see more of her in future releases.



She photographs well - born to be in the media it seems!