Carmen Dell'Orefice as a fashion doll by Tonner Doll

Carmen Dell'Orefice is a famous fashion model, with the longest career in the industry - she keeps modelling still, 82 years old, since her first Vogue cover at age 15. Tonner Doll had long ago announced they would be making a doll in her likeness and they debuted it as a centrepiece at their 2014 Tonner Con. The model was there for the unveiling. 

The doll is wearing a luxury knit dress with a fur-trimmed jacket. She has a brand new body,named Chic Body: it’s a variation of the Antoinette body, with broader shoulders and a fuller bust. The doll also features a white rooted mane and painted blue eyes, and is highly limited, with an edition size of just 200 pieces.

The doll looks great, although I do think they took a safe route with her. I would prefer a more fashion-oriented Carmen, with her amazing wild silver mane and style in full swing. This looks tame in comparison to her usual editorial/advertising appearances.

The likeness is amazing though. If I had this doll, I would restyle the hair to make it more glamorous. She deserves it. Let's see some photos from the presentation:

 Below are some gorgeous photos of the real Carmen. All doll photos are courtesy of Tonner Doll and Ernesto Padro - Campos. Convention photos from Tonner Doll Facebook page.

ASnd of course a great version would be one with hair styled like Carmen was by the talented Thanos Samaras for Vogue Italia.

My dolls pose for Porter magazine covers

Most people interested in fashion are well aware of one of the biggest on-line fashion retailers, Net-A-Porter. They should also know that the company now has its own fashion magazine, called, what else, Porter. For its launch, back in February, the magazine also launched a mobile app, asking fans to post their own photo as the cover of the magazine. All one has to do is pick the photo - the app does the rest so that you have a ready made Porter cover, with its own cover lines etc. You can also pick the colour of the logo and letters (black or white only). For the second issue, they updated the app to feature a series of Philip Treacy hats worn by Lady Gaga (she was the original cover's model). Of course, the main point was advertising the magazine: the app helped people share their covers throughout most social media platforms and encouraged the use of specific hashtags to make them more prominent. I instantly figured out that my dolls would be perfect models for this endeavour so here are the results. I am proud to say that the fashion director of L'Officiel Hommes Italia, Emile Rebek, liked the three Gaga ones (the first three below - thank you sir!).

Barbie cakes modelled after Charles James gowns

May 5th 2014 is the date of the Met Gala, this year dedicated to the Haute Couture designer Charles James, one of the best ball gown designers that ever lived. Over at Vogue they posted an amazing article about six Barbie cakes modelled after his gowns. The magazine tasked six skilled cake makers with an iconic gown to faithfully reproduce. Amirah Kassem from Flour Shop inserted Barbie into an ice cream cone cake, covered in wafer paper coated in white chocolate and painted in edible metallic blue. Penny Stankiewicz, from Sugar Couture, researched all the elements of the Clover dress for a complex construction of butter cake and passion fruit butter-cream. Michelle Doll-Olson used fondant with a chocolate truffle filling and edible pearl paint to mimic James’s emerald green silk satin gown from 1954. Melissa Torres of Cake Hero employed a combination of fondant, banana cake, milk chocolate frosting, and a luxurious metal: as she said "the dress is about the subtle play between the red and burnt orange, chocolate colours, so I dabbed tiny bits of gold on the folds to enhance the shimmer.”

Made by Penny Stankiewicz/Sugar Couture

Made by Kate Sullivan/Cake Power

Made by Amirah Kassem/Flour Shop

Made by Melissa Torres/Cake Hero

Made by Margaret Braun/Margaret Braun

Made by Michelle Doll Olsen/Michelle Doll Cakes

All cakes photographed by Grant Cornett - courtesy of Vogue.com

Tonner Doll Spring Collection 2014 release

Honestly I have given a lot of thought in posting this article. I used to expect Tonner Doll releases with much anticipation and excitement. It seems now that it won't be the case any more. With every new release, the real fashion dolls from Tonner are less and less fashion-like and their numbers are dwindling as well. Gone is the powerhouse fashion dolls of the brand (Tyler, Sydney et al) and in their place we have the "street-wise" Cami & Jon along with the time-travelling Deja-Vu. Below are photos of the fashion dolls from the Spring 2014 Tonner collection - the rest of which was dedicated to child dolls, Kitty Collier and non-fashion dolls. I am not surprised their film/comics/fantasy dolls sell better.

Party Print Liu Liu, Dressed Doll, $149.99 This is the only one I'd buy if I had money to spare. And just for the doll, not the outfit.

Party Bold Jon Dressed Doll, $149.99

Party Lace Cami Dressed Doll, $149.99. Best dress in the bunch.

Party Stripes Cami Dressed Doll, $149.99

Red Hot, dressed doll, $179.99. Deja Vu collection (like all the dolls and fashions that follow). Nice outfit but this sculpt is not one I like. Especially the bags under her eyes. She's partying too hard.

Thoroughly Modern, Outfit, $89.99

Countryside Visit, Dressed Doll, $209.99

Moonlit Romance, Dressed Doll, $199.99. The bow row on the skirt looks like an afterthought and the hem too plain for the time period and the style of the outfit.

Crisis Calm, Outfit, $89.99. Stripes again. Here, combined with checked shirt. Really?

Polished, Outfit, $99.99.

Spicy Night, Dressed Doll, $174.99. It should have been called "Train wreck". Ghastly.

All photos courtesy of Tonner Doll.