Remembering David Wolfe: Iconic Fashion Illustrator, Fashion Trend Forecaster, Paper Doll Artist and My Best Friend

David Wolfe 1941-2023

My Amazing Friend David Wolfe
by Jenny Taliadoros

Reprinted from Paperdoll Review issue #87, Spring 2003 (out of print)
Click here for a PDF of the article.

I have often thought of David as the puppet master, pulling the strings of many colorful characters in his grand paper doll show. And I was lucky enough to be cast as his leading lady. Appropriately, David referred to the last 20 years of his life as his third act. Act 1: Leading Fashion Illustrator. Act 2: Top Trend Forecaster. Act 3: Paper Doll Maestro.   

David entered my life early in 2002 when he joined OPDAG, following the advice of Gene Maiden whom he met at the Ken Knutsen auction in Chicago. Right away, David submitted a paper doll for our hat-themed Paper Doll Studio issue #71, and it was obvious 

I saw something exceptional in his artistic style and fashion flair. His subsequent submissions were just as fabulous—coy Alice in Wonderland for issue #72, marvelous medieval costumes for issue #73, and his Zsa Zsa Gabor landed on the cover of our Vintage TV issue #74. 

We met in real life at the 2004 Providence paper doll convention. It was a costume night, and I looked ridiculous in a dramatic white pantsuit, giant false lashes and a big blonde wig. At that moment did David know our meeting was kismet? As a gifted trend forecaster, he likely did. Soon after, I asked David to join OPDAG’s editorial team. When I called his office in New York, the conversation went like this: “Hi David, this is Jenny Taliadoros from OPDAG and I was wondering if you’d like to…” “Yes!” David said without knowing what I was about to ask. The very next issue, Paper Doll Studio #80, Fall 2004, announced David’s addition to our staff of managing editors. He was also the issue’s featured artist. “Not only do I love collecting and creating paper dolls,” he wrote in his first article, “but I feel that I owe them a debt of gratitude. If it hadn’t been for paper dolls I never would have had the exciting career in fashion that I’ve enjoyed for more than forty years.”

Full page ad in British Vogue.

What was David’s exciting career in fashion? If I had grasped the gravity of it all, I would have been way too intimidated to ask David to work for free on what was then a little black-and-white publication with just 350 subscribers. 

“From Ashtabula to Paris” is how David described his rocket launch from window dresser of a small-town Ohio department store to sketching the latest collections in designer salons across Europe. Working for Carlisle’s Department store throughout much of the 1960s, David became a big fish in a small pond, creating cutting-edge ad campaigns, producing exciting fashion shows, designing innovative window displays, and stocking the racks with fashion-forward merchandise.

On a trip to England in 1968, David showed his portfolio to the advertising director of London’s prestigious retailer, Fortnum & Mason. The response was more than David could have ever imagined. He was asked to leave for Paris that afternoon to sketch Ungaro’s new collection for a series of ads that would appear in British Vogue. For the next decade he traveled to the world’s fashion capitals, drawing thousands of illustrations which appeared in top fashion magazines, newspapers and trade journals. 

Along the way, he became restless to do more than document current fashion. He joined forces with Leigh Rudd, creator of IM International, to spearhead something new—fashion forecasting. As the creative director of IM, David drew on a variety of sources—not just what people were wearing on the street, but what books they were reading, the music they listened to, and the latest developments in science and politics—to predict what people would be craving and wearing next. The IM International Report was published monthly from 1968 to 1988 and was distributed in 16 countries to clients such as Eastman Chemical, DuPont, Harrods, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. 

In 1992 David brought his innovative approach to The Doneger Group in New York, where his dynamic fashion forecasting presentations were standing-room-only events. His insights were in high demand and he became one of the most quoted authorities in the fashion industry. The National UK described David as “the oracle of fashion trends.”

This sums up our friendship!

It seems like I spoke with David a million times during his Doneger years—David in his Seventh Avenue office overlooking the Macy’s loading dock, me in my basement office in the mountains of Maine. While his work in the fashion biz was still in full swing, David carved out time for paper dolls—drawing them, talking about them, writing about them, and cheerleading the work of other artists. 

It was the mid-2000s. Small paper doll publishers were vanishing and Dover was producing fewer and fewer books. But David could foresee a rebirth and a return to the Golden Age of Paper Dolls. Pulling those puppet strings, David encouraged me to start my own publishing company and he quickly became an integral part of every aspect of my business. David felt like an extension of myself and my work. Ending a phone call I’d say, “We’ll stay in touch constantly … if not more often.” And David would laugh every time.  

Joining David early on were well-known paper doll artists of the time—Marilyn Henry, Tom Tierney, Brenda Sneathen Mattox, Sandra Vanderpool, Judy M Johnson, Charlotte Whatley, Bruce Patrick Jones and Norma Lu Meehan. They all got on board with my fledgling company, Paper Studio Press, providing top-notch work for the modest fees I was able to pay. And David had a hand in every single project. One of his most important contributions was bringing acclaimed fashion illustrator Jim Howard on board. More artists joined the stable and over the years I’ve published more than 175 titles through Paper Studio Press and dozens more under my Paperdoll Review imprint. 

Just a few of the dozens of paper doll books illustrated by David Wolfe.

Puppetmaster David was behind it all. A huge fan of his fellow artists, he was thrilled to choose topics for them, design their books, and write essays to go with their art. And then he’d write the promotional copy! The rebirth of paper dolls was happening right before our very eyes. David alone illustrated more than 50 published paper doll books—including many classic movie stars. His third act now included real star players. Not only did he draw paper dolls of his movie idols, he got to meet some of them, too! When Doris Day sang praises of his work during a treasured phone chat, David thought his life was complete.

His enthusiasm for All Things Paper Doll continued in the pages of OPDAG’s magazine and Paperdoll Review, writing 95 articles covering a wide range of topics relating to fashion, Classic Hollywood, Broadway, royalty, drawing tips and convention reports. 

David LOVED paper doll conventions, which offered a cast of characters who brought him endless joy. Meeting and getting to know these wonderful, quirky, talented, interesting, marvelous people fueled David until the next paper doll gathering. He put the pizzazz in every convention he attended, often running the show as emcee. Everyone I know has had something wonderful to say about David. He gave so freely of himself, of his talents, his humor, his praise, his enthusiasm and his love. And we loved him right back.

Scott Jorgenson, long-time friend of David’s, said the paper doll community brought David a level of happiness and contentment he’d never experienced before. When his health declined from Parkinson’s disease, he kept on creating. When his hands became too shaky to paint, he collaborated with Julie Allen Matthews who’d render and color his sketches. He continued to come up with book designs for artists, such as Alina Kolluri’s recent Teen Scene Paper Dolls. When he could no longer research and write articles, he wrote movie reviews for our little movie club of three—David, Rudy Miller and myself. And when dementia took hold, David’s mixed-up mind put him in glamorous settings, and he’d tell tales of travels and fashion shows and talking to movie stars. He managed to have the Hollywood version of dementia.  

After a fall last October, his health quickly deteriorated. He spent the last six months in a nursing home, his dear husband, Francisco Murillo, looking after him every day. He passed away on Sunday, April 16, 2023, at the age of 82. He is survived by his son Zach and two step-daughters Lynette and Nicole. His daughter Amanda Hallay Heath passed away on January 25, 2023, following a serious illness. Amanda was connected to the fashion industry as a professor, writer and consultant. She presented at our 2017 Philadelphia convention and contributed several articles to our paper doll magazines. 

My life is forever changed because of David. I hope to carry on his legacy through my continued work with paper dolls and my love of the paper doll community. Julie Matthews summed it up well when she said, “I can’t fill his shoes, but I can wear his slippers.”