The Best Paper Doll Ever? A Stellar Creation by Bruce Patrick Jones for our Summer Fun Issue

The Best Paper Doll Ever?

"Alexander Catches the Wave" by Bruce Patrick Jones
for Paperdoll Review Issue 94 (2025)

When Bruce Patrick Jones sent me the preliminary sketch of his surfing paper doll, it was a jaw-dropping moment. It was last May, and I was in the car with my girlfriends following our Morgantown, PA, Paper Doll Luncheon. I passed my phone around to show off Bruce's art, and everyone had the same jaw-dropping response. 

We've all come to expect excellent artistry from Bruce, but this particular paper doll is exceptionally good. First off, we recognized the subject as Bruce's partner, Alexander Best. We were all charmed by Alexander during his first paper doll convention last year, so it was especially fun to see him transformed as a paper doll. No, Alexander is not a surfer, but in the paper doll world there are no limits. Surfing is an unexpected subject for paper dolls. In fact, we found very few to go with an article on the topic for Paperdoll Review Issue 94.

The general theme for this issue is Summer Fun and we planned articles on boating and golfing. Considering my co-editor, Lorna Thomopoulos, is a former surfer who married a champion surfer, she simply had to write about surfing. Any article in our magazine needs to relate to paper dolls, so the hunt was on. I asked Bruce if he had any surfing paper dolls. He did not, but he could certainly draw one! 

Though I was expecting a surfing-themed paper doll from Bruce, I never imagined it would be this dynamic. The handful of paper dolls we did find depict figures standing up, some holding a surfboard, some with a separate surfboard to cut out, along with a few outfits suitable for the beach, swimwear and maybe a wetsuit. So it was especially exciting to see Bruce's paper doll showing a surfer actually surfing! Putting a paper doll in an unusual pose is a challenge in getting proportions right while at the same time being visually pleasing and functional as a paper doll. Bruce hits all of those marks. 

The artistry itself is something to behold. The details are realistic yet not overworked. Notice how Bruce achieved the look of partly wet fabric in the white shirt. The overall design is exceptionally good. The eye goes right into that wave, and we feel the anxiety on Alexander's face. 

Here's the behind-the-scenes scoop: Bruce had Alexander pose in the living room, mimicking the movements of a surfer, and also referred to photographs of Alexander on a vacation, his hair slicked back from the sea. Alexander actually wore those swim trunks in his living room pose. The other clothes are Bruce's own designs based on his research of what "surfer guys" wear. The pattern on the purple shorts comes from one of Bruce's mother's old dresses! Why did Bruce choose Alexander as his model? Simply because he was available and willing... and a cheap model, added Bruce. The art is all done in watercolor, and the pink bar at the bottom is gouache.  

Though I consider this paper doll to be the star of the issue, Bruce himself has a starring role. He happens to be our featured artist with a 6-page article about his work as a commercial artist and his long connection to the paper doll community. If you'd like to dive in to this issue, click here to order. Better yet, subscribe to our specialty magazine—all about paper dolls!

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.” 

Coloring Princesses of Wales Paper Dolls by Brenda Sneathen Mattox and Julie Allen Matthews

Caroline of Ansbach costume by Brenda Mattox, color by Julie Matthews

Alexandra of Denmark costume by Brenda Mattox, color by Julie Matthews

I'm excited to offer a behind-the-scenes look at our new paper doll book, THE PRINCESSES OF WALES, a glorious collaboration between Brenda Mattox and Julie Allen Matthews. Brenda's linework is exquisite and reminiscent of antique engravings. She illustrated this b&w set back in 2003 and recently brought Julie in to add color and assemble it into a new book for Paperdoll Review. Here are dresses for Caroline of Ansbach and Alexandra of Denmark, along side Julie's colored versions, using Procreate on the iPad Pro. Brenda is thrilled to breathe new life into her old work. Brenda and Julie previously teamed up for VICTORIAN FANCY DRESS PAPER DOLLS, published in 2022.

There have only been ten women who used the title "Princess of Wales" in the last 700 years, and all were unique women of their eras. The title can only be bestowed upon the wife of the heir to the throne of Great Britain. It was originated in the 13th century by King Edward I who succeeded in annexing Wales to England. To placate the Welsh nobles, he offered them their own prince, the king’s son and heir. The future Edward II was created Prince of Wales in 1301. He did not marry until after he became King and sixty years would pass before there was a first Princess of Wales. Costumes in this book represent Joan of Kent (1328-1385), Lady Anne Neville (1456-1485), Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719-1772), Caroline of Brunswick (1768-1821),  Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925), Mary of Teck (1867-1953), Lady Diana Spencer (1961-1997) and Catherine Middleton (b. 1982).

Drawn to Glamour: Fashion Illustrations by Jim Howard, the must-see exhibition at the Denver Art Museum

Lucky me! In May I traveled to the Denver Art Museum to see the spectacular exhibit of fashion illustration art by Jim Howard, my dear friend, colleague and (adopted) great-grandfather.

The exhibition Drawn to Glamour: Fashion Illustrations by Jim Howard runs through August 5, 2018. Please go see it!

Jim and I in pose in front of the Denver Art Museum in an artsy photo by Goran Vejvoda.

I found out about the exhibition in the spring of 2016 when Jim shyly revealed the news. A long-time resident of Denver, Jim was involved with the city's fashion scene which is how he connected with the two amazing women who organized the exhibition, Florence Müller, Avenir Foundation Curator of Textile Art and Fashion at the DAM, and Jane Burke, senior curatorial assistant of textile art and fashion at the DAM.

"This is a VERY BIG DEAL," Jim told me. He had to pinch himself to believe it was real. It's not often a living artist gets to see his or her own work on exhibition at a major museum, not to mention an artform that is rarely displayed at any museum.

Jim Howard's fashion illustration work IS a very big deal. At the top of his career, Jim's art appeared weekly in the New York Times, often full page, for luxe department stores including B. Altman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bonwit Teller, Franklin Simon and Bloomingdale's. His dramatic, low-lit illustration style set him apart, creating a legacy of work that is studied in fashion schools today. Lucky for us, he retained many of his illustrations from the 1950s-'80s, and more than 100 of those works were selected for the exhibition. Jim generously donated the collection to the Denver Art Museum so hopefully the exhibition will travel. 

Visitors enjoying the Jim Howard Fashion Illustration Exhibition at the Denver Art Museum.

Some of Jim's earlier works were done in color.

One of my favorites is the portrait of  legendary editor Diana Vreeland, top left.

Last summer, when the exhibition was in the planning stages, several of us in the paper doll community made plans to travel to Denver to see it. The folks at the Denver Art Museum were so pleased that they organized an event around our visit—a panel discussion with three fashion illustrators-turned paper doll artists: Jim Howard, David Wolfe and Sandra Vanderpool. The talk was scheduled for Sunday, May 13, 2018, and I was asked to be the moderator.

What a wonderful panel discussion with David Wolfe, Sandra Vanderpool and Jim Howard. In the back I'm joined by Jane Burke of the Denver Art Museum.

It was wonderful to see kids interested in fashion illustration! 

The "Fashioning Illustration: Drawing to Glamour Panel Discussion" was a grand success! The theater was packed and the audience enjoyed the delightfully informative panelists. Chatting like the old friends that they are, Jim, David and Sandy talked about the humble beginnings of their careers, each thinking they had their dream job only to be catapulted to greater success. Sandy's work took her to LA, while Jim's career trajectory took him to New York and David went from a small town department store to fashion salons across Europe. Eventually, they channeled their talents into paper doll art, creating beautiful books for my publishing company, Paper Studio Press. The discussion and audience Q&A revealed interesting, intriguing and truly humorous aspects of their unique careers.

Do you wish you could have been there? Well, you can! The museum generously recorded the panel discussion and it's available to view on our Paperdoll Review YouTube channel. Enjoy!

Following the talk, the book signing for Jim Howard's paper doll books and prints (sold in the museum's gift shop) had fans lined up across the stage, down the length of the theater and across the back. Amazing! That evening, the museum hosted a cocktail party for us at the chic apartment of Florence Müller and her husband, Goran Vejvoda. We all felt like VIPs.

Left: Jim Howard, Florence Muller, David Wolfe. Right: Jane Burke and Jenny Taliadoros

But let's get back to the museum where we spent HOURS in the Jim Howard exhibition. How wonderful it was to see so much of Jim's original art in one place, beautifully displayed in a multi-room space that included mannequins dressed in vintage clothes, display cases of newspaper and magazines of Jim's work and a video interview that ran on a loop. I LOVED observing the museum visitors as they took in the exhibit, so engaged with each piece, and talking with a friend or family member about their own memories of such fashions. My very favorite moment occurred as three young folks watched the video interview. At the point in the story when Bullocks was sold to Macy's, who was using photography for their advertising thereby ending Jim's career, all three youngsters expressed, in unison, a disappointing "Ohhh..."

Giant decals of Jim's fashion illustrations juxtaposed with vintage fashions displayed on mannequins.

Retro menswear on display with a fashion illustration blow-up.

Valerie Keller views a display of work with a giant cowboy looming over her shoulder.

LOVED seeing museum visitors so engaged with Jim's artwork and video. 

We also spent lots of time in the museum gift shop talking to patrons near the display of products featuring Jim's work such as tote bags, mugs, posters, pencils and of course paper doll books. It was also very exciting to see Jim's art displayed on giant banners around the museum and even on the elevator doors.

Featured on the museum banners and elevator, Jim Howard's "Womens Sunnies," 1981, Charcoal on paper; 23 x 16.

On Monday, Jim treated us to brunch in his beautiful apartment, elegantly decorated with antique pieces and his own artwork, varying in subject and style including southwestern landscapes, brightly colored portraits and sophisticated fashion collages. Jim and I even conducted a business meeting, going over ideas for his next paper doll book and reviewing the progress on his soon-to-be-launched website. 

A paper doll brunch with Jim Howard! Micheal O'Hara, Valerie Keller, David Wolfe, Kwei-lin Lum, Betty Kappel, Jim Howard, Jenny Taliadoros, Sharry O'Hare, Ron Fong. 

Jim Howard's various painting styles and subjects.

Remember how I mentioned that Jim saved some of his fashion illustration work? Well, a few of those pieces will be available for purchase on Jim's website! He provided a few examples to show you here. If interested, please email Jim Howard. Once his website is live, I'll be sure to let you know.

Jim Howard original works for sale, prices range from $700-$1400. Email Jim Howard for more info. 

And let's not forget that Jim's work is easily accessible (and affordable at just $12/book) in the form of paper dolls! Please look for Jim's books on Amazon.com, eBay and paperdollreview.com.

Shop for Jim Howard's beautiful paper doll books at paperdollreview.com!