Paperdoll Review Issue 97 - Tea Party Paper Dolls, Hosting Tips, Vintage Fashion & Nostalgia

 

Paperdoll Review Issue 97

Let's Have a Paper Doll Tea Party! 

Put the kettle on, pick a paper doll book, grab your scissors, and you're ready to sip, snip and play paper dolls! Our latest issue #97 puts two favorite pastimes together—tea and paper dolls—in one delightful issue. As managing editor, I'm always on the lookout for subjects that could work for our magazine. Some are better suited to a stand-alone article, while others are worth exploring as a main theme throughout the magazine. I've been collecting tea-themed paper dolls for years, and as my collection grew, the idea grew to cover the topic in a variety of ways. So I put the "tea" on the docket and asked my contributors to bring their best ideas to the table.

Goldilocks, a British 1950 read-and-dress book; Alice in Wonderland, Whitman, 1976; a Shackman reproduction of Cecile from the 1940 Dionne Quints series.

These tea party greeting cards fall into the paper toy category, with props to punch out and insert into scenes.

Martha Raively piped up with a charming idea: an article on tea party tips. As a retired librarian, she loved the idea of diving into old etiquette books and comparing their advice to today’s tips for hosting a cozy tea. For visuals, I decided to focus on paper dolls that specifically depict a tea party, including several charming book covers and vintage greeting cards that invite you right into the scene.

Tea Gowns, Jenny's Tea Party Dress-a-Doll, Brits & Their Tea

More ideas bubbled up among our contributors. Fashion historian Brenda Sneathen Mattox covered elegant tea gowns, while my co-editor Lorna Currie Thomopoulos explored the rich traditions of the British tea culture. 

For our dress-a-doll feature, the subject is yours truly! Starting with a paper doll drawn by David Wolfe a birthday gift, we asked readers to create costumes to fit the tea party theme of their choice. I was tickled pink to see all the clever, pretty costumes that came in. Shown above is one of the 6 dress-a-doll pages displayed throughout the magazine. 

As if there weren't already enough "Jenny" in the issue, Bruce Patrick Jones surprised me with a new paper doll called "Jenny á la Mod" featuring fashions I've really worn at paper doll conventions—including Coca-Cola pants on loan from Bruce himself! He created it for his article on "Paper Dolls of Paper Doll People," and as a bonus, Bruce granted permission to make the paper doll available as a free download! Click here for the link.

This is just a sampling of all the paper doll goodness filling the pages of Paperdoll Review Issue 97. If you love tea parties, vintage fashions and nostalgia, this one's for you! Click here to order Issue 97, or better yet, click here to subscribe so you can enjoy future issues of paper doll fun!

Why Paper Dolls? Find out why we love to collect, cut, catalog, create, craft and cherish these remarkable paper playthings. By Marguerite Carrithers

 

Why Paper Dolls?

by Marguerite Carrithers
Article reprint from Paperdoll Review Issue 88 (2023)

Why paper dolls? It feels too big for any one person to sum up in a thousand or so words, topped with some pithy jokes and wrapped up in a page or two. Paper dolls have been around for centuries; the first we’d recognize were made in Europe during the mid 1700s, though it wasn’t until 1810 that the first manufactured paper doll, Little Fanny by S&J Fuller of London, was made. And they certainly aren’t going anywhere any time soon. 

Advancements in technology haven’t made them irrelevant; if anything, they’ve made them more accessible than ever before. Even in my own life, paper dolls appeared again and again throughout my memories in a way I hadn’t previously realized. My grandmother introduced me to them, and my earliest attempts at drawing were paper dolls. For a brief strange period in fifth grade, I was even selling them to kids at my school. Paper dolls in all their deceptive simplicity keep showing up in magazines, activity books and online, without ever raising an eyebrow or seeming out of place. So what keeps bringing us back?

Maybe it was just something too large or obvious to be answered. But it was a question I kept coming back to, especially as someone lucky enough to have an internship with Paperdoll Review. So I went about trying to answer it as best I could, which is to say by first asking others. I put out the question to artists and collectors within the paper doll community, including several Facebook groups, and the response I received was both absolutely amazing and somewhat overwhelming. People shared some of their favorite memories of paper dolls, their first experiences, and even some paper dolls that were especially notable for them. The paper doll community is one that is exceptionally welcoming and I am very thankful for that fact. And while I was not able to include all of the responses, each was invaluable. With over a hundred responses, patterns quickly began to emerge. Whether they came into people’s lives as children or later, some qualities ensured that paper dolls remain as relevant as ever.

Accessibility
“They are low-tech,” said paper doll artist David Wolfe. “Just a pair of scissors is all you need … It’s important to note that paper dolls are absolutely affordable.” Many of those who discovered paper dolls in their childhood spoke about their accessibility in comparison to fashion dolls or other toys available. Sheryl Knowles shared that in a childhood where moving was common due to family in the Air Force, paper dolls were ideal for being able to carry many in a shoebox. For others, like fashion designer and FIT professor Renaldo Barnette or artist Gregg Nystrom, paper dolls were easier for a young boy interested in fashion and glamour to get his hands on than something like Barbie. Even outside of paper dolls found in magazines, comics or books, anyone can create their own paper dolls so long as they have paper and a pencil. In this way, they also are limitless in the stories that can be created.

Paper Dolls as Tactile Play
Current research shows that children learn through play, especially. But it’s not just them. Play is how we first make sense of the world around us, building nerve connections and  observing cause and effect. It’s how we begin to figure out what we might want our lives to look like and what we think is possible. Play has also been discovered to be useful for adults as well, with it helping maintain problem-solving skills and thinking on your feet. This is even truer when it comes to what is called tactile or sensory play (which might more traditionally just be called play, to further complicate things) where one is physically interacting with an object or the world around them. Don’t get me wrong, as a member of Gen Z I’m grateful that I’ve basically always had modern technology at my disposal but there’s a reason the toy world didn’t go completely virtual like some predicted it might in the ’90s. Physical interaction is how we know we’re connected to the world around us and that we have a place in it. 2020 made this clearer than ever, with people flocking to activities like baking or crafting in the absence of being able to go outside.

Paper dolls are an ideal form of tactile play, combining creativity with a material component. They may be beautiful simply on the page (more on that later), but in use they shine. Teri Pettit points out that “There are other kinds of art toys that were popular in the ’60s and ’70s, like Paint by Number kits, Lite Brite, Spirograph, string art, etc., but for most of them you do the picture creation phase, and then you’re done with it and have to move on. But with paper dolls and paper play scenes, you first create something, and then you have a real toy when you’re done.” Becky Mueller uses paper dolls when tutoring six- year-olds, “They’re a fun way to teach vocabulary like arm, shirt, lace, etc. and the girls get to take the dolls home when they successfully learn to read the words.” Melissa Pepe recalled from her own experience that practicing fine motor skills came easier when her mother gave her paper dolls to cut out.

Paper Dolls as Historical Record
Many paper dolls depict historical periods, with fashion historians like Brenda Sneathen Mattox, Tom Tierney, Norma Lu Meehan, and many others who’ve worked within the paper doll industry. They also function as cultural artifacts of the time they were produced, for better and for worse. They are a portal into the time that created them and sometimes, when created after the fact, a way of acknowledging histories that may not always be as visible. Paper dolls have been tied to everything from celebrities to art movements to the ever-changing world of fashion. “They are iconic in representing styles, culture and fashions from specific decades,” said Jeannine Parent. Unlike a book or documentary, they’re something that can be manipulated and used to let the past and present interact. Any historian will tell you that paper, along with fabric, is the most difficult material to preserve and yet often can yield some of the most information on what culture of the time was like. The work of those who scan and archive paper dolls from the past is incredibly valuable, not only for those who enjoy it now but for those who will one day be studying the world we live in. They also, as pointed out by Marcia Dennis Lickei, can be much more compact to store than vintage textiles.

Paper Dolls as Art Objects
At the end of the day, paper dolls are tiny pieces of art. Even better, they’re art that can be held. Paper doll artist Kwei-lin Lum says “Paper dolls resonate with me as an uncut art form, at their best mysterious arrangements of objects in a two-dimensional space.” Each artist brings their own style to paper dolls, an extension of how they create. Paper dolls can also be easier for artists to mass-produce. I know that I own ones from artists whom I will never be able to afford original work from. “My parents had a book on art history that I perused for hours on end,” says Dawn Kiefer, “ I think the combination of paper dolls and the art history book led to my lifelong interest in art appreciation as well as the evolution of fashion.” For Sylvia Kleindinst, paper dolls led to a career in art education. Whether they’re in a frame, a book, or cut out ready to tell whatever story you can imagine, the same thing which draws us to all forms of art draws us to paper dolls. Humans have the ability to seek out beauty. In some ways it makes us what we are. In art school, much of the first year is devoted to circular conversations on how to define art, but that’s almost beside the point. People will always want to create, whether it’s statues or cave paintings or, yes, paper dolls.

And I think that might be my answer, at least, to “why paper dolls,” since it feels unfair to ask everyone a question without giving my own response. It’s some incredible combination of all of the above. There’s something instinctual about paper dolls. “It’s a ‘heart’ thing,” says Susan Plante Witmeyer. “They tug, remind, comfort, delight.” Paper dolls will remain for the same reason we keep making art or playing, which is to say it’s so a part of us that there may not be any simple reason. Children left to their own devices will find ways to imagine even if just given paper and pencils. No matter what myths we tell about maturity, we’re not going to grow past that.

Marguerite Carrithers is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and interned for Paperdoll Review in 2021. Her articles have appeared in Paperdoll Review issues #81 and #86.  

Click here to subscribe to our specialty magazine... all about paper dolls!

Title image: Saalfield’s The Little Dressmaker Paper Dolls (1949).

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.” 

The Day I Went to Paper Doll Heaven by Marilyn Henry

 

Article from Paperdoll Review magazine issue #10, 1995.

"Now that's eerie," I said to myself when I happened upon an article in an old issue of Paperdoll Review. Back in 1995, in Issue 10, Marilyn Henry wrote an article called "The Day I Went to Paper Doll Heaven." My dear friend and long-time co-editor passed away in 2020, and if there's a Paper Doll Heaven, Marilyn is there in all her glory. The story she wrote in 1995 is a sweet one, about the day she received a treasure-trove of paper dolls from her older brother's friends. Shown above is the article as it appeared in the magazine. And below is the text with full color versions of the paper dolls shown in the article. 

The Day I Went to Paper Doll Heaven
by Marilyn Henry

If we have been collecting long enough, most of us can recall a day when we hit it lucky, when the sun shone on us and we found a cache of wonderful, rare paper dolls to add to our collections, all in one big load. Add to that a nominal price (or even no price!) and you have paper doll heaven!

That day came to me when I was still a little girl, maybe nine or ten years old. My life at that time was completely focused on movies and paper dolls, and one of my greatest joys was going downtown with mother and finding a new movie star paper doll with matching coloring book in the dime store rack. My other greatest joy was going to the movies and seeing those stars and then drawing their costumes when I came home. For me, crayons were the greatest toy ever invented. 

My brother was in college and he had two friends who were dating two sisters. Evidently my brother had mentioned in passing that his little sister was nuts for movies and paper dolls. The sisters were ready to dispose of theirs, so they offered and my brother took me over to their house to pick up my booty. I was excited, but I didn't yet know just what astonishing luck I'd had.

Bob loaded three or four large cardboard boxes into the car and when I got home and went through the first box, I was sure I had died and gone to heaven.

Each set was cut, but oh, so carefully and neatly, and each was in a paper folder placed inside the original covers, with all the accessories tucked into small envelopes. Each doll was perfect, as if it had never been played with at all, thought the bent tabs said otherwise. They were all perfect and complete, bought between 1934 and 1942, and most were sets I didn't have. I hadn't even seen most of them before, being too young in the ’30s. 

And what pure treasure: every Shirley Temple set printed, including the Masquerade set, the life-size one and the one with all her screen costumes, right up to 1941's New Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, the five doll Gone With the Wind, all the Deanna Durbin sets, the early Sonja Henies, all the Jane Withers sets, Jeanette MacDonald, Joan Carroll, two Gloria Jean sets, Baby Sandy, Carolyn Lee, Queen Holden's Four Starlets and her early Judy Garland, Linda Darnell & Tyrone Power, all the Let's Play House Quints, The Princesses, and many, many more. So many more that my mind boggles to try to remember them after more than fifty years.

 Of course, mixed in with these wonderful movie stars were some "civilian" sets, but since those didn't interest me, I gave them to my best friend and can no longer remember them. I kept a few, but only what struck me at the time as particularly good artwork: the Bride and Groom Military Wedding set and the earlier Double Weddingset, both by Merrill, and a couple of other great Merrill sets such as Navy Scouts and College Style, etc. 

What, you may be wondering, was in those other boxes? Clippings. Full page portraits of 1930s and early ’40s movie stars from old movie magazines, most in color. Truly the mother of all lucky days, that day!

Article from: Paperdoll Review Magazine Issue #10, 1995.
The magazine is still going strong! To subscribe,
visit paperdollreview.com

A Paper Doll Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II was a beloved figure for so many of us around the globe. But for my Paperdoll Review co-editor, Lorna Thomopoulos, a Brit herself, the Queen felt like a family member. Lorna's tribute will appear in Paperdoll Review Issue 85, coming out later this fall. 

Our lovely Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle Paper Doll was created by Julie Allen Matthews for our upcoming magazine issue. Saddened to hear of the Queen's passing, Julie took to her drawing board. She thought it was a natural fit to highlight the tartans of the Royal Family, especially considering she died at her beloved Balmoral Castle. The first is the Balmoral tartan, said to have been designed by Prince Albert and is only worn by the Royal Family. The second is the Green Stewart, designed for King George VI, Queen Elizabeth's father. An icon in every way, she'll be dearly missed.

Remembering Queen Elizabeth II
by Lorna Currie Thomopoulos
for Paperdoll Review magazine issue #85, Fall 2022

A great sadness fell upon the nation when Queen Elizabeth II died (1926-2022). Everyone, monarchist or not, was effected. The country’s Rock and in some ways, everyone’s Granny, was gone. We all knew it was coming but even broadcasters had watery eyes and cracked voices. 

My earliest “memory” of Queen Elizabeth II is being held in my mother’s arms in 1947 as she, then still a princess, drove down a Durban street in an open-topped car. Actually I do not remember it as I was only one month old but I like knowing I was there. My next sighting was 28 years later as I joined the crowds to see the Queen “Trooping the Colour” in London. She passed by sitting side saddle on her horse, smaller than I could have imagined, resplendent in a bright red jacket and matching lipstick.

The third time was at the theatre where she glided by in a fairy-tale evening gown and diamonds, one in particular twinkling throughout the performance. Absolutely fabulous.

Her sense of duty, sharp mind, humour, humanity and acute constitutional understanding has been acknowledged by everyone.

Aged just 21, Her Majesty declared that she would devote her whole life to the service of her people. “A fair and youthful figure, princess, wife and mother, is the heir to all our traditions and glories,” as an entranced Sir Winston Churchill so poetically put it on her Coronation.

Elizabeth’s extraordinary reign, spanning more than seven decades—longer than any other Monarch in British history—selflessly demonstrated this steadfast commitment to public service.

Always conducted in sartorial elegance—she was Great Britain’s greatest advertisement and the most famous woman on earth.

We are going to miss the gold dust she sprinkled on everything.