LE SALON DES LIVING DOLLS * THE LIVING MANNEQUIN SHOP WINDOW * BARBIE LIVES * LIVING STATUES
Silly Billy's Body Page. My pen pal Silly Billy had contributed some good stuff to the Living Doll House in the past, and has begun a page for himself. The latest development are his bodysuits, some of which give the female body a decidedly dolly-esque apperance. I love them; he has even done a catwalk show of them. Go and see for yourself. There are some nice links too. Or Billy's newest addition: Mannequeen, Billy's Living Mannequin page. Perhaps the best around. Pictures and video.
Bob. The story of an artist who went to the dogs. Or to New York. No, he became a Barbie. A Saga for the Zap Era. I love it. It must be that I'm a neo-structuralistic hater of modernism with post-modernistic tendencies. Or vice versa, versa vice. (My wife thinks I'm just plain deconstructivistic.)
Prita Möschel
has an online ad in her booking office. And a lot of banners. I guess you just have to see her herself.
Now,
this is my idea of a living doll. Cute, neatly dressed-up and, fair is
fair, every inch a woman. Roxana is rather versatile, as you can see on her website.
(Which is in German, by the way.)
Lately, Mikhail has been dabbling with Realplayer Animations. Realplayer movies are smaller than gifs, much, much smaller than AVIs or MPG movies, full colour and I could have dozens of them on this site. The Realplayer viewer is downloadable for free in different flavours, as long as you don't want to have the Pro version. For those curious to know, my image editor is Paintshop Pro v5, using the clone, push, smudge, lighten, darken, soften, lightness up, spraycan and 'colour to target' tools.
***
`So, you're the guy who makes these "Russian
Girl" dolls...'
`You like them?' She didn't seem the type to interested in that
sort of thing. But she didn't hear. Absorbed she stared at the
pairs of pictures of girls and dolls. `Often you bring out
something that should have been there from the start,' she said.
`Thank you. I am glad you like them.' I still wondered what she
was doing here.
`It's not that I like them. I need one. I want to have
one.'
`It's not a matter of having one. More ...'
`Yes ...?'
`I can't explain. I don't think you would understand.'
A frosted gaze. `It's not that I think you're stupid,' I added.
`People call me a cold bitch,' she replied. `Behind my back of
course. But I know. Is that it?'
`You haven't done anything to me to justify ...'
`But you understand?'
I remained silent.
`It's why I'm here. I want to have an image of me around, but
cute, romantic ... to help bring around the other side of me.'
Somehow she read my thoughts. `I hope it's there, that other side,'
she added. Suddenly she looked very vulnerable. Different, very
different.
`Don't worry, it's there,' I said. `But like I said, it's not
that you have a doll.'
`Please, explain.'
I explained. I told her of porcelain masks, of cheek paddings,
clever stage make up. Thick contact lenses.
She listened.
She did not run away.
`It might work,' she said. `But what if it fails? I mean, when I'm
back outside and find I'm still my old self?'
`You need never to stop trying. And some just never bother to try.'
She followed my gaze to the corner of the room, where an antique
mannequin in an elaborate pink bustle dress stared into a mirror.
`You mean, that isn't ...?'
`No, she isn't.'
`Beautiful ...'
`Yes, very.' In my mind I was covering her skin with a shiny
glaze, altering the shape of her face with clever devices.
Indeed, it might work.
Realplayer animation (116 Kb)
***
Somewhere in May I believe, the Living Dolls Club at Yahoo had a brilliant monthly theme: what would your advertisment for a living doll look like? Of course, this put Mikhail in deep thought mode. Being a visual person, he started to look throught the thousands and thousand of JPGs on the web, to find one that could be used as a starting point for a picture. Eventually he found one, but in the meantime way everybody started sueing each other and Mikhail left, whistling 'This is not America' (dadadada). Nevertheless a question like this, or rather the underlying quiestion - what would your living doll look like - can't be left unanswered for a true doll maker. So ...
This should give you an idea. The
basic material should be a real girl (left image), or
failing one, Mikhail insists on a real doll (as for virtual 'girls':
been there, done that and no regrets, but some things can only
done right once). Preferably intelligent, charming, sense of
humour, pretty, lots of personality, the obvious things - we're
talking of an ideal doll here. The doll outside (right image)
should be or look like a 19th century mannequin, or else like a
very realistic modern mannequin. Hair should be exchangeable of
course, but preferably long and curly.
Dress code: Mikhail has developed something like a mild bustle
dress fetish, so that's the ticket if the doll wants to look at
her Sunday best. The ones from the 1875 to 1880 years are best (or watch the
movie Age of Innocence to get the idea).
Favourite colour pink, and if possible adorned with furry, fuzzy
or feathery trims, linings and accessories. (No surprise here for
those who know Mikhail well.)
Realplayer animation (79 Kb)
And while I'm in a giving mood, here is a story I wrote.
ASFR the newsgroupWith all these people chatting, ICQing, webpaging and whatever, one could forget that the thing that started it all - robots, dolls, mannequins and the lot - was the ASFR Usenet newsgroup.
A combination of a living doll and a magic act. Read
all about it on their webpage.
I'd love to see the act but I suppose it is one of these things
that are too small to make it all the way across the Atlantic.
Susan and Jeff Stringer, THE Susan and Jeff Stringer, mind you, don't really qualify as living doll performers, as this wonderful couple love to dress up in every possible way you could think of. But their very large site is well worth a visit, especially if you are interested in more guises than just living dolls. The weirder the better, says Mikhail.
I got this link from an anonymous contributor - it's a page devoted to the movie Land of the Giants or The Marionettes. Oh, and ignore the clown on the left.
TINK
(found)The picture of Tink was send to us by Rowan, who has brought some valued addition to the Living Doll House premisses in the past. He wrote:
`The picture came from Mistress Organza's homepage. The doll is named tink, and she does mime and 'living doll' routines for department stores, namely Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom's. Sadly, I don't recall the homepage. But I made sure to get the pic and sent it to you, as tink is -truly- my definition of living doll.'
Tink, a.k.a. Organza Towers, has been found! Especially the lovers of lace and frills will love The Soft Side of Organza, his website, that speaks for itself.
Unknown
STREETPERFORMERThe noble art of performing as a living doll or statue on the streets has really caught on; unfortunately, the only artists I ever meet on the street are the STOOHPIDS who are doing the great Answer is Blowing in the Wind opus. Not in your wind, luv'. Please take them home, country roads. Meanwhile, here is another picture from the Web, sent to me by a friend.
SHARON, LIVING DOLL PERFORMERI found Sharon's picture in a `Performing
friends of mine' section of another performer in the US of A,
so there was little info about her. Sharon has a small
webpage, probably put up by her agent. (Thanks Robolover!). If
you are real quick you can some beautiful picture on the Living
Mannequins page of Mannequin Lover (I don't need to give you his
address, do I?)
JOHN EICKEFor a provider that calls itself `lightning',
www.blitz.de has an in-cre-di-bly sloooow connection. However, it
is the home of John
Eicke's webpage. John is a Living Doll artist from Berlin,
Germany. When I find the time and if anybody is interested, I
will translate the words on the picture.
Some people complain that
models look like mannequins, and super models in particular.
Other people agree, but don't want to complain about it. (We know
who those are.) Occasionally supermodels look like toy dolls.
Look what happened when poor Linda Evangelista fell into the
hands of Vivienne Westwood. Personally I would have preferred to
see her completely in white paint, but that is not a thing that
can't be fixed by Photopaint or the likes of it: mail me and I will
correct this gruesome error. This is from the fall '95 Pret ā
porter collection by Vivienne Westwood, bless her soul. The fall
'96 collection is a lot less interesting but we are keeping a
close watch on her.
Unknown artistThis picture I found on the net, some time ago. I hope I
manage find the info sometime. Judging by the name of the picture
file I say it was a group of German performers. So, I they are
out there and don't mind some free publicity ...
A classic, the movie Bladerunner. Replicant Pris (Darryl
Hannah) doing a doll impersonation to excape the attention of Our
Hero. Go see the movie.
Or, you could go BACK to the Main Hall
Thanks RobotMaster, Billy, James ML en Rowan!
I've had problems with mailadress harvesting viruses, not to mention spambots doing the same thing. I've decided to remove the direct mail links from my pages - a case in point of bad people spoiling it for the good. If you want to mail me, you can use the address visible on the picture below (sorry if you are visually impaired, I've no solution for that).
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