I Miss GLAMOUR!

I miss dressing up to go out. I miss wearing hats. I miss feeling elegant. I wear jeans, shirts, sometimes t-shirts (though a few are raw silk)—but I miss glamour, I miss elegance. I live in California where even in sophisticated San Francisco, with all their society doings, they are not really glamorous. They are sexy, yes. They are coifed, yes. They are made up, yes. But the air about them is not glamorous. Nor is glamour extant these days in Hollywood. No languid drapery. No elegant wraps. No graceful poses. No.

Even the many models on runways have no glamour. The clothes they wear are not meant to enhance the women they bedeck. They are meant to make a statement, not about the wearer, but about the designer.

I want to see glamour. I want to wear glamour. I want to feel glamour. I want to champion glamour.

I think our society began to die when we no longer cared about ourselves enough to take time and care with our inner selves—nor respected our outer selves enough and those outer selves with whom we came in contact—to dress well on a consistent basis. I don't speak only of women. I speak of men as well. Men look wonderful in suits. Why are they so averse to wearing them?

If we all dressed well, with a little glamour even by day, and were less instantly familiar, less constantly casual, dressing as though we cared about presenting a pleasing exterior to the rest of the world, a sort of walking neighborhood improvement project, we might address the stranger we talk to on the phone, as someone shocked me this evening by doing, as Ms. X. or Mr. Y., instead of Sue or Bob. We might even begin to respect each other enough not to destroy each others' property, each others' egos, each others' lives, each others' souls, not just here but everywhere.

We love the little 16" bits of glamour. Why don't we emulate them?

Welcome to Dolly Diva Designs, the Blog!

I am VERY excited about my project here at Dolly Diva Designs. My "mission statement" for this little enterprise is very simple. I plan to have a lot of fun with designing all sorts of clothes for the 16" mini-Divas starting with Gene Marshall and her gang of movie folk, in both the AD and Wu groups, and the Tonner gals—and even some of the guys. I don't love Trent, I'm sorry to say. I do love the MOST Bruce Wayne (Batman!) and think Basil St. John is also a handsome dude though I have a problem with keeping his hair combed, even after I cut a bunch of it off.

But I digress. What my plan is, is to design and make two groups of clothing for these people of the vinyl persuasion. The first group is all about the 30s, 40s and 50s, with emphasis on the 40s—my fave. The second group will be a re-creation of gowns and costumes I wore along with some of the props including even the odd bit of scenery I played in/with/on when I was singing opera and concert from 1966 to 1996. You know...Valkyries, Rhinemaidens, the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel, various courtesans from 400 AD in Egypt through the 1700s in France and the 1800s in England, Spanish gypsies and Italians of all types in all sorts of times. I always told the school kids—in grades from K-12—I performed for, that I had the greatest job in the world. I got to play "dressup, let's pretend and hey! look at me!" So now I want to make little copies of all that to share my fun with others who enjoy dressing up, pretending and showing off their elegantly and/or exotically tricked out dollies.

It's still mostly a plan. I've been collecting patterns, materials, pictures, miniature "props" —like the big Battat horses for the Valkyries to ride! But now I am starting to produce the actual clothes...okay, I'm starting to start.

In the meantime, before I have the things I want to make made, I will be selling off all the clothes the 60 or so dollies I've collected came in as well as stuff I got at several conventions that I never even took out of the boxes. So I do plan to open up this store on July something or other and will be doing business (she said hopefully) on my own to begin with to see if it's possible. If it's too impossible, I'll resort to a combination of this little boutique plus the gigantic impersonal e-Bay. In any case, I will be doing most of my business through PayPal. Come on, this is the way I get to play dolls and support my habit, no? Plus, I can help other people do the same...well maybe not the supporting part. Heh, heh.

"Stay ... uh... tuned!" sang the ex-opera singer... opera ex-singer... or just Me Me Me Me...