A 1960s Twiggy Inspired Aisha

A 1960's Twiggy inspired paper doll with three pairs of historical shoes to print in color or black and white. Her Rudi Gernreich inspired underwear is also historically accurate.
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If Monday’s Abigail was an ode to the beehives of the early 1960s, than today’s Aisha is a nod to Twiggy and the styles of the later sixties. Twiggy, real name Lesley Hornby, was a famous model of the later 1960s. Her androgynous look was long eyelashes, short hair and big eyes. Well, all my paper dolls have big eyes, but I did add additional eyelashes to Aisha. Here is the official Twiggy website with photos of her modeling work in the 1960s.

Interestingly, Twiggy was the beginning of the fashionable obsession with youth. She was only 17 when she reached her stardom. Today, trends are driven by younger and younger consumers. There has always been an interest in “looking young” in fashion, but the late 1960s really instilled it into our culture, I think.

As with all my historical paper dolls, there are sources. The hair was obviously Twiggy inspired. Her underwear is based on this Rudi Gernreich bra from the Met Museum. Rudi Gernreich is most famous for his topless monokini. The bra she wears is based on his “no bra” concept, which was a bra, but without any support or padding. It is notable that this design was only available in small cup sizes. This highlights the obsession with the “youthful” boyish figure of the era.

Let’s talk about shoes (one of my favorite things to draw). The black and white pair of shoes are from 1966-1968. The white strappy pair are from the 1960s. The ones with the bow were originally pink from 1962. All are from the V&A museum which has a great costume history collection.

One last announcement, I should make the Dames and Dandies series will be going on hiatus in 2019, so I can debut my new series called Jewels & Gemstones (Thank you Patrons for voting on that). It will be a single doll pose for the first quarter of 2019. After that quarter, it will be time to reassess where things are. I’ll share more Wednesday of next week. Monday will be the last Dames & Dandies post for the foreseeable future. It’s more 1960s stuff.

Feel free to ask any questions you might have and I’ll answer if I can. You can see a preview of the new doll on my Patreon page.

Need some clothing for today’s paper doll? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

And 1960s Week Begins with Abigail!

This week's paper doll theme is 1960s styles and here's Abigail with shoes and beehive hair. She wears a body suit and has three pairs of period shoes.

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I knew I wanted to draw a 1960s paper doll and I knew I wanted to do a beehive hair. And lest you think that this hair is “unrealistic” than I would refer to the Ronnetts (this photo) and the Supremes (this photo), both inspirations for today’s Abigail paper doll’s hair. As I’ve said before, finding historical references for black vintage hair styles is not an easy task and the copyright law nuances make it much harder.

Now, if Ebony would just digitize their entire archive and put it online for free for me, that would be fantastic… But since I don’t see that happening soon. I went with my usual “find famous people and copy them, technique.”

If there is one thing I will never fully understand, it’s 1960s hair. I mean, I get wanting a little lift in your hair, but seriously, the 1960s took the big hair thing to a whole different level. Unlike the 1980s, 1960s big hair was stiff. One might even use the term shellacked. At least, that’s what I’ve been told by people who lived in that era. I asked a woman once, after looking at her yearbook photo with her, how she’d gotten her hair like that and she replied to me, deadpan, “One hour and hairspray.”

Ask a dumb question…

Anyway, Abigail’s underwear is based on this Mary Quant designed body suit. Her shoes can all be found in the V&A. I did make them different colors, but the styles are here, here and here.

If you want to see all my 1960s inspiration, as we are heading into a week of 1960s content, head over to my 1960s Pinterest Board.

Need some clothing for today’s paper doll? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

Akiko: Space Princess!!

A space princess paper doll featuring a sci-fi inspired gown and shoes. One of hundreds of paper doll designs from paperthinpersoas.com

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I had several space princess paper dolls when I was a kid. I don’t know the exact source of the space princess obsession of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but I remember this paper doll card really well.

My grandmother often sent me paper doll cards as a child. I can recall nearly every one, which is astonishing when I think of all the things I can’t recall from my youth.

Anyway, I wanted to make a space princess paper doll and I was inspired by this gown designed by Guo Pei. Guo Pei is a Chinese fashion designer. Her work is amazingly inventive and creative. Much like Alexander McQueen (another designer I adore), Guo’s designs are often hard to imagine a person actually wearing, but that makes them all the more enchanting to me. Her designs are harder to find on the web (though perhaps not if you speak Chinese) and Vogue only has her 2016-2018 collections on their website.

I think this dress is from 2010, but I am not positive.

Anyway, that was the inspiration for the gown and everything else flowed from that. I love creating over the top hair styles, so I did one of those for Akiko and her shoes were inspired by her gown.

I did want to wish people a Happy Hanukkah to everyone who, like me, are lighting candles for the next week. I don’t have holiday plans for the blog this year. I totally forgot the holidays, so this will be a holiday free blog this year. But I have done Hanukkah paper dolls in the past. 

Let me know what you think of today’s paper doll in a comment. I’m super curious if anyone else was into Space Princesses as a child? And what do you think makes a Space Princess?

Need some more clothing for today’s paper doll? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

A 14th Century Version of Alice

A historical paper doll with shoes and underwear from the 1300s. A great way to learn about 14th century women's clothing and teach history to kids!

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I have had several requests for early fashion history paper dolls and this week I am sharing a whole week of 14th century clothing from Europe. This is not how they were dressing in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties of China, for example. Though someday maybe I’ll feel confident enough to try out historical Chinese dress (it’s really interesting).

Okay, so about today’s paper doll…

The 14th century is one of the last eras in which women could get away with having their heads uncovered which I think is kinda nice. Her hairstyle was based on manuscript illustrations like this one and busts like this one.

Her shift is a bit more fitted than they probably would have been in the real world, but that’s because paper dolls don’t have the benefit of fabric and the layering gets to be an issue. It’s based on one of the few shifts I could find in manuscript illustration. It comes from Roman de Giron the Courtois which is a manuscript held in the National Museum of France under the call number NAF 5243. The illustration I used is on folio 87v. It’s also on a few other pages as well.

Her shoes all come from the excellent, though rather dry, book Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz. It took me months to find a copy at a reasonable price, but it’s an excellent source full of drawings of archaeological footwear finds. If you know, that’s your kinda thing.

As always, a big thank you to my Patrons and if you’d like to help out the blog by making a donation, you can do that over on the Patreon page.

Also, I’m doing a poll! I posted this on my Patreon page, but I didn’t get a lot of responses, so I am hoping if I post it here I might get more. Plus I know Monday is my highest traffic day.

[poll id=”22″]

As always I reserve the right to ignore the outcome if I feel like it. 🙂 Anyway, enjoy today’s paper doll and if you have a moment, let me know what you think about 2019.

Need some clothing for today’s paper doll? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

A Steampunk Batari Paper Doll

A printable steampunk inspired Asian dress up doll with two pairs of shoes and she can share clothing with any of the other B pose ladies.

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When I was looking at the all the B Pose dolls, I realized that I’d not really done one that was “steampunk” inspired. So, it wasn’t hard to decide to make the third version of Batari as a steampunk dress up doll that you can print. I mean, she could also just be a girl with a red bob. I suppose the difference is not exactly extensive.

Also, she has navy toenail polish which I think is super fun. 

It’s been so long since I designed this paper doll, I really can’t recall what my inspirations were. If you head over to my Steampunk Pinterest Board, you’ll find plenty of steampunk fashion inspiration.

Some options for steampunk clothing for Batari include- yesterday’s steampunk outfit, August’s steampunk outfit, and this princess dress with a top hat

Right now, I am doing a poll about what I should create in 2019, if you have a moment, please hop over to the Patreon page to vote. Also, I’d love to hear if you have a comment, so feel free to let me know there or here. 

Need  a doll for today’s clothing? All the B Pose Dolls & Clothing

Batari Get’s Shoes! (All Paper Dolls Need Shoes)

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I did my first version of Batari back in August, so I am happy to get to post a second version. This version of Batari has lots of shoes (a super important paper doll garment, because they are the least versatile) and a short hair style. Both of the first two Bartari versions had longer hair, so I wanted to do one with short hair.

As I mentioned before, Batari is an Indonesian name that means Goddess. It was voted on by my Patrons. I like to give them the opportunity to choose paper doll names whenever I can.

(Sometimes, I have a name in mind.)

So, some may remember that I was drawing a paper doll for Inktober. My goal was to draw ten paper doll outfits over the course of the month and post them on Instagram. It was a rough month, but I managed to get all ten done. You can see them over at the #ptpinktober2018

If you want to help keep the blog up on the internet and see more behind the scenes stuff, think of becoming a Patron. Also, you get to vote on things there. 

Need a Doll to wear today’s outfit? All the B Pose Dolls & Clothing

A Steampunk Version of Changrui

A new steampunk paper doll design featuring an Asian guy paper doll with accessories.

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So, when I was rounding up all the paper dolls for my C Pose paper doll post with all the sets I’d done in the last few months, I realized how few versions of the guys I had created. The girls all have several versions and the poor guys were just hanging out in their modern hair without much to turn too. I felt bad for them.

So, I set to work designing some new versions of the guys. I still need to design a second Cyrus, but have done elf Cameron, fantasy Carlos and now we have steampunk Changrui. I might have just really wanted an excuse to draw a Victorian mustache. Maybe.

I need a theme for Cyrus, any suggestions? I’m leaning towards cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic.

Also, if you like the blog and want to get behind the scenes, help pay for the server space and support my sketchbook buying habits, consider becoming a patron. Any amount helps.

Need a clothing for today’s paper doll? All the C Pose Dolls & Clothing

A Pair of New Abigail Dolls

Two African-American paper dolls to dress up from paperthinpersonas.com. These cute black girls can share clothing with any of the other A Pose Dames and Dandies paper dolls.

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Today, I am sharing a pair of Abigail dolls to dress up. Abigail has a warm brown skin-tone. Just like my other two doll sets, I wanted the two different versions of Abigail to be pretty different.

So, Abigail on the left has a natural hair style and Abigail on the right has pastel purple hair. Personally (in my head) the left paper doll is a modern girl and the right paper doll is maybe from the future where pastel hair is in style?

Unless pastel hair is in style now and no one told me. I mean, I’m not usually on the cutting edge of hair trends. Clothing trends I do keep pretty good track of. Hair is harder. 

As always, a big thank you to my Patrons and if you’d like to help out the blog by making a donation, you can do that over on the Patreon page

Need some clothing for today’s paper doll? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

Carlos and His Fantasy Outfit

A paper doll man with a medieval inspired fantasy outfit to print in color or black and white for coloring. A great rainy day activity for kids.

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Doing Friday’s round up made me feel a little guilty. The poor C Pose guys just haven’t gotten as much love as the others. A big thank you to Nicole who kindly gave me a suggestion for some ancient Greek inspired attire for them. This is clearly not that, but I do like the idea and I think I will begin exploring it.

This is, instead, Carlos getting some generic medieval fantasy attire that fits right in with this outfit and this outfit.

I was never 100% keen on my first version of Carlos. Something about his chin kinda bothered me… so for my second version, I solved the problem by giving him a beard. Confession- I love beards. (Within reason, there’s a critical line between a well groomed beard and a mess that is gross.)

Color scheme wise, I really wanted to avoid colors I’ve used before, so I went with this sort of sharp olive green and dusty blue thing. I actually really like these colors in general and I think they look especially nice with Carlos’ skin tone.

Of course, there’s always the black and white version you can color anyway you like.

Meanwhile, if you love the blog and want to support PTP, I do have a Patreon page for donations.

Need a clothing for today’s paper doll? All the C Pose Dolls & Clothing

Two Bridget Dress Up Dolls

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The first two Bridget paper dolls were both red heads. I do love red headed paper dolls. I blame it on reading Anne of Green Gables as a young child.

Anyway, I felt like poor Bridget deserved a non-redhead version, so I designed these two dolls to a a blond and a brunette.

Also, the other two Bridget paper dolls both have fairly straight hair. Therefore, these two have curls. I am trying to increase paper doll diversity after all and I can’t exactly do that if I just draw the same style Bridget paper dolls every time.

What I don’t have yet is an “unusual hair color” Bridget, so I guess that’s next up for her someday. Maybe blue or green hair… I’m not sure. I haven’t crossed that bridge yet.

What hair color would you like to see for Bridget? Let me know in a comment! I love to hear from you.

And also, if you like the blog, consider supporting it through Patreon. It really does help keep my costs down, because the internet is not free and I won’t put ads on the site. Even a dollar a month helps. Join here if you want too

Oh, and if you aren’t aware, I’m doing a curvy paper doll for Inktober. My goal is ten drawings for the month of October. and I’m sharing her to Instagram as I get her done. You can follow me there or follow the tag #ptptinktober to see my drawings. Two other people are doing paper dolls too on Instagram- @enolablue_ooakdolls and @elizabethjoymcdonald. Miss Missy is posting her Inktober paper doll on her website

Need clothing for today’s paper doll? All the B Pose Dolls & Clothing.