Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll Vintage clothing, like the 1950s, are fascinating to me, because really women’s clothing hasn’t dramatically changed in the last 80 years or so. So, I think what makes the 1950s really the 1950s are the accessories- the hats, purses and gloves that women don’t wear anymore.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll I wanted to draw a summer day dress when I stumbled across these digitized images from Montgomery Ward Spring Summer 1950 catalogs posted by the Closet Historian. Basically, I wanted an excuse to draw one of those fantastic straw hats.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll I have themes I return to over and over again. Evening gowns are one of them. They are sort of the “comfort food” of my drawing life. I enjoy creating them and, best of all, they are pretty easy to draw.
The challenge of evening gowns is not always drawing basically the same thing over and over again.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll I really have been in love with architectural evening gowns lately. I love the complex folded patterns. They’re also fun to try to draw. However, they often need extra tabs, like the floating tab I created fr this one. You’ll want to attach it to the shoulder.
Specific Source Images: This dress which I think is from Hannibal Laguna, though I haven’t been able to match it to specific season.
Last Thoughts It occurs to me I haven’t done a cocktail dress yet for the Jewels and Gemstones paper dolls. I probably should get on that. A project for another day, I think.
In case you missed it, I am changing things up in regards to scheduling. I’m just updating when I feel like it and time allows. If you want a weekly update, join Patreon. There will be a Friday paper doll outfit there every week. Also, you can sign up for email notifications and the will let you know when the site has updated.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll My favorite book as a child was Treasure Island. I’ve read it many many times now and I love it more each time. I even listened to it on audio while driving between states during my move. The characters are incredible and every-time I read it, I notice something new I didn’t see before.
Through Treasure Island, I fell in love with super old-school adventure novels. By high school, I had read Robinson Crusoe, Three Musketeers, Count of Monte Cristo and Kidnapped. My first love though remains Treasure Island.
Three Musketeers is a close second.
So, I like to draw pirate outfits. I blame is enjoyment on my love of Treasure Island. I suppose I could blame it on something else, I don’t know what I would point to.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Pirates, of course. Not real pirates (who I expect were rather smelly and dirty), but fantasy pirates who are much more fun and less likely to have scurvy.
Learn/See More On the Blog: More Pirate Paper Dolls, Another Jewels & Gemstones Foray into the Genre & More Jewels and Gemstones Generally Around the Internet:My Pinterest board section devoted to Pirates.
Last Thoughts By the way, I’m doing March Meet the Maker on Instagram (mostly, though I am also posting to Facebook when it makes sense) and if you want to follow along, you can follow me on Instagram.
My patrons got a Pirate set on Monday and that set does mix and match with this set. What more paper dolls? Then come join up on Patreon.
What were your favorite books as a kid? Did you love pirate stories or something else? I was a pirates and fairy tale fan. Not shocking, I know.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll I am not great at coming up with superhero names. Let me state that straight up, but superheroes are really popular at the moment.
When I was designing this paper doll outfit, I was not thinking of contemporary superheroes, but rather the cartoon superheroes of my youth. Lots of bright colors, spandex and implausible outfits. It was the early 1990s, after all.
As for power, I don’t know. Probably something lightening related? I mean… or a Storm from the X-men rip off. I’m flexible.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Three of my favorite childhood cartoons were the X-men, She-Ra Princess of Power and Batman: The Animated Series. Batman was my favorite, but I have to say… man, that show was a lot darker than I remember thinking it was when I was 8.
Last Thoughts Has anyone noticed that “Super Hero” and “Superhero” both seem to be correct in the English language? That’s just annoying. English should really get it’s orthography sorted, darn it! (Clearly, I am such an English major.)
I owe a big thank you to the folks on Patreon. Your support means the world to me & your patience has been amazing! You’re all great.
So, I am changing things up in regards to scheduling. I am not going to promise a daily or three days a week or anything schedule. I’m doing update when I feel like it. If you want a more consistent schedule, than join Patreon. There will be a Friday paper doll outfit there every week.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll This is a case where there were super specific source images. Classic Lolita is very much Victorian influenced (yay!) and sometimes a bit less matchy-matchy than the other Lolita styles. I had a lot of fun creating this Lolita coordinate.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll In the world of Lolita fashion (which is a street fashion from Japan), the outfits are called coordinates. This references the extreme level of coordination each outfit entails. Unlike in contemporary US fashion where “matchy-matchy” isn’t a good thing, Lolita fashion encourages thematic dresses.
A strawberry coordinate, therefore, might not just have a dress with strawberries on it, but strawberry purse, cardigan, shoes, tights and a color matched wig.
This is, in fact, part of what I find so charming about Lolita fashion.
So, today’s Valentine’s Day paper doll outfit is a heart based coordinate. I could have also done a card, letter based coordinate, but I wasn’t that creative.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Sweet Lolita is today’s theme which is a Lolita style that most folks are most familiar with. Lots of pastel and things. I chose to draw a JSK (jumper-skirt) over a white blouse. Initially, I thought about making these pieces separate, but as it turned out that didn’t work very well from a paper doll engineering standpoint.
Specific Source Images:This JSK (jumper-skirt) from Angelic Pretty. This purse from MILK.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell’arte, a semi-improvised form of Italian masked theater that had a huge impact on the arts of Europe. It’s one of the oldest forms of clowning. And by clowning, I don’t mean the sort of half-decent party clown, I mean the highly difficult art form that often requires actors to wear masks, do acrobatics and be funny- all the same time. Respect clowns. It’s a darn hard art form.
Pierrot developed in the late seventeenth-century, making him a younger stock character than most of the other stock male characters in commedia dell’arte. Interestingly, Pierrot has evolved over the years. He started out as a naive buffoon, pining after the beautiful Columbina, but inevitably losing out to Harlequin (another stock character) and never learning his lesson. Over time though, the sort of innocence of Pierott became seen as a sympathetic character.
Interestingly, Pierrot is also heavily featured in artwork. Often see as representing the innocence of the artist in the cruel unforgiving world. It also helps, not doubt, that his traditional outfit is so distinct- white face, white smock, loose white pants. I love how the costumes of commedia dell’arte stock characters are so distinct. You know immediately who is who which was, one should note, kind of the point.
One of these day’s I’ll do Harlequin or Columbina, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Obviously, today’s Pierott inspired outfit is based on Pierott’s traditional outfit of white smock, loose white pants, fluffy buttons, hat and ruff around his neck. I modified it, obviously, but that’s the basic theme. Sometime around the 1920s, Pierott’s costume added black to the white. You don’t see it much before that. There’s also some gender-bending in that era where you see very feminine Pierott images appearing. So, my lady costume for Pierott isn’t totally out of the realm of possibility.
Last Thoughts A few of my favorite Pierott’s in art include- Schwarzer Pierrot from 1908 by Fritz Erler, Pierrot & Arlecine (Harlequinn) from 1914 by Russian artist Alexandre Jacovleff, and Self-portrait as Piero from 1911 by Zinaida Serebriakova. If you’re interested in checking out a few more of the clown.
I actually have a strange affection in my heart for masked theater. If you can actually find some that is well done, it’s a really fascinating art form. I digress.
My Friday Patreon outfit is also theater inspired, but in a more circus sense. Join us on Patreon if you’d like to check it out. Support through Patreon is what keeps PTP around.
Do you like clowns? Do they freak you out? (No shame if they do.) I personally am cool with clowns (and have known a few), but I admit that the sterotypical clown outfits do nothing for me.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll I would probably draw nothing but fantasy dresses for quite some time and never get bored, because there’s so much history to fashion to dip into a try. People have been wearing clothing for pretty much, well, ever. So, it’s a huge deep pool of neat stuff to pull ideas from.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Today’s paper doll gown is very much a renaissance inspired gown, though it’s not historically accurate in anyway. By the way, the dress is really close to Italian renaissance styles which the high waist and the split sleeves that show off the shift underneath.
Specific Source Images: I didn’t really look at anything while I was drawing it (the perk of spending so much of my free time collecting clothing images), but if you’re interested in similar styles here’s a few options: This gown, this gown and this gown.
Last Thoughts I love drawing super detailed pattern motifs, like the one above, until I am coloring them. While I am coloring them a little piece of me cries and cries and wonders what I did it. Such a pain to color!
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll Okay, so I know I’m not supposed to have favorites, but I do. And this Walking Dress was one of my two favorite dresses I drew for Monday’s Regency paper doll.
My other favorite is a morning dress that is going up for my Patrons on Patreon on Friday.
Today’s walking dress was a form of half-dress, for those keeping track, which means we’re really only missing undress (the more informal of options), but if you’re a Patron, one of those will be up Friday.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll Occasionally, I see something I just want to draw it. That was what happened with this amazing fashion plate. I was in love the moment I saw it. I was a little worried about the ruff at the neck, but I think it came out okay.
Last Thoughts If you’re super observant, you might notice that the cuffs on this dress are the same as the cuffs on the day dress. This cuff style was super popular. When you see a style popping up on multiple garments, it’s usually evidence that people were into it.
Friendly reminder that if you want to see a morning dress tomorrow, join us on Patreon. 2 dollars a month gets you an extra paper doll dress every Friday.
So, which dress this week has been your favorite? Personally, I’m a big fan of today’s dress. Let me know in a comment.
Thoughts on Today’s Paper Doll There’s a perception that the Regency era was all white dresses, white stockings and white shoes. Never mind the fact that there is still mud in the 1800s and there’s not the kind of laundry capacity we have now. I knew I wanted to do a richly colored day dress in patterned cotton.
Day dresses were a form of undress or half-dress (as I mentioned yesterday). This dress is a more middle class style and certainly casual. Printed cottons were very popular in the era and this color is called Turkey red. The “turkey” part of the name refers to the country of Turkey, not the bird.
Her bonnet is a bit earlier than the dress- it’s a soft sort of style that was super popular before 1810 and then seems to fall out of fashion a bit for harder stiffer styles. I have one of those bonnets for tomorrow.
Inspiration for Today’s Paper Doll The dress’s silouhette comes from this gown from the V&A Museum. The print on the dress and the colors are from this swatch from Ackermann’s Journal. That was a fashion journal that included pasted in fabric/paper swatches.
Last Thoughts One of the challenges though of working in historical clothing is that I don’t know what would be considered “tacky”. Would it be tacky to combine blue stockings with green shoes and a red dress? Is this too much color? How would a woman of this period actually feel about this combination? I have no idea.
I just noticed there’s a tiny coloring error in this set. How embarrassing! I’ll get it fixed when I can. Probably not this week though (this week is a bit crazy).
I’m not planning to do a mourning dress, but how cool are these mourning dress fashion plates? I always think of the obsession with mourning clothing being a Victorian thing, but here’s the early stages.
So, what do you think of today’s dress? Love it? Hate it? Wish it was white? Let me know in a comment.
