RLC

I am so happy to be getting back to paper doll book reviews. I did a few last year and I super enjoyed them, so here comes another one! One thing about these photos, the book is super glossy and it was super hard to get shots without bad glare. I did my best with my limited camera skills, but it’s far from perfect.

Glamorous Fashions of the Gilded Age Paper Dolls by Eileen Rudisill Miller came out from Dover Publications in 2020. It’s letter sized, has four dolls (two ladies and two gents). Clothingwise the ladies get 26 gowns and each gent gets an a morning coat to wear over their tuxedos. Apparently, balls and weddings are what the men are dressed for. Also, hats… a lot of fantastic hats. I am very jealous of Miller’s ability to draw hats.

The two male paper dolls both have very distinct faces. The blond sort of reminds me of Brad Pitt. I confess that the two lady paper dolls look the same to me. I wish they had maybe different skin-tones or more character in their faces. Heck, given that these dolls can’t share clothing, each one could have been taller or shorter or fatter or black or… there’s a whole range of options. There’s no reason all four dolls needed to be white skinny people.

I wish there was more paper doll diversity in general, but in the historical paper doll book world it’s particularly lacking. I find I am noticing it more than I used to. It’s not a new problem, though.

While the back of the book identifies the Gilded Age as being from the late 1860s to the late 1890s, I’ve never thought of it as starting that early. I’ve always thought of it as the last 30 years of the 19th century. My only quibble with using that language is that it gives the impression the book will cover those dates and it doesn’t. The dresses in the book are super 1880s.

You know, that silhouette where you could balance a tea-tray on the hard lines of the bustle? Yeah, that look.

This paper doll book is high quality. The covers are thick card stock and the interior pages are also card stock, but thinner. Everything is high gloss which, while super frustrating to photograph, does result in really brilliant color. The insides of the covers can be turned into a “ballroom scene”. It’s a neat idea, though I missed historical information from older Dover books.

All in all, while I might have some quibbles about the historical accuracy of most of these dresses, I loved the brilliant colors, hats, and Miller’s use of graphic shapes to great impact. I hadn’t bought a Dover paper doll book in a while and I’d gotten used to lighter weight paper in book interiors. While I suspect cutting this one out would be a little hard on the hands, the stiffer papers feels like it would stand up to hours of play. It makes me miss that style of paper doll book more than I thought I would.

This one is certainly worth your time if you have, like I do, a fondness for bustles. Just don’t expect much on the “historical accuracy” front or the paper doll diversity front. You can grab Glamorous Fashions of the Gilded Age Paper Dolls direct from Dover Publications or a lot of other places online.

I’m opening up comments on this one, as I am curious if other people have seen this book or if they have a paper doll book they’d like me to review. Let me know!

So, here is my review of the new paper doll book, Regency Paper Dolls by Amanda Kastner. There are things I love about this book and things which, frankly, I found a little bit less then ideal.

Let me start by saying, I am 100% behind more artists making paper dolls. I have been keeping track of paper doll new releases for my newsletter. So, when I saw a paper doll book was out by someone I didn’t know and it was historical fashion, I ordered it. Is there anything that could be better than that combo?

I think not.

The basics- This book is by Amanda Kastner, also known as Story Seamstress. It is published by Amazon’s self-publishing imprint, I believe. It is letter sized and has three dolls on the covers, a title page, 20 pages of clothing/furniture/stuff and two blank pages in the back. There is also a coloring book version.

I love the art, the line-work is delightful and there’s a sweet whimsy to it. It feels friendly, if that makes sense. The dolls all have very different faces and the hair is fantastic. Plus, each face is distinct looking, though I am like 80% sure the chins are duplicated. But I am not going to be upset about that, I reuse heads all the time in my own art. Who am I to judge?

While there’s some variation in skin tone, I’d love to have seen at least one dark brown paper doll rather than two different shades of white and one sort of tan paper doll. The lack of paper doll diversity in historical paper doll books is something I rail against often (and plan to continue to do so.)

Moving on, the style of Regency Paper Dolls feels almost like collage. Each page is double-sided with cutouts on one-side and a pattern on the back. The patterns on the dresses are repeated in the backgrounds in a different scale. The effect is super charming. Plus, she has drawn bonnets really well and I super need to get better at that, so I’ll be studying those closely.

And now, the downsides…. Most of these have to do with the Amazon Print on Demand situation, I suspect. The book feels cheaply made. I know when using print on demand that authors have limited options, but I can’t ignore this when paper dolls are so tactile. The covers are super thin and flimsy. The interior paper is nice and thick, but the whole book feels floppy. My cat already bent the cover by laying on it, so I’m not sure how it would stand up to actual children.

My biggest complaint is that the clothing is the same 5 plates repeated in different color schemes. There are over 100 pieces though and that’s super impressive. Never the less, I would have loved to have seen a long sleeved dress, a riding habit, a few more bonnets, a winter walking costume trimmed in fur… there are so many options!

One thing that stumped me is that the dolls have hair pieces on the title page. Even after staring at them for a few minutes, I’m not 100% clear on how the hair works. Do you glue them to the back of the doll’s heads? There was no explanation which surprised me since the rest of the instructions are wonderfully clear with little diagrams. Seriously, I wish I was this good at writing instructions for paper dolls.

Do I regret my purchase? Not at all, I am happy to get to add a paper doll book my an artist I didn’t know to my collection and I hope she does more. I would love to see her do some fairy tale paper dolls, I think her art would be lovely for that.

You can grab a copy of this paper doll book and the coloring book version I didn’t get from Amazon. I don’t think the printed books are offered elsewhere, but you can get downloads from her Etsy page to print your own.