Some Super Non-Seasonal Summery Minimalism

Minimalist fashion paper doll clothing for the B Pose printable paper dolls from PaperThinPersonas.com. A blouse, pants and bag.

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Years ago, I was asked if I had ever explored minimalism fashion for my paper dolls. Minimalism? I thought. I love layers and ruffles and over the top gowns, why on Earth would I want to explore minimalism.

But even as I thought this, I realized that was the reason to explore it. Because it is not what I am naturally drawn too. And because it is a style where one badly drawn line out of place can make a huge difference in how the finished paper doll dress looks.

There is no hiding in details in minimalist styles. They are so simple that they reveal all my messy linework and misshapen pieces.

So, when I come back to fashion minimalism, as I do on occasion (and I am today), I am reminding how critical every line is in pen and ink based art.

Every line matters when there are very few of them.

While there’s a simplicity to today’s paper doll clothing, there is also a challenge to drawing it. Sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult to illustrate. Today’s top, pants and bag were harder than they look and that, I suppose, is the whole point.

Besides, as hard as they were to draw, they were so simple to color. There’s something to be said for that as well. I went with white and blue, because I didn’t want to obscure the line work by going with black (the favored color of many minimalist designs).

If you’re not sure what minimalist fashion is, here’s Vogue’s article on it. (I really hate all the ads on the Vogue website, but the gallery there does give a good overview I think.)

And if you have a moment, think about becoming a Patron or following the blog/me on Instagram or telling a friend about it.

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

Purple Ice Skating Costume for the B Pose Ladies

Ice skating paper doll clothing with a performance dress and practice outfit and, of course, ice skates. Available to print in color or black and white for coloring.

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Ice skating, like most things that involve coordination, is not something I’m very good at. I occasionally watch other people and think, “That looks like fun.”

However, upon attempting the activity, I end up falling down a lot.

Never the less, I do like the clothing people wear to go ice skating and since I draw paper dolls, it seems to me that the clothing is the important part. Plus I thought these ice skating clothes would be a fun winter coloring page. It’s cold and dark outside, so coloring in front of a fire sounds like a pretty good time. 

So, here we have a set of practice clothing for ice skating and a performance dress. I chose purple and black, because I like purple and black.

Not being an ice skater, I can’t speak to the accuracy of today’s ice skating ensembles, but I hope I didn’t screw up too badly. Maybe someone who does ice skate can let me know in a comment.

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

A 14th Century Surcoat With Tibbets and Headdresses

Dress up a paper doll in historically accurate 1300s clothing including a surcoat over a kirtle and two head-dresses.

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First off 14th Century week continues with today’s surcoat over a kirtle and some headdresses. Second off Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrated yesterday.

Surcoats were worn over kirtles (I did one of those on Wednesday). Like a lot of surcoats, today’s has slits in the front that provided access to the purse worn off the girdle underneath. Think of it as the 14th century solution to pockets.

Today’s paper doll surcoat with kirtle was inspired by the Romance of Alexander from the Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264. There’s a bunch of different examples of this short sleeved surcoat in there, but I based this dress off the red dress in this miniature and the blue dress (and pink dress) in this miniature.

One of the interesting things about those miniatures and many others from this era (check out my 14th Century Dress Pinterest board for more) is how many of them show women with their hair uncovered. Unlike later eras (and some earlier ones) the 14th century seems to be a time when women could go around without covering their hair.

(Women shown with uncovered hair in miniatures from other eras are often depicting vice and/or wickedness and this is indicated by the uncovered hair. The scandal of showing one’s hair in the 15th century was intense. )

However, some women did still cover their hair. Here’s one miniature with some hair covered and here’s another and here’s a third one. You also see head coverings in statuary. One thing I do when I am trying to decide what to include in these historical sets is to try to find multiple examples of something. That’s why you see some duplication of types of images on my 14th Century Dress Pinterest board.

That’s also why when I am dealing with an era I don’t know much about it can take me a long long time before I am comfortable drawing a paper doll of it. I learned a lot of history from Tom Tierney’s historical paper dolls and I want mine to be as helpful and accurate as I can make them. 

If you want some say in the time periods I create paper dolls for, think about supporting the blog on Patreon. I tend to listen to my Patrons when they make requests. Here’s a post about what patrons have made possible from earlier this week. 

Have you enjoyed 14th Century week? Let me know. I love to hear from you. 

Need a doll to wear today’s paper doll clothing? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

A 14th Century European Kirtle & Shoes

A 1300s kirtle for a paper doll with matching shoes and headdress from paperthinpersoas.com. A great way to teach kids history and a super fun coloring activity.

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In the world of 14th century dress in Europe, there’s a lot of layers. On Monday, you got to see the shift, the stockings and the shoes which were the first layers. Over that, women wore a kirtle.

Technically, add a girdle (belt) to keep your purse (which was also as close as anyone got to having pockets in the 14th century) and you were fulling dressed. This kirtle example has a spiral laced front and buttons on the cuffs.

Her girdle is based on this example. I looked at a lot of carved sculptures of the Virgin Mary when designing this set like this one and this one.

Her shoes come from Stepping Through Time by Olaf Goubitz. It’s a great resource. Her stockings would have been held up by garters, because bias cut wool doesn’t stay up on its own. However, based on my current understanding, the stockings would be rolled down over the garters to cover them, so that’s why the garter’s aren’t visible. 

If you want a historical doll to wear this example of 1300s clothing, than you can go grab Alice whose wearing a shift and has many pair of period shoes. 

Right now, I am thinking about what to do with Paper Thin Personas in 2019. I have a poll and please answer it if you haven’t. 

[poll id=”22″]

And leave me a comment if you like or consider supporting the blog on Patreon if you want to pledge. Here’s a post about how Patrons have helped

Need a doll to wear today’s paper doll clothing? 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

Steampunk Paper Doll Costume For The B Pose Dames

A steampunk paper doll costume for the B Pose paper dolls with pants, boots, hat and shirt. You can print it in color or print it as a coloring page. That's up to you!

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I’m going to close out this week with steampunk paper doll styles. This is the first and then there will be a steampunk B Pose paper doll to wrap up the week. Next week, I’ll be debuting a new paper doll post image style (I hope) or I won’t get it anything done and I’ll have to go on hiatus to catch up.

At least I’m honest, right?

Meanwhile, I really wanted to design a steampunk paper doll costume that wasn’t “fancy” and felt a little more like what a working person in a steampunk world might wear. I decided to do a similar color scheme for today’s outfit as I did for steampunk Changrui which was a big inspiration, I confess. 

Sometimes when I am drawing one paper doll set quickly brings me to another paper doll set in a sort of paper doll cascade.  

What do you think? Do you prefer your steampunk more “street” or more “fancy” with ruffles and top hats? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment. 

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

A Pair of Retro Inspired Dresses for the A Pose Paper Dolls

A pair of retro rockabilly inspired dresses with a matching purse to print and dress up some paper dolls in.

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Today’s paper doll dresses were inspired by retro-rockabilly styles. I’ve been thinking about rockabilly dresses ever since I posted this version of Aisha and Julie, of Paper Doll School, suggested that the pink haired version needed some rockabilly dresses in pastels.

Well, I confess that pastels just didn’t seem seasonal, so I went with autumn tones (which perhaps don’t go as well with the pink hair), but if you head over to the Patreon page you can download the spring time pastel version.

Meanwhile, there maybe some changes coming to the blog in the new year, so I’ll be putting up some polls looking for thoughts and I hope folks will respond.

And, as always, if you like the blog consider donating to the blog, following me on Instagram, or leaving a comment. 

Need a doll to wear today’s paper doll clothing? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

Autumnal Blouses and Boots for the A Pose Ladies

A set of autumn dress up doll fashions with a blouses and boots. Free to print in color or black and white as a coloring page.

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One of the things I love to do is draw paper doll clothing from fashion catalogs and magazines. Clear pictures are useful, but so it seeing clothing I might not have thought up myself.

This set of paper doll fashions were based on the latest Autumn trends. Sleeve details and ruffles are not super popular. So are blouses, so here we have some blouses with sleeve details. To go with this pair of blouses, there is a pair of skinny jeans tucked into boots. The paper doll also has a matching purse.

I chose a color scheme inspired by Pantone’s Fall 2018 color report.

I hope you all enjoy this contemporary fashion addition to the A Pose Ladies fashion wardrobes.

Need a doll to wear today’s paper doll clothing? All the A Pose Dolls & Clothing

An Autumnal Princess Dress With Matching Shoes

A fantasy princess gown with a ruffled over skirt and a draped skirt from paperthinpersonas.com. Also can be printed in black and white.

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Today’s paper doll post is a big skirted princess fantasy dress- one of my favorite styles to explore. I’ve done quite a few of these dresses for the B pose ladies before. You might remember my fall steampunk inspired one from a few weeks ago.

There’s also a spring inspired one, a winter one and a purple bow covered ballgown

Also, if you hop over to Patreon, there’s a second color scheme for today’s down. While you’re there, check out my poll about the blog post images over on Patreon. You can vote even if you’re not a Patron and I hope you do! It’s all about how the post images I create of each paper doll set should look.

And do let me know what you think of today’s gown in a comment. I love hearing from you all. 

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