Dolls Model S/S 2010

February 26th, 2010

Last week, amidst the hullabaloo of New York Fashion Week, The Block team threw a party to celebrate the Fame Issue, and to show off the runway rag dolls Andrew Yang made for our Spring Fashion Preview story. All nine and a half dolls (one is a conjoined twin) hung like paintings on the white walls of the envoy enterprises’ gallery space in the Lower East Side, while hundreds of adoring fans, editors, and bloggers filed by – absinthe in hand – ogling the miniature Lanvin, Rick Owens, Marc Jacobs, and more. Discussions swirled over which doll was the favourite, but all agreed the party was a smashing success.

The Block’s Editor-in-Chief caught up with the dolls’ creator the day after the party to ask him about the process of making these one-of-a-kind beauties…

Susan Locht: Hi Andrew! How are you? That was quite the party last night, an incredible turnout.  Did you have fun?

Andrew Yang: Hi Susan! I had a blast. It was surreal. From the moment I walked in the door it was like riding a wave of good energy.

SL: Yeah, you’re right. The excitement in the room was palpable. I think seeing the dolls in-person is a very different experience from seeing them in the magazine. People kept saying, “I didn’t realize they were so tall!” And it’s just so incredible to see all the detail you put into them up close.  … Can you tell me a bit about how and why you started making your own dolls in the first place?

AY: I’d thought about doing it for a long time, but it was always like, “when I get around to it.” I was doing all this other crap to make money on the side – silkscreening t-shirts, sewing dollar-store dishtowels together into scarves, selling at markets. And then one day I was like, what if I silkscreened a doll face onto fabric? That’s when I realized how I wanted the doll to look.  …But by the time I had sewn and stuffed my first prototype, I didn’t have the patience to bother silkscreening. and I had already done so much handwork in the assembly, so I just drew on her face.

SL: What was the process for the runway dolls for The Block?

AY: For The Block project specifically: I mapped out how many dolls, and traced the patterns onto muslin. For nine (and a half) dolls, that was eighteen legs, eighteen arms, nine and a half torsos, and ten heads. Then I kept a folio with all of the runway looks on hand and went into the garment district and sourced as many fabrics as I could find for each look. The fabrics I couldn’t find, I figured out how to replicate on a smaller scale – buying paints, making stencils, etc. …Usually on the train rides between the garment district and my studio, I was stuffing body parts.

SL: You stuff body parts on the train?

AY: Yes. I get a lot of strange looks, to say the least.

SL: And tell me about those gorgeous little faces… You interpreted the makeup looks from the runway, right?

AY: Yes, I did some additional research to find close-up shots of the makeup, which aren’t always as easy to find as you’d think. I like to study the clearest pictures I can find, and then put my spin on it.  …The faces are the last thing I do, after hair and assembly. I paint with watercolor pencils, acrylics, and makeup, and then I use a fabric sealant to keep any of the colours from scuffing or bleeding.

SL: So you paint the faces after the doll is completely assembled? What happens if you make a mistake?  Or, maybe you don’t.

AY: Well, mistakes generally figure themselves into the face, if there are any. Besides, would your mother tell you your asymmetrical smile was a mistake?  …I am usually in a very calm, Zen state when doing faces. I work slowly, but non-stop until it’s done. It’s the most magical moment of the process: the birth. Sigh.

SL: Sounds like you have a somewhat emotional attachment to the dolls.

AY: I am way too emotionally attached to the dolls.

SL: I see. Does it help to know the girls are going to homes where they will be loved?

AY: Yes. My mother always told me that the point of having any talent at all is to share it with the world.

SL: What’s next on the horizon for the girls? What new dolls are you working on now?

AY: Well, I’m working on my new personal collection – which is going to be a lot more decay, a lot more ruffles, paler colours: The Ghosts of the French Revolution. The next collection of fashion dolls is going to be huge. I’m calling them Kouklitas Couture. It will be more of a retrospective. And, of course, all I really want to make right now are some Alexander McQueen dolls. Just for me though. I know it sounds so redundant, but he really is what made me want to work in fashion.

SL: So, now, if our readers want to get their hands on one of your dolls, how can they do that?

AY: Well, the best way would be to email me privately, TheKouklitas@gmail.com. The prices range from $1,100-1,300 US, and I will be putting a few on eBay soon.

Very special thanks to envoy enterprises, Pernod Absinthe, Pangea water, and Home Sweet Home. And thank-you CJ Swanton, Alison Munn, The Cruciforks’ Christian Joy and Jason Grisell, The Second Comings, and Evaan Kheraj.

Photography by Evaan Kheraj and Alison Munn.

And be sure to check out the dolls in Pethidine, an art film made by Ryan F. Kennedy.