Make no doubt about it, Chris Stoeckel knows a thing or two about designing doll clothes. Unfortunately for those who love his work and the East 59th Street line, there was only one offering at The Integrity Toys (IT) Legendary Convention, Red Desire Evelyn Weaverton. Chris has shared with collectors that the Evelyn mold is a personal favorite as the character was inspired by his grandmother, the lady who actually taught him to sew and instilled his love of fashion design.
I have collected the East 59th Street line ever since its humble beginnings as the Victoire Roux line back in 2011. Victoire was introduced at the IT Jet Set Convention with Fauboug St. Honore and a separate fashion entitled Avenue Montaigne.
One of my favorite things about his doll is that, not only does Chris offer new fashions based on vintage designs, the Victoire Roux body can actually wear Vintage Barbie clothing. Here is Honore wearing a pink pak skirt, body suit, and belt.
Connecting the dots, it was soon realized Victoire Roux's body could wear the incredible IT clothing made prior to 2006 since the original IT body was shorter and had similar proportions to the original Barbie. Here is St. Tropez wearing the 2005 Lustrous Silhouette Adele Makeda ensemble (edition size 500).
In 2017, new characters, Evelyn Weaverton and Constance Madssen, were introduced and the line was officially changed to East 59th Street. I was all over that! My doll collection increased quite a bit. Here is a compilation of my Victoire/East 59th Street collection:
As you can see, I'm not a "casual" collector of this line. When a W Club member generously offered to help other East 59th Street collectors get Red Hot Evelyn Weaverton at retail convention cost, I jumped at the opportunity.
Here is the promotional photo by IT.
Here is a closeup of the doll NRFB that arrived last week. There has been a lot of criticism this year about the quality of lighting in the promotional photos of The Legendary dolls. As you can see, Red Hot Evelyn's dress is no where near the shade of red as originally shown.
I knew that dress had to be released from that little box! When I got her out and started putting everything together, I quickly realized there were just too many shades of red on this one doll. The factory was unable to execute Chris's design faithfully. The shoes, gloves, purse, jewelry, train, and mani/pedi were not all the same shade of red. Here is a photo of the accessories from IT.
I opted to leave off the gloves and change the shoes to an older FR shoe.
I prefer this look. (Note: I do not use a flash. Most of my photos are taken in natural light and I try to capture the true colors in the ensembles.)
And here is a better closeup.
Many collectors are bothered by the high forehead on this doll. The production team created the hairlines a little too high. My doll's forehead didn't bother me as much as the hairline problem over her left ear. No one's hairline is like that. Another collector referred to this as, "looking like her wig was blowing off".
Have I mentioned how much I love Chris Stoeckel's work? I really do. I believe there was the potential for this doll to be a stellar stand-out at the convention. The dress is perfection! The faceup is breathtaking. Sadly, the lack of quality control continues to be a serious issue at the IT factory. Do I contact Customer Care? We all know how that goes ... remove the head, ship to Canada, wait for weeks or months for a replacement, hold you breath when it gets returned in hopes it's not worse than what you sent off. I'm tiring of the dance ...
Until I make up my mind, here is #30 of 2020 Red Hot "Mess" Evelyn Weaverton ....
1 comment:
I would say you to contact them. A doll with an updo should have a perfect hairline.
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