Young Designers of America and Gene Designers 2000 – 2007

Imagine . . .

Designing clothing – one quarter scale.

Thinking, researching, learning, and inventing.

Design a style that is sell-able, profitable, and produce-able.

Execute the production of a prototype along with the historical story of the garment’s use set in the proper time period.

This all takes place in El Paso, Texas. The first experience is through Young Designers of America with the Center for Career and Technology Education High School (CCTE) Fashion program under Ann Porter with the assistance of the Fashion Technology program of El Paso Community College (EPCC) and the Gene Club of El Paso. The result of the YDA competition – 3 winners. The doll produced was Spotted in the Park, an FAO Schwarz exclusive. Bolero and The Perfect Gift were the outfits produced by Ashton Drake under the direction of Joan Greene.

The following year, Love in Bloom and Special Appearance Violet were winners of the first ever Gene Designers competition, Gene Designers 2000. Although this competition was not affiliated with the company, Ashton Drake purchased and produced those garments by Regina Ganem and Jose D Saenz respectively.

Jose’s Torch Song Violet was from the Gene Designers 2001. Both Love in Bloom and Torch Song went on to become special editions as Love in Louisville and

Ashton Drake “Torch Song” special edition Madra Lord 2002 Gene Marshall Convention centerpiece!

Here is Madra

But let us go back to the beginning… FAO Schwarz exclusive Gene … Spotted in the Park

The Perfect Gift

Above is a photo from a Piano City show. Love in Bloom is the first Gene to appear with Trent in advertising – quite an honor.

Well for now – Hasta luego, amigo. Bolero bids us for now.

Please note: if you are the photographer of any of the above photos (except Piano City shot) please let me know and advise me if I should remove your photograph. In the meantime, thank you.

Gene Noir

It was a long time ago.

A long, long time…

Longer than most remember…

But some always remember…

I was so young, so innocent. Our journey was grueling.

Yet, all these decades later, that journey is of interest to some.

My fortunes did not stay so bleak.

My “fame” was on the rise.

Everyone wanted to be in my shadow.

Everyone wanted to be in my spotlight.

But fame has a way of becoming infamy.

Things come to light that “make people uneasy” and that is supposed to matter.

Soon my beautiful image was just a memory.

Yet, when all is lost, why not go for more?

Oh, how the mighty fall. Falling to memories. Memories and dust. Skin and bone. Skin and bone. Skin and bone and memories.

Just because I can…

Doll photos on this blog are a bit of an archive of my doll play. I am going to post all kinds of doll photos here. WordPress is a great place to log and blog. I love photography and enjoy planning, posing, shooting, and posting.

There are some times when photos are not “blog worthy” and I know it. However, since I am archiving, it may be necessary to post them anyway.

For example, Carrol Pilgrim and I have been creating doll displays at one of the many El Paso, Texas libraries. For one reason or another, I have not had time to get any decent photos of these displays. Since I want those displays in this archive, I am going to post these pitiful representations of some great displays. But for memory sake, better these photos than nothing.

Dorris Van Doren Library: October – November 2015, Trish Winstead & Carrol Pilgrim

     

Left – Mei Li by Tonner in a Vicki Rubie kimono. Middle – Simply Platinum Gene Marshall in a Vicki Rubie kimono – hair dyed red by Celestial Gardens, David Cook & Gene Red Venus dressed in the outfit Mandarin Mood, Mel Odom and Joan Greene for Ashton Drake.. Right –

Left – 2 Bleuette (made and owned by Carrol Pilgrim) and 1 Googly (made by Janna Daniels). Middle – 2 Bleuette. Right – The dog and her favorite book. Background – Del Prado bookshelf and Del Prado books as well as others purchased over the years.

Left – Carrol’s BJDs and their pillow collection. Middle – detail. Right – BJD with 3″ Kelly.

Left – 23″ My Twinn. Right – 10″ Tiny Kitty and another 23″ My Twinn.

 

Now to see if I can find photos from the five or six other displays… wish me luck.

 

Little Blessings by Vince Nowell for Ashton Drake Galleries

Gene and her baby are pretty cute. I think Trent fits right in with this scene.

This gorgeous Gene doll has a prototype hair style that was never produced.

Trent – Neat as a Pin

And then there was the nurse…Coca Cola

Gene Marshall

Perhaps my favorite Gene of all Gene dolls is Simply Platinum. Here she is wearing Daisy & Willow.

This is a faux magazine that I created for Gene. There are a few issues. I will post the others in a different post. Have a great day!

 

 

 

 

Joy to the world…

Joy came into my life in 2003. I was watching her on eBay and somehow she was overlooked. The repaint artist joy was very popular at the time and her repaints were going quite high. When I bid on this doll at the very last moment, I was shocked that I was not outbid. It was sheer joy!!

 

These two photos above were taken by the artist and were part of the auction.

In these photos, Joy is wearing a Doris Mixon Fashion Boulevard ensemble.

Joy is looking so fine in this Tonner Miss Seventeen outfit.

Finally, Joy models a gorgeous crystal creation. I will hunt down the name of the creator and get it posted.

 

In the beginning…

I have always loved dolls. In fact, I have always loved anything scaled perfectly to a size other than the one you would meet in reality. Things large and things small have always pleased me. I studied doll history from the time I first found that it existed. Today there is a plethora of fabulous research that can be found in books and videos.

Study is one thing. Play is another. I feel so fortunate that I love both.

Paradise is a place where you make dreams come true.

Here Gene Marshall and Violet Waters are repainted and wearing dresses by Ann-Marie from Le Petite Boutique from the early days of the 15″ fashion doll (now known as the 16″ fashion dolls).

The Gene repaint with restyled hair is by Mary Beyers. The Violet repaint is by Michelle.

Michelle Sutton is the owner of The Toy Shop. She inherited her name from a My Scene boy doll named Sutton. Because I built him into her story, he was renamed David Sutton. The fun thing is that they never appear in photos together because they are not in the same scale. I have a number of doll families, however, this is the only one that crosses the “scale barrier”.

These photographs are from 2003. The Toy Shop has grown.