Unexpected Models and Childhood Nostalgia — Blythe Doll x McQueen
Not much but a journal entry too long for an Instagram caption.
In another sporadic attempt to patch my relationship with fashion and social media, I’m back with the ad for the 2009 collaboration between Alexander Mcqueen & Target, featuring Blythe Dolls as models. I won’t go on an informational tangent on Blythe’s history because it’s easily accessible; instead, I am offering a delightful piece of my childhood nostalgia.
As a kid, I loved dolls (I still do). I wouldn’t play house very often; instead, I’d create new, elaborate outfits with whatever materials I could get my hands on. I’d give them new haircuts and new makeup, usually something edgier, intense, and often regrettable. When I was four, I took a razor to my barbies nose; I’m not sure what the intended result was, but I skinned off the tip and vividly remembered sobbing for hours, begging my parents for a “doll doctor.”
I was gifted a doll with movable and posable joints in grade four. This specific doll was the closest thing I had to a proper fashion or art doll at the time. She was also the first one of my dolls that came with wig changes, so I went ballistic. Being the young tastemaker and creative visionary that I was, I saw her potential as a model, so I started a business, “Doll-ography.” I dressed her in my couture, laid a backdrop, and posed her (shot on iPod Touch 4th gen). I posted the pictures on Facebook and offered my services as a doll photographer. I wish the photos were still up, but in my angsty adolescence, I deemed them cringe.
As an adult, I love being able to appreciate art and fashion dolls. And the lightning speed of social media made me realize that a lot more people share that appreciation. As a kid, I knew of Blythe, but she was expensive, so she wasn’t an option. This collaboration is extra special because Alexander McQueen was the first designer I discovered when I was six, and he changed my life forever. Blythe’s recent resurfacing made me remember this collaboration, which was coincidentally released the same year I started doll-ography. But I think I first saw this ad in my way too early Tumblr days, around 2011 or 2012.
In the WWD article “McQueen on Target” (2008), McQueen states that he doubted the Target line will bring more consumers to his core collection. He says, “There is no way the main line could go to Middle America,” “I’m not getting any [benefit from the Target association] for the main line. It’s taken me 15 years to get the concept of Alexander McQueen over there.”
The pieces in the collaboration aren’t impressive (pretty shit) in terms of the master behind them, one could think it was released A.L. (After Lee), but it makes sense because it’s with Target, and consumerism kills couture.
