With the popularity of television’s "Project Runway," where up-and-coming dress designers have competed for six seasons for instant fame and fortune, it was probably inevitable that enterprising designers of doll fashions would demand their own similar competition.

            Project Dollway, created and hosted in 2007 by Ted Menten, a well-known organizer in the doll community, filled that bill. When Ted chose not to continue the competition in 2008, Gail Gaber, known as “Gabby,” a remake artist and doll fashion designer in her own right, decided to take on the task at the request of her doll friends and with Ted’s blessing. After reworking the competition rules and format, and with a name change to reflect its new status, Project Dollway at Home was born.

            Says Gabby, “It was a competition for doll fashion designers in which the designers were able to design for a doll of their own choosing. Each participant was asked to create a 12-piece collection, with a new challenge issued every two weeks. Each was based on the simplicity of one word, which described the designer’s task. In that way, each challenge became a challenge within itself.”

            The competition began Oct. 19, 2008, with the word “vintage.” This was followed every two weeks with the topic challenge words: pleats, dolman, layered, zodiac, peek-a-boo, empire, rockin’, reversible, fitted, draped, and bride. The final deadline was April 5, 2009. The rules stated that designers were to use one doll throughout the competition, no patterns were to be used, all work must be original, and each challenge should be completed during the two-week time period.

            Judging was based on a point system, taking into account originality, execution of design, and cohesiveness of the individual pieces to the overall collection concept. Unlike "Project Runway," there were no eliminations of competitors. Points were awarded from five (representing the best in that two-week challenge) to one (representing the entry that least accomplished that task). The designer who accumulated the most points during the total competition won. Doll Reader is delighted to feature the work of the three winners: Dal Lowenbein (first place), Jannie Culshaw (second place), and Joan Thilges (third place).

            Aug. 16 saw the beginning of a new round of doll fashion competitions via Project Dollway at Home 2, with Robert Tonner, fashion designer, doll artist, and owner of Tonner Doll Co., Joe Petrolese, head of design for Tonner Doll Co., Tom Courtney, Tonner's art director, and Brandon Wilkes, one of the 12 original designers from the first Project Dollway, acting as judges. All of the designers are using Tonner's new Antoinette doll as their model. To quote Gabby, “The excitement continues!”

 

Dal Lowenbein, first-place winner of the Project Dollway at Home Competition, has collected dolls for 15 years. While her collection contains mainstream vintage dolls from Barbie to Schoenhut and new dolls from Momoko, Fashion Royalty, and Tonner, Dal admits she has a penchant for what she describes as “odd dolls” like Hong Kong and Bild Lillis, Schwabinchen, Willy Wildebras, Persia dolls (clones of Mdvanni), and Japanese dolls from the 1960s and '70s. Not content to simply collect, she reproduces 7- and 12-inch (17.8- and 30.5-cm) German and Bild Lilli clothes, designs costumes for a Fairfield County, Conn., theater, illustrates children’s books, and has designed the Tammy Doll Convention logos since 2001. She is a graphic designer with her own freelance design business specializing in logo work, package and promotional design, and photography. She hopes to design her own doll someday.

            Considering Dal’s extensive art background and admitted interest in rarer dolls, it’s not surprising that her choice of model for the Project Dollway at Home competition was not your usual doll next door. Says Dal, “When Gabby asked if I'd be interested in participating in the competition, I jumped at creating fashion for a doll I had recently become obsessed with, Takara's vintage Japanese Licca dolls.” Since only fashion dolls were allowed and Licca was not a typical fashion doll, Dal’s first challenge was to get her doll choice accepted in the competition. Some designers balked at her tiny model, which they viewed as a baby doll because of its diminutive size and doe-eyed face. “I assured them,” says Dal, "that Licca was a teen and wore hip, ‘60s clothing, and I planned to design a mod collection for my Licca.” Ultimately Dal’s atypical choice was accepted. “But,” she freely admits, “when I saw what others had picked for their doll models, I secretly wished I had chosen a more popular doll. Valia was extraordinarily chic, Tonner’s dolls were fashion forward, Fashion Royalty was sexy, Ellowyne sweet and funky, and I had a barely 7-inch-tall Licca! I realized I had the added pressure of proving Licca to be fashion worthy.”

            The first challenge word was "vintage," which proved perfect for Dal’s purpose of exploring mod fashion and got her off to a good start. “By the third challenge,” she recalls, “I felt I was in my groove, and my designs were becoming more complex. Then Doll Reader was announced as the sponsor, and the challenges took a serious turn. The wins became not purely for fun. Though I had no aspirations of winning first place, I hoped that through the fashions I created, readers who saw her would fall in love with this amazing little doll.” With the added incentive of the possibility of having her doll and designs seen by a multitude of collectors, and despite her apprehensions, Dal went on to win six of the 12 Project Dollway at Home challenges.

            Today our first-place winner readily admits that sewing for a 3-inch (7.6-cm) bust, 2-inch (5-cm) waist, and 3-inch hips presented unique problems and that her choice of dolls required special vigilance to keep the designs believable for a mod teen. “But,” she adds proudly, “Licca did grow up before our eyes. It wasn't in size, but in sophistication. The competition expanded my sense of who I am as a designer and artist, and I got to meet wonderful, talented people in the process. My hope was to create a sense of drama and style that evoked the fun mod era, with a witty little side to the designs.” We think she did just exactly that.

 

Jannie Culshaw

The second-place winner, Jannie Culshaw of Elegance by Eé Lise, has always loved designing elegant clothing. While working in Paris, she gained training in haute couture design, pattern making, and material medium. Says Jannie, “Designing elegant and functional clothing is an art.”

            Although she has an MBA, which she utilized in her earlier life, Jannie recently began fulfilling a dream she has had since her grandmother gave her a sewing machine when she was 7 years old: a second career in fashion design. She began designing for dolls last year after retiring.

            Jannie chose Prudence from Wilde Imagination as her Project Dollway at Home model.