Akira and The Dolls

I was looking through the recent special edition of Vogue Living ‘Before & After’ when I came across an article that made me smile. This is a long one today, so stay with me, it’s a good story!

A few years ago when I was living in Sydney I went to an antiques fair at Wentworth Park with my girlfriend Amy Q. We had a great time, she found a great old wicker chair with magazine storage underneath, I found a fantastic old lizard purse… we had a ball! I’m getting a bit off course here. Anyway, celebrated Australian fashion designer Akira Isogawa was there with his muse Christine. We were all looking at the bits and bobs on this particular table when I saw this fantastic set of paper dolls, no bigger than your hand.  While I was deciding upon whether I should get the dolls or not (I had just spent almost all my pennies on the lizard purse you see) I pondered – “Do I really need a set of 20th Century paper dolls….. will I dress them up in little paper outfits…. what will I do with them?” Well, Christine obviously knew exactly what she was going to do with them and snapped them right up! As we all know, when things get snapped up in front of our eyes at the trestle tables we never forget do we….

So. I was thrilled when I saw in Vogue Living’s Special Edition what actually happened to the little paper dolls. They went on to be enlarged to 2 metres high and featured in Akira’s Printemps Ete Collection. They went to Singapore, Manila, Bangkok and then back to Sydney – all 24 of the giant dolls!

While years passed this woman would call Akira asking if she could buy one. She had seen a doll apparently at one of the collections and fell in love! After a year of asking (maybe more like begging if she is anything like me) Akira finally agreed… on the condition that all 24 stay together. She thought to herself ‘If I love one, I’m sure I can love two dozen!’ She then went on to renovate and extend her cottage in Sydney to house all 24 dolls. Can you believe that!

Isn’t that remarkable! Good thing I didn’t buy those paper dolls that day. I’m sure they would still be in a drawer somewhere if I had bought them.

K x