Dolly Dress Discussion: pink and black Fashionistas dress

It's RagingMoon1987 with another Dolly Dress Discussion and a confession.  Some of y'all may get tired of me showing off the new outfits I get, and that's fine.  No one has commented hatefully or any of that, but I admit that pictures of clothes can get kind of dull after awhile.  Nope, I've been posting these largely to keep from going insane.  At the ripe old age of 29, adulthood has hit me squarely between the eyes.  I know that I'm very fortunate to not have had it come on earlier, but I wish it weren't so cotton-pickin' painful.  My mother is recovering nicely from her hip surgery and her spirits are relatively high, but she still is not independent and that's frustrating for both her and me.  We used to go on walks through graveyards together, and I want to do that as much as possible before she becomes completely immobile like my grandmother is becoming.  Grandma has settled into retired life with no fuss, but she's very weak and needs a lot of help doing simple things like getting up out of a chair or putting a Band-Aid on her leg.  To top it all off, First Uncle came to visit and now HE has a bum hip too.  He has no idea how he injured the thing, but when he came in he was gimping badly and leaning on a cane...something that he's never had to do before.  That's the worst part about growing up.  I hate watching the adults that I love getting old, slowing up, dying off...<pauses to cry>

Okay, it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be.  No one's terminally ill or in the hospital on a ventilator (like one of First Uncle's friends), finances are stable, I've got a good job and a place to live, everyone is in a decent mood...I just don't like for my loved ones to suffer.  Second Uncle is no help...take that back, he drops everything to drive us places, so yes, he is a lot of help.  Unfortunately he also finds a way to turn every discussion we have into a way to feel sorry for himself.  I know that watching his mother slow up can't be any easier on him than it is on me, but he could be a little less self-pitying.  Heh-heh, aren't I a fine one to talk!  LOL, on a more positive note, First Uncle's cane is really neat.  He made it himself out of a piece of oak, a brass bob on one end...and a SKULL for a handgrip!!!  He has kindly allowed me to photograph the grip for the blog.

Pardon my French, but that's pretty badass.  I thought it was just a plain silver knob at first, but when he laid the thing down I saw the knob was a skull.  I admire First Uncle's ability to cobble together a walking stick, too; my dad used to make walking sticks, and indeed when Grandma saw First Uncle's stick she asked "Did Paul make that?"  Just a testament to how much Daddy and First Uncle were alike.

Now that I've verbally unloaded, great time to start the post.  My search for Gabby Douglas continues to be fruitless; the local stores have the new Made to Move dolls that are dressed as skateboarders, soccer players, and karateka and they're super cute, but they're not what I'm looking for.  The last time I relied solely on physical stores for my dolly search, I ended up missing out on the doll I wanted (10th Anniversary Tokidoki Barbie).  So in order to land my Gabby I may have to order online.  The good news is that Mattel appears to be kicking clothes production up a notch.  I've got this new dress, which according to the package will fit all four Barbie bodies.

Pink and black plaid dress with black accessories.  It's pink like oh so many of Barbie's fashions, but it's not hot pink so I can live with it.  The back of the package has something that excites me, though.

I have the long pink dress on the left, and the short pink dress on the right is the one we'll be looking at today, but that one in the center is...NOT PINK!!!  It's yellow, one of my favorite colors.  Challenge accepted and search initiated.  Meanwhile, let's look at my new outfit.  It consists of the dress, a headband, and a purse.

The dress has sheer sleeves that may snag if they catch on the Velcro.  It's this panel of fabric that keeps the dress from being a strapless sweetheart dress.  I like strapless sweetheart necklines, but they can be bad about falling down so I'm glad that panel of black fabric is there.

The bodice is fitted and the skirt puffs out, and the hem is trimmed with black tulle.

The fabric is a magenta synthetic weave with black stripes forming a gingham pattern.  It's the type of fabric that would look fabulous all the way around, and...

...THE PATTERN GOES ALL THE WAY AROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I may cry for joy over this...or maybe I'll just jump for joy instead.  Yeah, I like the idea of jumping better.  But seriously, Mattel just doesn't do that anymore, not with any consistency.

The accessories are your typical plastic accessories.  The headband is made of black plastic and has cat ears with molded (but not painted) studs.

Mattel must like this mold, because I have two other headbands like this.  One is silver and the other one is black like this.

The purse is molded like a Chanel bag.  It's a cute shape, but for the most part it's just a throwaway.  None of my dolls will be able to hold it.

No shoes either.  Mattel outfits almost never have shoes anymore, or if it's a two-outfit set there'll only be one pair of shoes.  I still haven't figured out the reasoning for that.

Now it's time to play Dolly Dress Shuffle.  I know this outfit will fit the original body, so I'm just dragging out tall Ketsana ("Boho Fringe," left), petite Natalie ("Love That Lace," center), and curvy Deb ("Zig and Zag," right).

It is so hard to photograph Deb properly!  I always get the lighting wrong and she ends up looking devious.  She's really much prettier than this picture shows.  Since I brought up Deb let's try this dress on her first.

Natalie and Ketsana may get to try this on and they may not.  I love how this looks against Deb's dark skin, and I also love how it matches her gaudy pink lipstick.  As an added bonus, Deb is the only one of my chosen three who has stock shoes that match the dress.  Admittedly, it IS tricky to get the sleeves over Deb's stiff arms, so keep that in mind if you choose this dress for a curvy doll with straight arms.

Also, Deb proved me wrong by being able to hold the purse.

Not terribly convincing, but she CAN hold it.

I'm dying to see how this will look on Ketsana, so she goes next.

The headband looks better with Ketsana's full head of hair than it does with Deb's partially shaved head.  Unfortunately Ketsana can't hold the purse; her thumbs proved to be too slim.  Her slimmer arms made her easier to dress, though.  The shoes are add-ons and are not a perfect match, but they'll do for now.  So Ketsana can definitely rock this.

Natalie's turn.

The bodice is loose on Natalie, but she too looks adorable in this.  She can hold the purse like Deb can, and she has a full head of hair that flatters the headband like Ketsana does.  However, I was unable to find shoes that matched the dress.  I've got several pairs that Natalie can wear, but nothing that matched the dress.

While digging through my boxes for these dolls I unearthed an old Teen Skipper.  Just for grins, I'm going to try this on her.

I wasn't expecting Skip to be able to wear this, but she too can slide into it like she owns it.  Her feet have a slight heel so I was able to find a pair of shoes that both fit and match, and her thumbs are fairly thick so she can hold the purse.    The bad news is that Skipper's permanently attached yo-yo and bracelet DON'T match.  I can change the yo-yo to something that does match, but the bracelet is there to stay.  Also, Skipper's yo-yo mechanism has a lever that makes it work, and said lever is sticking out of the middle of her back.  That made it tricky to get the Velcro fastened, though I was able to get the job done.

In short, I'm really at a loss as to who wore this dress best.  Deb ended up with it for the time being, but I think this is going to be one of those dresses that gets shared around a lot.  I have a few dresses like that.  Who do y'all think wore it best?

Happy Memorial Day,

RagingMoon1987