Throwback Thursday review: Ashton-Drake Class Act/Violaceous Rave Delilah Noir

I'm RagingMoon1987, and to quote Motley Crue it's time to take a ride on the wild side, albeit not as wild as some of my other wild dolls.  I've wanted a Delilah Noir doll ever since I saw her first advertised back in...ah heck, year's not important, but I fell in love with the idea of a vinyl ball-jointed doll that wouldn't scuff, wouldn't chip, wouldn't break, wouldn't stain.  Wouldn't stain...yeah, if y'all remember the other little Ashton-Drake doll I reviewed then you may know where I'm going with that.  But anyway, I ran into a seller on eBay that wanted some money for animal rescue, and one-two-five with free shipping later I got my Delilah.  I got the very one that I fell in love with, Class Act/Violaceous Rave.  She's already closing in on ten years of age, even though I've only had her a few months.

Delilah has a backstory like so many high-end (and not-so-high-end) dolls do, one that involves this odd split personality of sorts.  Well okay, maybe not a split personality so much as she has a double life...yeah, that's more like it.  Anyway, according to her story Miss Delilah is well-to-do and attending some fancy prep school, and by day she is what she appears to be in the picture above:  straight-A student, cheerleader, loyal friend, beloved by her teachers, classmates, and family.  When night falls she becomes more adventurous with her style and...pretty much does whatever the heck she wants.  Both of Delilah's personas have a healthy imagination, which is a nice but rare thing for a teenage girl to have.  Ashton-Drake didn't make any specifics about Delilah's nighttime doings (other than stating that she is no criminal), which I assume means we can fill it in ourselves and all but make Delilah whatever we want her to be.  Indeed, Delilah's tagline was/is "Is she what you see or what you believe her to be?"  At first that didn't make sense to me, but now that I stop to think about how we collectors make our own backstories for our dolls the tagline makes more sense.  Regarding the dolls, some Delilah dolls represent her day persona like Pretty in Pink does, while others show her night side like Steampunk and Lady Onyx do.  Still others came with an ensemble for each personality, like Once Bitten, Twice Shy, It's 10 O'Clock, and the debut doll/my doll, Class Act.  Like all good ball-jointed dolls, Delilah lends herself nicely to redressing, as this blogger's Once Bitten, Twice Shy doll shows, and to customization, as this doll reveals.

Now that that's out of the way, nitty-gritty time!  Delilah is sixteen inches tall, meaning that she should be MSD-sized.  However, being MSD-sized means little in the ball-jointed doll world, as not all dolls in that category are the same height.  I mean, they're all the same average height, but MSDs can fall anywhere from forty to forty-six centimeters, with some even being a little taller than that.  Delilah is forty-two centimeters and is thus a respectable size for a fashion doll, but when I put her with Alistair, Hailey, and Johnny she comes up short in the height department.  Having bent knees doesn't help her much, but (spoiler alert) that's really the only way I can get her to stand up...and notice that even in the group pic Alistair is having to hold her up.  More on that in a bit.

 "NOOOOOOO!!!"

Oh Johnny, must you always be so self-conscious???  Just once you could look at the camera!

 "<sigh>...very well."

Atta boy, that's better.  I don't know how Johnny's little resin brains work sometimes, but he can be hard to handle if not reassured before a photo shoot.  Fun fact:  if Johnny were a human he'd be about five-foot-seven, not terribly tall for the sixteen-year-old male that his character is supposed to be.  Thus I find it a bit comical that he's the tallest of my MSDs so far.  Regarding dolls that are NOT ball-jointed dolls (honorary or Den of Angels-approved), Delilah is about the height of a Tonner doll like Cami (Perfect Morning is pictured here).

I am DYING to see what my flaxen-haired All-Star Cami looks like in a black wig, by the way.  Her makeup is similar to that of the raven-haired Knave of Hearts, so I'm almost certain my doll would look good with black hair.  Too bad Delilah's wig is too big or it would fit the bill perfectly.

Yes, like most ball-jointed dolls Delilah wears a wig, and since my particular doll is one of the more deluxe sets she comes with two wigs.  Miss Emily's Pretty in Pink doll had a single wig that had lovely colors but was of lousy quality.  The fibers were coarse and always had flyaways, and the part had a sewing defect that made one side pop up a bit, so I'm going to approach these wigs with some caution.  Here's what the wigs look like when they're off the doll...

...and when they're on the doll.

I'm at a loss for words on the blonde wig.  It's not bad, but it's not great either.  It's soft and attractive, but it's also frizzy and doesn't take well to a style other than the style it's already in.  The fibers feel a lot like mohair, even though mohair isn't the fiber of choice for doll wigs anymore.  The bangs have some nice body in them, but sometimes they can have a mite too much!

I CAN get them to lie flat with a little water and a brush, but once they dry they puff back up again.  As for the style, the blonde wig is minimally styled with naught but this little white clip.  This works, by the way.  Sometimes little clips are permanently affixed to a doll's wig or head, but this one is a legit clip, not unlike the ones I use in my own hair.

The paint is wanting to peel off of this clip, meaning I'll have to glue it back together.  Good thing I've got a bottle of tacky glue two feet away from me!  Tacky glue is your friend, y'all, just like Doctor Steel.

Despite the strange fibers I much prefer the blonde wig to the black wig.  The black wig holds a style better, but it's...well, it's just your average fiber wig with fibers that stick out in odd directions, not unlike the Fatiao wig that one of my floating heads once wore.  It's not particularly soft or smooth, just your average-quality doll wig as I said above.  There are no quirky seams to give this wig odd cowlicks though, and I love the bangs.  They're lightly feathered and are cut a bit longer than bangs usually are, and that subsequently means that the fibers do catch in Delilah's eyelashes.  No worries there though, as these bangs are easily brushed to one side.

Actually, I hate them parted like that.  The stock pictures suggest that they were supposed to be worn hanging in Delilah's eyes, so that's that.

According to online sources Delilah wears a 6-7 wig, meaning that she probably can't share wigs with my other ball-jointed dolls.  Hailey (as far as I can tell) wears an 8-9 wig, Johnny, Alistair, Ju-hwang, and the two floating heads all wear a 7-8, Chloe wears a 5-6, the two Ai Dolls wear a 4-4.5, and Freya doesn't wear a wig at all, so wig sharing is OUT for Delilah!  Oh sure, I have other wigs for other dolls, stuff like LIV and Create-A-Monster and Cami's stock wig, but as far as I know those options are all too small too...with the possibility of this goofy-looking thing, worn by Lotus O'Leary, one of my Create-A-Monster dolls.

Another fun fact:  Lotus's name is a play on the name of a bioluminescent mushroom that her glow-in-the-dark plastic resembles, Omphalotus olearius (common name is the jack-o'-lantern mushroom, do not eat).  Anyway, I bought Lotus's wig with the intention of using it in a series of reviews that took a brief look at all my Monster High dolls, but I realized that I can't say anything about MH that someone else hasn't said so I scrapped the posts.  I still have the wig though, an outrageous number from Custom Critter Designs that I had custom-made to deliberately clash with Lotus's glowing neon-orange plastic.  I love Custom Critter Designs, by the way; I can always count on them and Sammy's Treat Shop to fill my dolly needs for a reasonable price.  Alistair's cute little alpaca shirt came from there, in fact.  Maybe Delilah can become yet another of their customers...

...okay, that maybe is more likely a definitely, but it won't be with this wig.  When Custom Critter Designs said this was for a Monster High doll, they MEANT IT!!!  The cap is too small for Delilah's head, and because it's your typical craft fur it does not stretch.  Too bad too, because I love the colors on Delilah.  I'll custom-order another wig like this and get back to y'all on that.

Lotus's wig is a definite no-go, but I still have some options that I'd like to try, particularly this green wig, seen here on Alistair.

I call this Alistair's "Johnny Rotten" wig, even though I've yet to find a picture of John Lydon/Johnny Rotten with green hair.  YELLOW and green, yes, but not solid green.  Anywho, I ordered this wig in the wrong size and it's subsequently a bit too tight for Alistair.  Obviously he CAN wear it and he looks okay in it, but it won't fit over a wig cap and I always worry that the green will stain his scalp.  Maybe Delilah can wear it better...

That's...not too shabby!  It fits very well, and it looks surprisingly cute as well, especially when parted on the side.  Alistair may get this back and he may not!

I've also got this dreadlock wig, one that won't fit on any head except Alistair's.  LOL, are y'all noticing that Alistair always gets the goofy stuff to wear?

Alistair gets all the goofy stuff because that's what I intended.  Johnny has a very fixed look and I got a little bored with that, so I got Alistair to experiment with.  Some of the looks I put together are a swing and a miss, like this wig is.  It's a girl's wig, and while Alistair is foppish he is still 100% male.  I even bought a top hat, hoping for sort of a Slash aesthetic with this wig, but that didn't work either...though admittedly the top hat I got is too big for Alistair to wear properly.  Well, that and Slash has natural curls, not dreads.  Anyway, Alistair doesn't seem to mind the ill fit of the hat (he doesn't mind anything, really), but I'm not feeling the overall look.

I don't know what's getting worse, my tangents or my musical references!  I'm always taking some singer in a rock 'n' roll band and projecting their style onto Alistair.  Unfortunately the Slash look didn't work too well for him...not yet, anyway.  A smaller hat might do the trick...dang it, this is supposed to be Delilah's review, not Alistair's!!!  I like Alistair just a little, okay???  As I said above, I love to experiment with eyes and wigs, and when I do I always feel like I've got a brand-new doll.  Johnny has one set look that doesn't change much, but Alistair is perfect for experimenting.

Alrighty, Delilah,  your turn.  I won't make you wear that dumb hat; indeed I'm thinking of converting that into a hair decoration for myself.

It's a little big, but it might fit closer if I use a wig cap.  Wig caps can make a huge difference in the fit of a wig, and this particular wig looks great with Delilah's nighttime clothes so I'll try a wig cap and get back to y'all on that.  Delilah's default wigs attach with Velcro, by the way.  The hooked part is attached to her head in two places...

...and the wigs have two strips of the other half.

I'm not a huge fan of attaching doll wigs with Velcro, as there's always a chance that the hooks might damage the wig or scratch the doll's head.  The method worked alright for Cami, but my What's Her Face dolls are having a lot of trouble with their Velcro wigs, and I got so sick of the Velcro tabs on my Ai Dolls that I took them off completely!  I may do this with Delilah too and resort to using rubber bands to keep her wig in place if her Velcro gets too annoying (which it hasn't yet).  That sounds like a ridiculous way to keep a wig on, but I've tried it with both Hailey and my Ai Dolls and it works...pretty well.  It's not a cure-all for the Ai Dolls' teensy heads, but with Hailey it's a pretty good solution.  If it'll work on Hailey's slippery-smooth head it'll work on Delilah's not-so-slippery-smooth head.

Being a ball-jointed doll, Delilah's not-so-slippery-smooth head opens up and reveals the usual items that a BJD head contains:  strings, eye putty, eyes, and...no hook!  My other ball-jointed dolls have a hook or a ring, but all Delilah has is a knot.  I may add in a hook; Delilah doesn't NEED one, but if I ever have to resting her the hook will provide something for my wimpy little hands to grasp.

Her ears are realistic little doll ears and have piercings, though the hole looks rough (and painful) and I've yet to find earrings that can fit them.

Delilah has a lovely face, if a little blank.

I'm not the first one to speak of Delilah's neutral expression, but it doesn't bother me too much since this doll was meant to be customized anyway.  One thing that does help her is this lip paint; it's glossy rather than matte like the lip paint on some other Delilah dolls, and I love the way it looks.

I do wish her mouth didn't hang open, as the glossy paint in there can look a bit like pooling drool if not photographed correctly.  But even so, this isn't a bad mouth, and with it hanging open one can go crazy with their painting skills if they have any (I don't, though that may be about to change).  Some owners (tangent warning) even give their girls visible teeth, and the results look eerily like another ball-jointed doll that I've been admiring from afar, Telesthesia and Dragon's Susan.  I'm not going to lie to y'all, though:  even though Susan is the higher-end doll I like Delilah's face better than Susan's.  Susan is a pretty obvious character doll with a permanent smile, while Delilah looks more innocent and can be painted up in any way the owner wants.  But anyway, I like my Delilah's lip paint.  This glossy style is what I'm thinking of when I gripe about Mattel's bubblegum-lipped dolls of color.

Up now to eyes now, where I usually start when I discuss the face.  These are acrylic eyes in a shade that I've been calling root beer brown, and they're fringed with both rooted and painted eyelashes, and some delicately painted eyebrows.

I initially thought that all Delilah Noir dolls had these light brown eyes, but a close-up view of Lady Onyx proves that not to be the case.  Or at least I THINK those are Lady Onyx's stock eyes!  As with my other ball-jointed dolls Delilah's eyes can be taken out and replaced, and that's a fairly good thing because Delilah's eyes are pretty plain.  They've got a nice sparkle, and I love the shade of brown, but there's not a lot of detail.  No super-distinct lines or veins or anything of that sort.

Compare that to one of Johnny's eyes, or try to!  I hadn't noticed until now just how squinty his eye wells are!  Look closely though, and one can see that his eyes (gray glass defaults that I like too much to change) have a fair amount of detail.  His paint also has more detail, and it's painted with more precision. 

I don't guess it's fair to compare Delilah's eyes and paint to Johnny's since Johnny cost two and a half times what Delilah did, and he's not mass-produced like she is.  Furthermore, while Delilah's eyes don't sparkle as much as Johnny's do they still have more life than Hailey's or Crissy's.  That was one of my dominant complaints in both Hailey's and Crissy's reviews, that their eyes are so cotton-pickin' dark.  I love brown eyes, don't get me wrong, but super-dark doll eyes lack the life and sparkle that super-dark human eyes have.  Regarding size, I think I read that Delilah's eyes are 10mm, meaning that she can't share eyes with ANY of my other dolls.  Ai Doll eyes are too small, and the rest are too big.  I have no idea if these are full-rounds or half-rounds that she's wearing, by the way.  Her eye putty covered the backs of the eyes so I can't tell.  I assume that they're half-rounds since I can't feel any stems through the putty, but not all full-round eyes have stems.  Some are ground smooth on the back like marbles.

Oops, I forgot that Delilah's cheeks are lightly blushed, not enough to look clownish, but enough to give her a bit of color.

Blank as Delilah's expression may be, I quite like this face.  As I and other bloggers have noted, this blankness is a blank slate and can be made to look like anything.  But at the same time my particular doll's paint is pretty enough to stand on its own, without a lot of embellishments.

Now I think we can move on to the body.  It's pretty obvious that Delilah is supposed to be an older teenager, maybe seventeen or so.

She has fairly large breasts, a nipped-in waist, a bellybutton, and a gluteal cleft.  In other words, the usual stuff on a doll.  She also has a strategically placed slit to suggest a private area, but I don't think I'll show that.

Delilah has fourteen joints, located at her neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, hips, knees, and ankles, and here's where I'm going to pick a nit.  All through this review I've called Delilah a ball-jointed doll, and indeed she was advertised as one, but one of the criteria for being a ball-jointed doll is strung joints and while Delilah does have strung joints, most of her joints are NOT strung.  Granted she does have more strung joints than Hailey does (NONE of Hailey's joints are strung), but most of Delilah's joints are plastic on plastic rather than elastic strung.  Her neck, shoulders, chest, and hips are the strung joints, and quite frankly those are the inferior joints in terms of posing...take that back.  Delilah's neck is strung, but it's an okay joint.  She can turn it and look up, but she can't look down worth a dern.

Shoulders are where things really start to go south for Delilah's posing.  I can move her shoulders up and down and get them to stay like that, but if I try to move them out they won't hold.  The leftmost picture is as far out as they'll stay.

Delilah's elbows and wrists are ball-jointed, but it's a hinged ball joint rather than a strung one.  The elbow bends, and the wrist bends and rotates.  These hold a pose beautifully and make me wish the shoulders were as easy to handle.

Delilah has pretty hands, molded in an open but relaxed position.  She has little creases on her palm, and her fingernails are painted black, one of my favorite nail polish colors.  Those black nails are Delilah's sole concession to her darker personality during the daytime, and even they're not a huge concession since black goes with everything.

Delilah's torso is also jointed, about midway between her hips and her bust, but the posing here is pathetic too so why bother taking pictures of it?  Just for kicks, here's what the inside of Delilah's torso looks like.  Her arms are strung on individual cords rather than on one single one, and I wonder if perhaps that isn't why her shoulders have such poor movement.  All my other ball-jointed dolls have arms strung on a single cord, and for the most part they have good shoulder motion.

Also notice the little caps that keep the arm knots out a ways; I assume that may aid in restringing if that were ever needed.  The main string that holds Delilah's body together is fed down through a black tube, something that I've not seen before.  I question the necessity of that tube, as it could make any future restringing jobs that much more fiddly.  Ugh, I positively HATE restringing!!!

Down to the lower half of the body now.  Delilah is jointed at her hips, knees, and ankles, and these hips tie with the shoulders for the title of worst joints.  We'll get to that in a second though, because look what I discovered when I got Delilah completely undressed.

HER RIGHT LEG IS WARPED!!!  This is the kind of thing I'd expect from one of the old jointed Barbie Fashionistas, not from a doll that used to cost a Benjamin and a Grant.  Furthermore, I'm unsure of how to rectify this.  My old Winx Club and Fashionista dolls can be fixed with a plunge into boiling water (even though I STILL haven't done that after seven years), but with Delilah being made from a different type of plastic I don't dare get her within a mile of my tea kettle.  Dammit, Ashton-Drake, your lovely quality control is showing again.  Oh, y'all can probably see another big problem with poor Delilah, but we'll get to that.

Alrighty, Moon Girl, compose thyself and focus.  Delilah's hips are poor-to-mediocre in terms of posing, though the warped leg has nothing to do with this.  The hips, like the shoulders, are strung, and this is as far apart as they'll go.

Delilah does have respectable front-back splits, though I don't know why I'd ever want to pose her like this.  Let's be honest, how many of us actually put our dolls in splits?  And yet every time I have a review like this I pose the doll this way.  LOL, anywho, Delilah can do front-back splits, though I have to prop her up this way.

Here's what the backs of Delilah's knees look like.  They too are hinged ball joints, and they have excellent motion.

They bend to almost a ninety-degree angle and stay that way.

In addition to that, these knees can rotate some, though it looks painful!

Delilah's ankles only rotate.  They have absolutely no back-and-forth motion, though that might be a good thing when I stop to think about Cami's pathetic ankle joints.  Delilah also has a nasty case of cankles, the only aesthetic problem that I see with this body (besides that infernal warping, of course).  It's also possible to see...that these feet are STAINED!!!

Oh yes, these feet switch out.  Delilah has flat feet with a separate tabi-style toe, and also high-heeled feet with a separate tabi-style toe.  For some reason the high-heeled feet did not stain.

Here's a closer look at the feet.  They have individual little toes (with black nail polish, which I love), and the aforementioned tabi toes.

Not the prettiest doll feet, really; that big gap between the big toe and the others looks unnatural, and as far as I know there were no strappy shoes made for Delilah anyway.  Add to that the fact that these feet and legs are nightmarishly stained, as I noted above.  It's even possible to see the pattern of the cloth on this foot, which tells me which pair of socks perpetrated this staining.

Headdesk.  First Red, now Delilah.  WHY didn't Ashton-Drake take steps to keep this from happening!  As much as their items cost there surely could've been a way to prevent staining!!!  I wonder if Miss Emily's Emily the Strange doll was stained???  I'll bet so, but <sigh> I don't think I can ask her anymore.  I'll see if I can't grub up my own Emily the Strange doll...LOL, lots of luck there, Moony.  Anywho, if you'll hang with me until the end of the post, you'll see that Ashton-Drake did do their best to remedy this.  So stick around...'cause the days of sniffin' the dirt are over.

Twister reference aside, moving on.  Oh, if only stained feet were the most of Delilah's problems!  Staining can usually be doctored or concealed.  No, Delilah has the worst, repeat, the absolute WORST balance I've ever seen on an MSD.  Worse than Wozzeck prior to wiring, worse than Ju-hwang, worse than Johnny, who used to hold the title of worst balance (he's slender and top-heavy).  I reckon that that warped hip has something to do with this doll's poor balance, although Miss Emily's Delilah Noir also had problems standing without a warped hip to contend with.  Y'all see this picture below?

Delilah is propped against the computer tower at my work station, and two seconds after I snapped this shot she did a nosedive into the floor.  Yeah, I had her leaning slightly backwards, and she fell FORWARD!!!  Johnny will at least stand if he's propped up!  I think Delilah has the same problem Johnny does:  they're both tall, slender, and a bit top-heavy, and in the above photograph Delilah's problem was exacerbated by her high-heeled boots.  When she wears flat shoes she stands a bit better, but she still falls over a lot.  As I noted in the group picture above, Alistair (the one with the BEST balance) usually gets the job of keeping Delilah upright, which he does by "holding" onto her arm or her hand like so.

I've got a stand...but it's a thirty-buck piece of crap that won't fit on my shelf so there's that over and done with.  Good thing Ju-hwang isn't the jealous type (she and Alistair have been going steady since shortly after he arrived).  Alistair and Delilah may LOOK like an item when they're posed like this, but they're strictly friends.  Just the same, Alistair is rock solid in the standing department, and he has no reservations about helping his tottery friend stay on her feet.  Indeed, I probably couldn't get Delilah to stand at all if it weren't for Alistair!

No problem, I should just sit Delilah down, right?  Well...I would, but that doesn't work well either.  I have to brace Delilah's back against something in order for her to sit up, like this.

Not a big deal when I'm keeping Delilah at my work station (which I do occasionally do, as seen above), but when I try to sit her on the top of my desk at home she won't sit because there's nothing to brace her back against.  Thus why I have to either force her to stand or keep her lying down.  So no, I'm not in love with this doll's posing.  Ball-jointed dolls are supposed to be super-poseable, and Delilah should be able to keep up with her resin brethren with her number of joints, but she can't.  If ever there was a doll that needed wiring Delilah would be the one, but I'm unsure if Delilah Noir dolls can be wired.  I'll have to investigate and get back to y'all on that.

MSDs, both male and female, tend to fall into two categories:  slim and...well, not so slim!  The not-so-slim MSDs are fairly chunky like Hailey sort of is, while the slim dolls look more like Delilah.  Hailey is not a particularly good example of a not-so-slim MSD because her limbs are thin, but her torso is about the same size as a not-so-slim.  Thus one has to be careful when shopping for MSD clothes, as some are strictly for the slim dolls dolls and WILL NOT FIT A LARGER DOLL.  I'd advise against trying to shove a Mini Super Dollfie into Delilah's threads, for example, as ball-jointed dolls do not squish like humans do, and a thick Mini Super Dollfie arm would thus quickly demolish Delilah's slim, tight sleeve.  Hailey also would not be able to wear Delilah's clothes despite her limbs being slim, since her torso is thick.  So be careful about MSD clothes, folks.  Pay attention to labels, because "slim" usually means "slim."  That being said, let's look at Delilah's daytime outfit, the "Class Act" set.

This is the simpler of Delilah's two stock outfits, but there's still a lot to talk about.  It's your stereotypical school uniform, one that you might see at a Japanese high school or a private school here in the U.S.  I'll start at the top with this tie.

This is your typical little black tie, made of black satin and tied in a...what kind of knot is that???  I knot my scarves like that all the time, and yet I have no idea what kind of knot this is.  Luckily for me I don't actually have to tie this scarf to get it on Delilah, as it snaps shut in the back.

In real life these ties can be worn in a myriad of ways, but Delilah's fastens under her collar like so.

The collar is attached (unsurprisingly) to a shirt, a white button-down Oxford shirt similar to what Johnny wears underneath his cardigans.

The buttons are real buttons, but they are sewn on (quite solidly) for decoration.  The front of this shirt actually fastens with metal snaps. 

Ah, it does my heart good to see real, honest-to-God snaps on doll clothes instead of easy-way-out Velcro.  Delilah's sleeves have these snaps too, at the cuffs.

These have to be these have to be undone to get these sleeves over Delilah's hands, and then once the sleeves are in place the snaps have to be fastened again so they'll stay in place when the jacket is shoved over them.  Sometimes I'll undo the snaps when the jacket is in place and fold the cuffs over the sleeves on the jacket, but here lately I've been leaving them fastened.  Either way works.

Delilah's jacket is a black blazer with two brass beads for buttons.

These actually do serve as buttons, with little hemmed buttonholes and that.  Please try to ignore the cat hair that this jacket has picked up along the way.

Both sides of the front have two pockets, and these are real honest-to-God pockets.  They could hold tiny items if I suddenly decided to get crafty. 

As thick as this fabric is I assumed it would be lined, but it's not.

No huge surprise, since a lined jacket would've added bulk.

Down now to the skirt, which is your stereotypical tartan schoolgirl skirt, complete with a ton of pleats.

This also fastens with a snap.

One other thing is noteworthy about this skirt:  it has to be positioned just so on Delilah's body, not too high or too low or with the snap off to one side or the other, or the snap won't fasten.  This can get a little frustrating at times.  The skirt is nicely hemmed but not lined.

A short skirt like this necessitates a pair of panties, of course, and Delilah has those.  They're plain little white drawers with lace trim around the leg holes.

Black socks and black shoes complete the look.  The socks are lined...and yet I suspect it was these that stained Delilah's feet, since only her flat feet are stained.  Unless someone put the purple socks on the flat feet, which is a possibility.  More on that in a bit.

The shoes are flat-soled shoes and have very thick soles indeed!  I'd have worn these in a heartbeat during high school...and in fact, I still would.

These are sized left and right, something one doesn't always see on doll shoes.

Unfortunately, the tacky glue is going to have to make another appearance, as the top part of one of these shoes has come undone.

I guess that shoe didn't know what it was headed for (LOL).  Overall this is a cute little school uni, about what I'd expect for someone who attends a fancy private school.  If I were guessing I'd say that Delilah is attending a private Catholic school, but that's an unfair assumption since Jewish and secular private schools also have cute uniforms like this.  As far as I can tell this outfit has not been the culprit for staining Delilah's body, though I suspect the jacket would if it didn't have that white shirt underneath.

With the "Class Act" half over and done, let's take a look at Delilah's night side with "Violaceous Rave."  It's a far cry from the school uniform, but it has all the same pieces (albeit with a different spin).

Is it just me, or does Delilah look a little like a magical girl in this getup?  With her black wig and her purple, black, and gray outfit she could pass for Homura Akemi.  Oooo, now I've got some ideas for dolly cosplay!  LOL, geeking out aside, notice that Delilah is not wearing her boots in the above photograph.  Here's what they look like.

The eBay seller accidentally left the boots out when photographing the items for the eBay sale, but after a very pleasant conversation she sent them to me (she included two extra outfits, one of which is visible above).  For all the negative publicity eBay gets, it is possible to run into some delightful people.  Anywho, I took the above picture before the boots arrived, hence Delilah is teetering against the wall in her stocking feet.  For the moment I'm going to set the boots aside and go up to the topmost piece, this rather elaborate necklace.

I used to wear something like this with my lower cut tops back during high school...and with turtlenecks too, for that matter!  Fashion rules???  Heck, I made up my own rules and then broke them!  Anyway, this necklace is made out of your traditional combo of beads and cord, and it clasps in the back (the clasp is tricky to fasten).  This piece can take a little tugging, but as with all beaded items don't pull too hard!

Blazers are compulsory with school uniforms, but Delilah probably could've gone without a coat during the night.  She does have one though, and it admittedly adds a lot to the rest of the outfit.  It's made of black velour that catches lint like mad, and the entire interior is completely lined with dark gray sateen.

See the tails?  One doesn't usually see these outside of an ugly old tuxedo.

Even the sleeves are lined.

Under the coat, Delilah wears this...eeek, it's a dress with a corset top!!!  I love corset tops!

No joke, I've always wanted to try my hand at wearing a corset, just to see if they're as bad as brassieres are.  Anyway, the bodice of this dress has delicate straps made of black lace and purple sateen, plus black lace panels that create the illusion of a real corset.  The front even has a line of pearl buttons that emulate the busk of a corset.

As much as this bodice wants to be a corset...it's not.  It pulls off the look very well, but the back fastened with snaps, not laces.

The interior of the bodice is lined, and here it's possible to see the rather clunky sewing that holds on those pearl beads.  Luckily this only looks clunky from the inside.

The skirt is knee-length like the school skirt is, but that's about where the similarities end.

The skirt has two layers.  The top layer is has four tiers made up of black netting and gathered bands of pewter-colored sateen.

The bottom layer is made of violet sateen and is otherwise plain.

It shows through the netting on the top layer, giving the overall skirt a nice sparkle.  I do wish the thread holding the ruffles on was a different color, though.  It's white, not gray or black or purple, and thus it sometimes shows.

Under her skirt Delilah wears simple little purple panties, with no bells or whistles.

I don't know about y'all, but if I were wearing a skirt that buoyant and that short, I'd want something on underneath besides purple panties!  Thus why lolitas usually wear bloomers; their skirts are both puffy and relatively short, and thus they need something extra to cover their rears.  I need to get some for Delilah, just for the heckuvit.  She occasionally wears lolita fashion, and all good lolitas need bloomers.

Need for bloomers aside, time for footwear.  Delilah's socks for nightwear are longer than her socks for daywear, coming up to her thighs.  They are made of purple knit with a black lace overlay, plus a white lining inside.  I think these socks were the ones that stained Delilah's feet, and thus that lining didn't do its job.

Lastly, the rogue boots.

These are lace-up calf-length boots with a high heel, and they are thus exclusively for those high-heeled feet.  These laces are very small and a little on the delicate side; note that one of the laces has had to be tied back together.  This knot doesn't show terribly when the shoes are tied, but unfortunately tying the shoes isn't the easiest task in the world.  I have few problems since I'm used to manipulating string, but not everyone makes jewelry for a hobby so keep that in mind if you have this doll.  Restringing the shoes is a possibility if these cords get too problematic.

Like "Class Act," "Violaceous Rave" is well-made and attractive, and given my fondness for gothic fashion I prefer it ever so slightly above the school uniform.  It also feels very nice to the touch, but there are a lot of parts that could snag or tear...or stain the doll, as the socks have done.  So while I prefer the aesthetic of "Violaceous Rave," it's not as sturdy or as versatile as "Class Act" is.  I could break up "Class Act" and use those pieces in other ensembles if I wanted to, and I may do just that in the future.

One of my favorite things about Delilah Noir is that she can share clothing with another of my favorite dolls, Ellowyne Wilde.  I don't have an example of this moody, broody little Tonner poppet to show y'all, but online sources insist that Delilah and Ellowyne can share clothes.  Ellowyne's extra outfits are pricey (as Tonner outfits tend to be), so I did the next best thing and grubbed up something from Etsy.

This set came from Tall Cotton Creations (based an hour and a half away in Ripley, Tennessee) and was tailored with Ellowyne Wilde in mind.  Since it's black and white it'll go nicely with either of Delilah's personalities, but first I've got to determine if she can wear it!

Yep, she can wear it!  I'd read that Ellowyne's measurements were a little bigger than Delilah's so I was ready for a loose-fitting set, but this actually fits pretty well.  Not too tight, not too loose, perfect for this time of year.  I did have a little trouble fitting Delilah's hands through the sleeves, a problem that I would not have encountered with Ellowyne since Ellowyne's hands can pop off, but otherwise Delilah is good to go in this.

Dresses are where things start to get interesting.  I have more than a few things for my MSD girls (which are still floating heads), and I'm hoping that maybe Delilah can wear my cute lolita dresses.  I have five lolita dresses in total, but this time I'm just going to look at two.  The blue Alice in Wonderland dress is a Taobao piece, while the unusual green dress is from Etsy.

Hmmm...now that I look at these dresses I realize that they're a bit big around the waist.  Probably when these dresses were sewn the makers had Volks's Mini Super Dollfies in mind rather than the slim ones.  Indeed, I did not follow my own advice above, and I did not pay close attention to labels (none of the dress descriptions said "slim").  I'd rather have a dress that is too big for Delilah than too small, but too big still runs the risk of looking baggy and silly.  The blue and white dress (referred to hereafter as the Alice dress) has an apron that can be cinched tight, so that dress probably won't be much of a problem.  Here's what it looks like without the apron...

...and with it.  I definitely prefer this ensemble with the apron.

Very cute!  Before I got my doll I'd yet to see a Delilah Noir doll dressed in lolita wear, so this is a first for me.  This dress did indeed prove to be too big around the waist, and I did indeed need to use that apron to make it fit, but once I've got the apron pulled tight it looks fine.  As a cute little touch, the Alice dress even came with a hair ribbon, which I clip on the side of Delilah's head where her original clip is worn.

As much as I love the Alice dress, time to put Delilah in the green dress and see how that looks.

Wow...is that the same doll???  LOL, since I own her I know for a fact that this is the same Delilah, but y'all will just have to take my word for it.  Unlike the Alice dress this one needs no adjustment in order to perfect the fit.  Delilah can wear this like it was made for her.

Also sized for slim MSD girls are these pieces, from multiple Etsy proprietors.

The black blouse is a sleeveless number and is a bit roomy around the bust area, but the ill fit is largely concealed and somewhat rectified by the cardigan.  The cardigan is hard to put on, as the open knitwork catches on Delilah's splayed fingers.  I'm also  not sure how well these boots will fit Delilah without socks, so to be safe I put her black school socks on under the shoes.  Problem solved!

Also flattering on Delilah is this set.

I first tried this goofy-looking hoodie on one of my Cami dolls and it looked reasonably nice, but I think I like this combo on Delilah better.  Dark hair is an option for her, and the sweater and jeggings just fit better.  My MSD girls may get to wear this when they are finally complete...and they may not!!!

Now...we're going to go a little off the beaten path with this next dress.  Over the past month I've purchased a few things with the intention of reviewing them and then...didn't review them.  Among the things I bought were two Teen Trends dresses.  Teen Trends were a short-lived Mattel line that was available during my late adolescence.  I had a passing interest in the Teen Trends but never got one, and I'm only now picking up the outfits.  I was hoping that they'd fit another doll that I've got slated for a review (she's a Hot Looks doll), but spoiler alert, they don't.  Paradoxically, I was not expecting these dresses to fit Delilah...but they do.

Delilah has a slimmer chest than the Teen Trends dolls do (I think), and thus the bodice of the cream-colored dress doesn't look quite as nice as it would on a Teen Trends doll.  But it does fit, and it does look alright, so I thankfully won't have to buy a Teen Trends doll just for the sake of these dresses.  The only things that don't fit are the shoes.  They're entirely too big for Delilah's feet, which is saying a lot since Delilah has sizeable feet.

Maybe these shoes will fit Crissy or a Minifee.  I'll test that and get back to y'all.

Apparently Delilah can also wear Cami's clothes, but it should be noted that a lot of Cami's stuff will probably not fit over Delilah's hands.  Cami has skinny little sleeves and large hands, but her hands can come off.  Delilah's do not as far as I know.  I'm also told that a few other Tonner things will fit Delilah, particularly stuff for the "teen" body (Harry Potter dolls and the like), but I have none of those items and can't begin to afford secondary market prices so there's that option off the table for now.  Once again, Etsy probably has some stuff if I just dig, or I can just shut up and enjoy the things I've got.  For in addition to Delilah's two stock dresses and the items y'all have seen I've got THESE!!!

The lady who sold Delilah to me included these outfits when she shipped the boots.  If that's not great customer service I don't know what is.  But anyway, I have these now, both casual outfits that suit Delilah's daytime persona...sort of.  The little dress can be either day or night, depending on how it's accessorized.  I prefer to pair it with Delilah's high heeled boots, like so.

Look how cute the back is!  It's got little buttons, though they're just for decoration (the dress closes with Velcro).

The other outfit is a tracksuit.  As I've said in the past, I loathe tracksuits.  I've owned several in my life, and I've had exactly ONE that I enjoyed wearing.  However, I must confess that if Delilah's new tracksuit came in my size I'd wear it because it's not all one color.  It's two, gray and hot pink.

Well, okay, I wouldn't wear this because the pants fit so cotton-pickin' tight.  Luckily Delilah doesn't have huge hips like I do so she looks halfway decent here.  There isn't really much else to say about this particular outfit.  It's a cute little tracksuit, made out of jersey fabric, perfect for Delilah to wear during the winter months...provided I can find the right shoes!  I'm hoping to grub up some cute pink Converse or something like that, something that's both stylish and suitable for an athletic-type outfit like this.

I ought to have known that Delilah could wear a wide range of clothes given the fact that she's the same size as a resin MSD, but it's still nice to confirm it.  I will admit, however, that I'm a little disappointed that Ashton-Drake never released a cheerleader uniform for Delilah (remember that her backstory says she was a cheerleader).  I wasn't the hugest fan of cheerleaders in high school, but I've always thought the uniforms were cute.  Heck, I guess I can MAKE one for Delilah, one in Malden High School's colors.

I reckon that's a good place to wrap it up.

BAD
*Oh good Lord, that posing is AWFUL!!!
*One of Delilah's legs is warped, rendering her unable to stand.
*Wigs can be tough to control
*Eyes are a little bland, though a lovely color.
*Clothing is a little fragile, especially the nighttime getup.
*STAINED FEET!!! 

GOOD
*Wigs and eyes can be swapped around, as is the case with all good ball-jointed dolls.
*Sturdy.  Delilah may not be able to stand on her own two feet, but if she falls over I don't have to worry about her breaking.
*Delilah's non-strung joints pose wonderfully, making me wish that she WASN'T a ball-jointed doll.
*Clothes are cute and well-made.
*I absolutely love this doll's face.  These can be painted and repainted to suit the owner's taste, but my Delilah's paint is beautiful and flawless as-is.
*Can share clothes with my female ball-jointed dolls and with some old playline dolls.  Slim MSD stuff is perfect for this poppet.

Boy howdy, that's a lot to mull over, innut?  Delilah certainly has her merits, but she's got plenty of flaws too.  Those stained feet were avoidable, though having run into that same problem with my little baby doll it wasn't a huge surprise.  I don't think Tonner ever had this problem with their dolls, though Tonner's dolls are not made out of hard vinyl like Delilah is.  As frustrating as those stained feet are, they're not as disappointing as Delilah's warpy leg, or her immobile joints.  A ball-jointed doll should be able to stand in just about every position conceivable, on its own or with the help of a stand, but Delilah can't do much.  She can't even sit effectively, so tight are her hips.  If she were fully strung I'd just undo that knot, loosen her strings, and let that be that, but I don't know if that would work or not.  I can safely say though that if all Delilah Noir dolls posed like this then I'd understand why she flopped...but they don't all pose like this.  Miss Emily's Delilah could sit unassisted, though admittedly she does have to hold herself up in a couple of shots.

Since this is my first time handling a Delilah Noir doll I decided to do a little digging to see how the later ones turned out, and I subsequently learned that I am not the only one who got a damaged doll.  My doll is apparently one of the earliest ones, released when Ashton-Drake was still hammering out dents in her design, and apparently these earliest ones had a lot of problems with staining.  According to this Amazon review, Ashton-Drake accepted returns from disappointed customers and replaced the stained bodies AND the clothes so the staining wouldn't happen again.  So...Ashton-Drake has redeemed themselves with me somewhat, as I didn't know they did that.  That's pretty darn good customer service, though I still don't know if posing ever got better.  As I mentioned above Miss Emily's Pretty in Pink doll could sit unassisted, so maybe posing did get better.

Heavens, with all that it must sound like I hate poor Delilah and am ready to burn her at the stake.  I don't, I promise!  She's got a gimpy leg and her posing stinks, but she's pretty and her clothes are nice, and I reckon I could wash all that extra dye out if I tried.  Plus, Delilah can wear the cute little MSD dresses that I've had sitting around forever.  I've been waiting...oh, it seems like I've been waiting forever for a doll that could wear my tatterpunk/steampunk dress, for example (oops, I didn't show that, LOL).  I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but the first Delilah that I wanted was actually her steampunk self.  As with lolita fashion I can't afford steampunk garb for myself, so...live through my "kids," I guess.  Lovely as Steampunk Delilah is, her face paint doesn't look as pretty as my doll's paint is, and her stock wig isn't as versatile.  As fun as tinkering around with paint and wigs may be, I always like it when a doll looks nice right out of the box.  So flaws notwithstanding, I think I made a good choice in picking Class Act Delilah over the others.  She has her problems and they're frustrating, but for me she's still worth the money I spent.  Now to see if I can wire her; it would be fabulous if I could!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987