PANDORAS
Sent out from Paris
The V&A says Pandora dolls were used before fashion magazines and models: dressmakers showed the latest styles on them and customers chose a style and a fabric.
Compare the dollsStart
A SHORT HISTORY FROM MUSEUM RECORDS
The doll that
carried the news.
Long before fashion magazines, a doll was the newsletter.
Dressmakers sent small, fully dressed figures from Paris to show customers what was being worn, down to the stays and the bonnet. This independent guide follows fashion dolls from 18th-century Pandoras to paper dolls and a 1945 touring show, using museum records.
DRESSEDto show, not to play
Meet the dollsKeep in mind
- Dolls as fashion plates
- Paper outfits to cut
- Kept in museums today
- Fashion news, in miniature
THE SHORT ANSWER
Before magazines,
dolls showed the look.
Three kinds of fashion doll
and what museum records say about them.
PAPER DOLLS
Outfits you cut out
An 1811 London set in the V&A has twelve costumes in eighty-two pieces for one pasteboard figure, with printed directions on how to dress it.
How they worked
GROWN-UP DOLLS
Not just for children
The V&A notes that large, elaborate dressed dolls in the 18th century were made for older girls and women, not young children.
See the numbersA QUICK COMPARISON
How big was
the fashion doll?
Pick a doll from the record to see what it was and how it was dressed. The bar shows roughly how large and three-dimensional each one was, from flat paper to a third of life size.
Based on V&A collection records, the Maryhill Museum of Art and a University of Washington casebook. Sizes are as the museums give them.
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
An old idea,
revived after the war.
In 1945 Paris used dressed figures again
to show its fashions to the world.
237 dolls
Dressed figures in the show
A University of Washington casebook says the show had 237 dolls and 15 sets, about a third of human size, because materials were scarce after the war.
THÉÂTRE DE LA MODE · 1945
100,000 visitors
Visitors when it opened in Paris
The Maryhill Museum of Art says the opening at the Louvre's Museum of Decorative Arts in 1945 drew 100,000 visitors before the show toured Europe and the US in 1946.
OPENING · MARYHILL MUSEUM
The sets were later lost, but the mannequins were saved. Maryhill Museum of Art in Washington State now shows nine rebuilt sets, three at a time.
HOW A FASHION DOLL DID ITS JOB
From the dressmaker
to the customer.
Museum records describe the same simple routine: a small figure, dressed completely, so a customer could see the whole look before choosing.
Step 1
Dress it from the inside out
The V&A's 1835 Pandora wears stays and undergarments under her dress, so every layer of the fashion was shown.
Step 2
Send it where the customers are
Dolls travelled from Paris; the V&A records that they were let through to London even during the Napoleonic Wars.
Step 3
Let the customer choose
The customer picked the style and the material, and the dressmaker made it up at full size.
Step 4
Or print it on paper
From the early 1800s, London publishers sold paper figures with outfits to lay on in order, stockings first and coat last.
TWO DOLLS, TWO DRESSES
Court dress
and every day.
A University of Washington casebook says two dolls were usually sent: a grand Pandora in court dress and a petite Pandora in everyday dress, each with undergarments, hairstyles and accessories.
It says the wars of the French Republic and Napoleon, and the rise of fashion magazines, contributed to the decline of the travelling dolls. Paper dolls with costumes had appeared by the mid-1700s in Vienna, Berlin, London and Paris.
Questions
Questions on the way
What was a Pandora doll?
The V&A says Pandora was the name given to dolls used as manikins to illustrate current fashions before fashion magazines and models. Dressmakers showed styles on them and customers chose the style and the material.
Were fashion dolls toys?
Not always. The V&A notes that 18th-century dolls as large and elaborate as its 1755-1760 English example were made for the enjoyment of older girls and women, not young children.
When did paper dolls begin?
A University of Washington casebook says paper dolls with costumes existed from the mid-1700s. The V&A holds London sets from 1810 and 1811 published by S. & J. Fuller.
Did fashion dolls cross enemy lines?
The V&A records that during the Napoleonic Wars Pandora dolls were allowed through from Paris to London so that English women would know the latest Paris fashions.
What was the Théâtre de la Mode?
A 1945 show of small mannequins dressed by Paris couture houses to revive French fashion after the war. It drew 100,000 visitors in Paris, toured in 1946 and is now at the Maryhill Museum of Art.
Destination
Where the facts come from
- V&A Explore the Collections: Pandora, fashionable dressed doll, Germany, 1835 (T.235-1918)
- V&A Explore the Collections: Doll with dress, England, 1755-1760 (T.90 to V-1980)
- V&A Explore the Collections: The Protean Figure and Metamorphic Costumes, paper doll, London, 1811
- V&A Explore the Collections: The History of Little Fanny, paper doll, 1810
- Maryhill Museum of Art: Théâtre de la Mode
- University of Washington Pressbooks: Design Inspiration, Pandoras and Paper Dolls
Updated