| Tonner on Tyler | |
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Tyler Wentworth is one of the most interesting and well-received fashion dolls to be produced in the last few years. Tyler Wentworth was created by well-known doll designer Robert Tonner, and produced by his Robert Tonner Doll Company.
Recently, at the UFDC National Convention, I had the opportunity to attend Robert Tonner's seminar about Tyler Wentworth. The seminar was a rare opportunity to learn all about the design and production process brought Tyler to the market, as well as a chance to hear about some upcoming exciting plans for the Tyler line. Mr. Tonner graciously gave me permission to include some of the information that he passed along in this seminar in this article.
History of Tonner and Pre-Tyler
Robert Tonner comes from the New York fashion business. For 18 years he worked for designer Bill Blass in New York. Tonner loved fashion shows, but not dealing with buyers and salespeople.
Tonner had always been interested in dolls and fashion dolls. He remembers seeing Little Miss Revlon and other smaller fashion dolls in the 1950s, and then Barbie in the 1960s. He thought Barbie was very good, but he felt something else was missing, and could be better.
Tonner Started The Robert Tonner Doll Company on a shoestring in 1991. He knew that eventually he would create his idea of the perfect fashion doll, but Tonner wasn't ready to create HIS fashion doll right away.
The first fashion dolls that Tonner created were made of porcelain (the first American Model dolls). These dolls were very intricate--they had 17 joints, and, being porcelain, they could obviously break. The dolls were also very expensive and very limited. Although these dolls were gorgeous, Tonner was never happy with the length of the legs of these dolls.
For awhile, The Robert Tonner Doll Company focused on little girl dolls, while Tonner continued to ponder how to best present fashion dolls. Part of this process was to make little girl dolls in vinyl in order to learn the vinyl doll process in-depth before creating the plastic fashion doll he ultimately wanted to do.
American Models
In 1993,
Tonner took one more step toward his dream of the perfect fashion doll, and he
created his vinyl American Models. Again, these are lovely dolls and
highly sought-after be collectors. Tonner, however, was searching for
perfection, and he felt that the arms were not "pulled" right,
so they appeared too long--he also was not happy with the length of the
shoulders. But, Tonner felt that this doll WAS in better proportion
than the earlier porcelain dolls. When Tonner discusses pulling the mold,
he is referring to the process of pouring liquid vinyl into a metal mold.
The liquid vinyl is heated to cure it. It becomes soft an pliable when
hot, and pliers are used to pull the doll out of the mold. The vinyl has
mold memory, and a heat box shrinks it back to size.
Tonner always knew that he wanted to do a BIG fashion doll, NOT Barbie size. BUT, he also knew he didn't want to ultimately do a doll as large as the 19" American Model. The American Models were also very expensive--they retailed between $250 and $350. So, as lovely as the Fashion Models were, Tonner was still designing the ultimate fashion model doll. He felt that the American Models, were a bit too big, and too expensive to be his ultimate dream fashion model doll. And, very significantly, these weren't dolls that you could take home and "play" with, which was also a requirement for the doll Tonner wanted to create.
At this stage in the development of Tonner's dolls and his company, Tonner's friend, Mel Odom, was creating the Gene fashion doll, which debuted in 1995. It was Mel's own doll, totally his own sculpt, and the doll had a great story line. This doll, and how well it was received, encouraged Tonner greatly.
Zoe and Julia
Around 3-4 years ago, Tonner's next fashion doll creation, the 16" Zoe doll, was released at Toy Fair. Zoe was the first non-American Model fashion doll created by Tonner. She was also a smaller doll, which was important and closer to Tyler. Zoe was introduced around the time of Gene's introduction. Zoe had thin, elongated hands, and it was again hard to "pull" the vinyl parts out of the mold. This doll was for another company, and had a big launch. Tonner and the other company couldn't come to terms, so the plug was pulled on the project. Around this time, the Robert Tonner Doll Company moved into a new factory.
Also around this time, Tonner was still working on little girl dolls. He created the Magic Attic dolls for Georgetown. This was like the American Girl dolls, but made in Germany. Knickerbocker bought the rights to these dolls. The doll is still made using Tonner's molds but he is no longer involved creatively or otherwise with their production. Tonner's Betsy McCall was also introduced, and this doll is still being actively produced by Tonner and continues to be well-received.
The next fashion doll Tonner produced was Julia, who was created for Georgetown since Tonner felt he was still not ready for in-house production on a fashion doll. Julia was introduced at Toy Fair 1998. She was vinyl, 16", and she was a romance novel heroine from the 1840s. She also had a twist waist. She was a popped-together doll, with no stringing. Her head tilts but doesn't turn, her arms go up but not out They also had problems with uneven legs on this doll because of a hard time pulling these molds.
The Julia dolls started out owned by Georgetown, and then she was owned by Knickerbocker. There were 3 books in a series written about Julia, but she was never taken further as a doll. Julia's rights now belong to Ashton Drake, and Tonner hopes to get the rights to Julia back.
After Julia, Tonner felt he was ready for HIS fashion doll made by HIS doll company. He says that he was "Neurotic, obsessed about the sculpt" for this fashion doll. He wanted a vinyl head on a hard plastic body--he wanted injected mold pieces so the head could turn side to side AND up and down. He wanted the arms to go OUT as well as up and down, and he wanted a bendable knee so the doll could sit.
He worked with an engineer to figure out a knee joint. They looked at Barbie's joint, and many other designs.
Other things that Tonner wanted his fashion doll to have included a womanly body with a nipped-in waist (so she could wear layers of clothing in scale). He wanted her hands and feet in proportion, he wanted realistic hips, and he wanted the doll to have a model-like feel.
For the story/history of the doll, he wanted her to be a fashion designer.
Of course, there was the issue of what to NAME the doll. First names that were considered in he first round of naming were Clair, Kit, Haley, Margo, LuLu, Natalie. Last names considered included Connell, Donnell, Granville, Sebastian, Wentworth.
For the second round of names, there was Claire, Nicky, Bridget, Blaine, Emma, Perry Hudson, Jamie, Madison, Tyler and a few others. Last names included Sebastiani, Wentworth, Laurence.
One name that was QUITE in the running up until the end was "Perry Laurence" Tyler was VERY close to being called Perry Laurence. "Tyler Wentworth" was suggested to Tonner by a staff member, and he initially said NO. But, after considering it for awhile, he decided it WAS the right name for the doll, so Tyler she became.
Tonner decided that the magazine she would work for would be Fashion Design Weekly (they couldn't use the REAL 7th Ave's Womens Wear Daily). They knew one of Tyler's accessories would have to be a Design Portfolio.
Tonner is very supportive of customizing fashion dolls and Customizers. He thinks its very creative. And, when Customizers "screw up a doll, after all, they have to buy another one"
Tyler turned out to be a true PLAY doll, with great accessories and bend knees.
He wanted patterns for Tyler, and he worked with Simplicity on them. The first printing of 9,000 patterns sold out immediately! Simplicity may put the Tyler patterns into the Simplicity catalog.
Tonner may even get to do some full-size versions of patterns of the Tyler clothing for real women (the Tyler fashions translate beautifully into real-sized fashions, as the fashion show illustrates)
One accessory that should come out soon for Tyler is her drafting table! Also, a dress form. Maybe, even a Rolling Rack like they use on 7th Avenue!
Keeping the fabrics the BEST has been important--linen, cashmere, silk and mohair have been used. They have created clothing for many of Tyler's occasions--work, ball gowns, cocktail dresses, sleep wear, business suits, resort wear.
Fine line between real people fashions and doll fashions--simplicity is hard to do on a doll--it can't be TOO simple.
Tonner looks for proper fabric all over the world for Tyler's outfits--Europe, Asia.
Tyler's fashions are developed by Tonner first doing quick, inspirational sketches. Shapes, etc. For fabrics, he must be careful to NOT use a fabric that won't hang right. Structured pieces work best. Hard to do a bias ruffle properly that will hang correctly on a doll.
After the quick sketches, come formal sketches that are sent to a pattern maker.
Esme has had a great response. Esme's story is that she was discovered by Tyler in a bookstore. She was a pre-med student, and Tyler was so taken with her look that she had her in the next fashion show. Esme wears Tyler's designs and will have her own clothes (the dolls can share clothes, of course). There may ALSO be a "Sydney Chase" doll, the owner of Chase Modeling Agency. Tonner has thought about a male counterpart, but the male dolls don't sell as well, and are costly to develop. There are some preliminary talk on possible relatives, such as a little sister with a different body type.
Also, new face paints for Tyler are being considered. such as side-glancing Tylers, and "high-color" Tylers using more makeup.
Standard Esme is already out; Cover Girl Esme will be out in December. She has different face paint.
There has been some prototype furniture done, including the drafting table and other office furniture.
Tyler's fashions are very "real clothes" NOT cutting edge.
Just like vintage Barbie and other vintage fashion dolls, the clothes for Tyler are REAL clothes shrunk down. Charlotte Johnson, who designed for Barbie, was brilliant about doing that.
There is a Tyler Wentworth club in the works.
Tonner shipped 15,000 Tylers in the first part of 2000. Initially with the doll, there were supply issues. There was an initial size-problem with the head that had to be addressed before the doll was released (head was too small and had to be enlarged after the prototype. This called for a chemical process where you blow vinyl up. Took months to get the head JUST right, which was why there was a delay in releasing the doll in 1999. Also, Tonner wanted a rooted part so you could take Tyler's ponytails down. First 5000 dolls had NO part. Also, the first 3 to 5,000 Tylers have lighter makeup and non-painted scalps (I know everyone is going to run and get their Tyler's now to see if the scalps are painted....turns out that MY first Tyler is one of the non-painted scalp ones!) So, this type of Tyler can be considered a "First Generation" Tyler.
There are also plans to number both the dolls AND clothing, which was not done initially on Tyler or her outfits. Number will be on dolls, and outfits will have a tag with the numbers.
There are initial plans to possibly do hat, purse and shoe accessory paks.
For Betsy McCall's 50th Birthday Party, there is going to be a Robert Tonner Doll Convention! This convention is already sold out, with a waiting list for attendees (only 300 registered attendees). First weekend in Chicago, in May. Thursday through Sunday; Jo Ellen Brown is the registrar. There will be a special Tyler souvenir doll on Saturday night, plus a Mary Engelbriet Tea, and a Kitty Collier brunch.
There
might be a Tyler-only convention in the future, as well. Next page >
The Tyler Fashion Show > Page 1, 2, 3
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©Denise Van Patten 2000
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