Thursday, February 9, 2012

Jason Wu: From Play- to Full-Scale Fashions


Alysa Simply Chic by Jason Wu/Integrity Toys, 2000

My first Jason Wu-designed doll is Alysa Simply Chic*, featured on page 55 in my first book, The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls (Hobby House Press, Inc., 2003).   New to the doll design world, the then teen Jason Wu went on to design several other fashion dolls for Integrity Toys, specifically the Fashion Royalty line, which includes my favorite doll, AdΓ©le.  

In 2009, shortly after the White House inaugural balls, a portion of Alysa's book text was hacked into a Kindle "book." (Shaking my head in disgust,) I experienced extreme difficulty getting Amazon.com to remove this unauthorized, one-line-of-text "book" from their Kindle store.   The hacking took place, not because of the doll, but because Jason Wu designed it. 

Women's fashion designs by Wu have been seen in high-end stores such as Neiman-Marcus for at least a decade, but he was basically unheard of outside doll-focused world, until First Lady Michelle Obama (FLMO) wore one of his designs to the White House inaugural balls.  This white, one-shouldered gown, a design Wu had submitted to FLMO for consideration prior to her selecting it as "the" inaugural gown of choice, was replicated by Danbury Mint for their FLMO doll.

In addition to designing for Integrity Toys and becoming a household name after the inaugural balls, young Mr. Wu designed dolls for Madame Alexander.   Bon Bon Neo Cissy's hand hat (shown at the previous link) still bewilders me, but thank God it's removable!

Recently Mr. Wu partnered with Target to offer affordably priced women's wear. The initial 60-piece stock of fashions and accessories, priced from $19.99 to $59.99, sold out immediately in stores and online earlier this week.  Reportedly Target plans to restock their stores.  At the time of this writing, some online items have been restocked.

So if you're into designer fashions for yourself, you may be interested in purchasing a Wu fashion or accessory before they sell out again. 

*Alysa uses the honey complexioned Charice/Charisse sculpt by Paul David for Integrity Toys.  Wu designed Alysa's fashion. 

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5 comments:

  1. I read about the lines outside Target waiting to buy the new line. Pretty amazing they created that much buzz around the affordable line. Thanks for sharing the very unique hand hat. I had not seen that before.

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    1. You're welcome, Vanessa. I love when my posts include are informative.

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    2. This comment should have read:

      ... I love when my posts are informative.

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  2. Wow! I thought the closest I would ever get to owning a Jason Wu fashion was in playscale! I had no idea Target was offering an affordable Jason Wu line. Hope they re-stock soon.

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    1. Same here, Limbe Dolls. Some of those handbags caught my eye, but I'll need to see them up close and personal first. My Target probably doesn't have anything left, if they had anything at all.

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