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| These two are Sarabi and Omar by Vestida de Azul of Spain |
In January of 2020, I ordered three dolls from the Carlota Collection by Vestida de Azul. They were ordered from Diversal in Spain*. The dolls are all 11 inches (28 cm) tall and made of soft vinyl.
Sarabi
Sold as a special edition, Sarabi arrived in a plastic bag wearing only white undies. At the time of purchase, I ordered the Sunflower set and a pair of white sandals that are shown in the above image with her. With brown stationary inset eyes, applied upper eyelashes, and black rooted hair styled in one Afro puff, Sarabi is precious!
The Sunflower set includes a pair of white panties, which will serve as an extra pair for her. She tried on the floral-print dress with the sandals before adding the yellow jacket.
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| Sarabi is fully dressed in the Sunflower set and separately-sold white sandals. |
Next, Sarabi's ears were pierced with size 17 (1-1/16-inch) yellow quilting pins that she wears as stud earrings.
Omar
Omar was also sold as a special edition nude doll and optionally as a dressed doll with a box as shown above. The clothes the dressed doll wears were sold separately, too, but I opted to buy the dressed doll which was more cost-effective than purchasing individual pieces.
It was very easy to remove Omar from the box. He was attached to the liner at the neck with only a rubber band and fastener.
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| He is happy to be freed from the box. |
Omar wears a mustard sports outfit that includes a sleeveless hooded jacket that has the number two on his lower right. The pants are rolled up at the knees. He wears a white short-sleeve shirt that has images of various trees on it. His white faux leather shoes have strips of tan and red elastic across the vamp. Omar has a Vestida de Azul hangtag.
Like Sarabi, Omar has brown stationary eyes but without applied eyelashes. He has rooted black curly hair.
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| Omar wears the hood of his jacket in the final photo of him with his sister, Sarabi. |
Don't they look adorable together?
Umi
A third doll was included in the order. Her name is Umi. She was purchased as a several months' early August birthday gift for a friend who collects Asian dolls.
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| Umi is also by Vestida de Azul. She wears a yellow shorts set. |
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| Umi has black rooted hair styled in two side ponytails with bangs. She has dark brown inset eyes and applied upper eyelashes. |
I photographed Umi while she was still in the box, as illustrated above. Her prototype photo can be viewed
here. I am sure she will be loved in her new home where there are several dolls that look like her as well as others that do not.
*The dolls, as indicated were ordered in January from Diversal's
website. Due to a language barrier, I had a tremendous amount of difficulty ordering and communicating with the company to resolve the ordering issue (an apparent website glitch). Their site would not accept any of my credit cards, although credit card options were available. While the site indicates they accept Paypal, a Paypal link was not available for me. Frustrated yet determined, I placed the order and chose the option to wire the payment to them, which I had no plans to ever do. After they contacted me to request the wire transfer, I explained the ordering difficulty to them once again and requested a Paypal invoice. Instead, I was given their Paypal email address to remit payment. (The things we do for dolls.)
The dolls arrived during the first week of February taking about three weeks to travel. I delayed publishing this post from February until now because I did not want Umi's recipient (an avid reader of this blog) to see her and possibly venture off to purchase the doll for herself. :-)
About Vestida de Azul
While their dolls might resemble dolls made by other companies (Paola Reina, specifically), Vestida Azul uses their own molds. Another site that carries their brand describes the dolls and their decision to make them in the 11-inch (28cm) size as follows:
The young doll brand Vestida de Azul was born in Castalla (Alicante) in 2012. The factory arose from the need of its owner Pedro Guirao to reinvent its business after some of the doll factories to which he manufactured shoes for, were forced to close due to the 2008 economic crisis.
The name "Vestida de Azul” (Dressed in Blue) is due to the popular song that bears the same name and that tells the story of a doll that caught a cold for going for a walk.
From the beginning they were very clear about the concept of dolls they wanted to make. They wanted mannequin dolls that represented girls, but also that were smaller in size compared to those that existed at the time on the market. This is how they became the first manufacturers to bet on 28 cm mannequin dolls, a size that doll users were not used to but that became a trend over time.
Vestida de Azul injected novelty into the market. Many say that the formula that has led them to success is a unique combination of enthusiasm, quality and courage. Its new and innovative designs began to rapidly gain ground outside of Spain, making the Carlota doll its star product among collectors and consumers for its marked uniqueness.
Nowadays their toys are characterized by a high level of quality and detail, not only on their dolls but also in their clothing and accessories. They have a wide variety of dolls and babies that will surely steal your heart and that you will always want to take with you. (Dolls and Dolls)
At the time I purchased these Carlota dolls, the Dolls and Dolls website referenced above did not carry the dolls I wanted to purchase. Purchasing from them is hopefully less problematic than what I experienced with Diversal.
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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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