I'm so happy to finally be able to talk about Amelia! Amelia is the recently announced PullipStyle Exclusive. She isn't up for orders yet, but will be soon. Amelia is a "Creators Label" doll, in that she was designed by fans instead of the company. In this case, she was designed by Klein aka Pullip Junk and myself! Klein had been encouraging PullipStyle to do another store exclusive, so when they asked her what kind of doll she'd like she gave them a bunch of ideas (but I'll let her talk about that) But Klein isn't a customizer, so when she asked me if I wanted to bring her concept to life, well duh. Of course I did! We've made lots of awesome dolls together before, just not for mass production, heh.
Of the designs Klein came up with were two that were most loved by PullipStyle. One was a steampunk type desert rabbit girl, which was pretty awesome but understandably kind of risky from a "do we want to try and sell 400 of these" point of view, and another was an adorable lolita bunny girl that was safer, but not quite as unique since lolita style is something that has been done a lot. So Klein combined the designs into something that made everyone in both camps pretty happy. This is her 'final' design:
Still pretty far from the eventual Amelia, right? Well I don't have copies of her original sketches, but some things were swapped out for logistic reasons--like skirt was swapped for pumpkin pants (from the desert bunny prototype) and the hoodie became a cape (from the lolita bunny prototype) and the corset because... well who doesn't love a nice removable corset in their wardrobe?
I came up with the idea of making parts of the outfit reversible, so that if someone was more of a steampunk desert bunny leaning, s/he could have Amelia that way, and if someone was more of a lolita leaning, s/he could have Amelia that way, too! It isn't a full double outfit, but the hood and cape are reversible, with one side being fluffy brown fur and the other side being stitched together faux leather. And, just in case you wanted the bunny part without the hood (or vice versa) I designed a neat little low-tech solution by making the ears into barrettes that thread through buttonholes on each side of the hood, whichever side is out!
As collectors, Klein and I went through a long list of dolly dos and dolly don'ts about what we'd do with 'our' doll. Actually, we had most of that list long before Amelia, haha. Pet peeves include curly hair (even if it comes perfect from the factory, it won't stay that way!) outfits that are sewn together (all of Amelia's outfit bits separate and can be swapped out with other pieces!) and most important of all, CHARACTER!
The reason we love Pullip so much is that she has character. She looks like more than just a doll, especially the older releases. The best pullips, the iconic ones, all have very distinctive character and presence. When I make a custom doll, my 'signature' isn't the style I use to paint her, it's that she has to look alive, not from hyper realistic makeup, but from inside. Amelia is happy to play with you, but very independent and mischievous: if you don't keep your eye on her you might find her off exploring on her own!
Stylistically, Amelia is a hybrid of old (stylistic) and new (realism) faceup styles. We wanted her to look like she might be related to the very first Pullip exclusive doll (and doll in the PullipStyle header), Leprotto, the white bunny. Not like, but related to, like they could sit on the shelf together naturally, looking like they're catching up on what's going on in the bunny clan. We also wanted her to work in the same way with the first PullipStyle exclusive Froggy (a redheaded pullip in a bright green fuzzy frog suit). Amelia's hood and ears are also made of of the same type of fuzzy material as Froggy! Amelia's dominant color is brown, with a pink compliment and green accent to brighten it up--plus a dash of turquoise as a nod to the southwest, since she's a desert bunny. I even made Amelia's wig so that we could get the pink and green in there as highlights! As teeny tiny details, her eyes have bunny shaped highlights on them.
Looking at Amelia, there is pretty much a reason for everything. Every little thing! This gal had tons of love and attention poured into her creation, and I like to think it shows :) If you want to see more of Amelia's pics, I have them all in a Flickr album HERE
Now, these are the prototype pictures, and I have seen pictures of the factory sample doll which is pretty darn close. I think they had to change the shoe and goggle molds. Keep an eye on PullipStyle for when Amelia's orders go up. She has a limited run of 400, and she won't last long!