BlytheLife.com opened in July 2010 and is a blog and resource hub for all things Blythe!
Question of the Week: Designer clothing
Written on April 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm by MichelleFiled under: Question of the Week
It’s hard to dig through the threads of Sundries without seeing someone talk about how they have a dress by Designer A for sale or a hard-to-find pair of pants by Designer B. Not everyone goes for “designer” Blythe clothing or accessories because it can be very expensive and not everyone sees what other people may see. It’s one thing to pay $5 for a new doll dress that someone’s looking to get rid of because they’re trying to fund a new doll purchase, but it’s entirely a different thing when someone’s asking for $150 for a doll dress. Let’s face it, I could clothe me for $150 and still have a lot of money left over for something else. Or I could just get an entire new doll for that amount!
What makes “designer” doll clothing so attractive to doll collectors? Is it a status symbol to have something made by a certain individual? Is it a source of pride to be able to own that $500 doll that wears an outfit worth a fifth of it’s value?
What makes “designer doll clothing” worth it to you? What’s your ‘maximum’ price for a single piece? And, more importantly, how much do you spend on clothing for yourself? (Just to put things into perspective.)
I avoid getting caught up in bidding wars over doll clothing. I don’t know if it’s because I lack the expendable income that a lot of other people in the hobby have or if it’s just my own personal feelings towards clothing labels transferring over to my dolls’ wardrobe (oh, the horror, non-brand name clothing for my dolls!). Of course, if you’re not hurting yourself (or someone around you) by spending copious amounts of money on doll clothes, that’s perfectly fine.
As long as you can pay for your mortgage, insurance, transportation, food, electricity, water, internet (!) and things like saving for retirement or just a rain day emergency fund, why not spend some ‘fun money’ on cute doll clothes? I can appreciate the time and talent that goes into really pretty pieces of doll-sized clothing – I know from my own experiences that sewing small clothes is fairly time consuming (and challenging!). But when second-hand items reach triple digits, I think it should be time to stop and consider what you’re buying and if the price is really worth it.
After all, just because the item can sell for $100 today does not mean that it could resell for a similar (or higher) price later on.
I have a difficult time paying more than $20-25 for any one item for Blythe, no matter what it is. I would just rather get multiple separates or cheap dresses and mix and match than have one expensive hat… or, as you said, another doll!
I do also make hats and fully understand how time-consuming it can be to create one, especially if there’s a lot of decorating involved. I can’t imagine how long some beautiful complicated dress sets can take, even with a factory-style process. But also I feel like some “designer” things have a really inflated price that has mostly to do with the name or label and cache of it and that I would be paying that much basically just for a brand name, which I just don’t really care to do in real life or Blythe Life.
Agreed! There’s so much pretty doll clothes, but I’m not willing to spend more then $20 for one thing unless it’s *really* special. I spend about $20-25 for one article of clothing for me (aside from coats), I don’t buy focus on brand names IRL and I’m certainly not going to drop $150 on a doll hat! I think it’s crazy some people spend that much on one doll accessory or clothing item and then turn around and talk about how poor they are or how their spouse is going to be upset with them. Sometimes I think people need to learn how to budget.