Fashion Pandora Dolls and Fashion History

Fashion dolls are far from just toys. No matter what properties the dolls were endowed with, what roles they played throughout our history. The first dolls have been known since the times of Ancient Egypt. In peasant families, dolls were made from scrap materials: rags, straw, wood, clay. In modern times, the world was delighted lovely porcelain dolls... Dolls were both harmless toys for girls and mysteriously scary magic items. And dolls were also fashionable. For many centuries they have quite succeeded in playing the role of modern fashion magazines. Such dolls were called pandora dolls.

Even in ancient Rome, dolls were used to demonstrate fashion. Clay dolls were sent to the Roman provinces, dressed in fashionable novelties.

There were similar dolls in XIV century Europe. They were originally made of wood. So in 1391, the wife of the English king Richard II received a similar doll from France. She needed this doll in order to get acquainted with the fashionable novelties of Paris. And there is also information that in 1396, the court tailor of the French king Charles VI, Robert de Varens, made a receipt for 450 francs for making a fashionable wardrobe for a doll. This doll was presented by the Queen of Bavaria to the Queen of England. And one old Venetian fashion store still has a sign with its name La Piavola di Franza, which means "French doll". And that, undoubtedly, confirms the long-standing relationship between dolls and fashion.

At that time, fashion dolls were mainly ordered queens or rich aristocrats. So in 1453, the Queen of Spain ordered outfits from Paris, which she saw thanks to a fashionable doll. And for the famous Marie de Medici, her husband Henry IV also ordered dolls-demonstrators of fashionable novelties more than once. And in 1642, the Polish queen asked a courier going to the Netherlands to bring her "a doll dressed in the French style, so that it could serve as a model for her tailor."

And only in the 40s of the XVII century in Europe, namely in France, those dolls appeared, which will be called Pandora. They were wax dolls. They were very often made in human growth. The doll was named Pandora in honor of the heroine of ancient Greek mythology, who opened the forbidden chest, out of curiosity, and released many misfortunes into this world, although hope still remained at the very bottom of the chest.

It was in the 17th century that fashion began to be advertised deliberately and for these purposes, of course, pandora dolls served. At that time, there was only one magazine in Paris that could be compared with modern fashion magazines. This magazine was called "Gallant Mercury", but only its circulation was very small. And the main role was still played by dolls.

A whole wardrobe was attached to pandora dolls: chests with clothes, perfumes and accessories. Pandora dolls have traveled all over Europe and even made their way to America for the sole purpose of showing Parisian fashion to wealthy ladies. According to legends, when such dolls were transported in the middle of military battles, the generals suspended the battles and let the pandora dolls pass.

A pandora doll belonging to the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna has also survived. This doll was made by the court milliner of the French queen Marie-Antoinette, Rose Bertin. Now the pandora doll of Maria Fyodorovna is kept in the Gatchina Palace.

In those days, there were two types of pandora dolls. Big Pandora, which showcased luxury outfits for social events, and Little Pandora, which showcased more modest attire.

Pandora dolls were popular in the 19th century as well. At this time, they began to be produced at the firms Jumeau, Gaultier, Bru. Heads of unglazed porcelain and bodies of wood were made for them.

Pandora dolls existed until the 1860s, and then they were replaced fashion magazines, which became popular in Paris at the end of the reign of Louis XVI just before the French Revolution. The heirs of the Pandora dolls in the modern world, of course, have become mannequins in shop windows.

Themselves as pandora dolls today can be seen only in the Parisian Museum of Fashion Galliera, in the Zagorsk Museum of Toys and private collections.