Spotlight on one of a kind dolls by em'lia

Hi everyone!

*Please note: not all pictures in this entry are work safe*

I'd like to use today's post to highlight one of my favorite doll artists out there and a dear friend to me: Emilia Nieminen of em'lia couture.

Emilia has been in the doll hobby for many years using all kinds of dolls as a canvas for her one of a kind (OOAK) creations, starting with 12" dolls, mainly Fashion Royalty, moving on to 16" fashion dolls and Asian BJDs, and finally crowning her personal ambitions with her own doll line, Inamorata, which will be covered by me in my next blog entry :-)

One of the things you will recognize when browsing her work and probably, like me, find surprising about Emilia is the sheer bandwith of her work. She seems to find inspiration in anything from period gowns to insects (which are continuously ignored by fashion creators except maybe for Patrizia Pepe with their chunky "fly" jewelry ;-) ) and always find a way to articulate it trough her work.
Another interesting aspect in em'lias work is that she, like her big idol Alexander McQueen, is never shy to use her work as a form of social commentary, also delivering painful truths wrapped up in highly conceptual ooak pieces.

In addition, I can highlight that working with Emilia on commission pieces is an absolute dream and she truly has the spirit of wanting to create something special for all her clients.

But instead of just talking, let's jump in with the dolls that are in my personal collection! All these dolls have been repainted by hand by em'lia and mostly their hair was restyled in one way or another.

This is Lisbeth, a former Fashion Royalty Giselle. Emilia and I wanted to create a doll that wa sinspired both by vivid colors and Asian influences. So, I nicknamed her my Cyber Geisha (but she doesn't like hearing that). She is wearing a blouse by HJ Couture.

And here is Linda, a former Fashion Royalty Agnes. She is loosely based on the look of classic 80's supermodels such as Linda Evangelista. I love photographing this doll, she has tons of attitude and like the real linda, she is an absolute chameleon. She is wearing clothes from Fashion Royalty in these photos.

Next, em'lia repainted a Fashion Royalty Square Dasha doll for me. The idea was simply to use natural colors so that the doll could model many different types of clothes. The dress in the picture was also made by em'lia.

Last but absolutely not least here is a doll that we named Necrosha. She is a former Sybarite Slipper with real gold embellishments on her face, bust and hands. She is barely seen in my photos. There are three reasons for this: most importantly, she represents something very personal to me which makes me relucant to show her off. Secondly, Sybarite repaints are a kind of controversial topic since they are artist dolls to begin with. I understand both sides in this discussion but in this case, I just could not resist the temptation to realize this project using a Sybarite as perfect canvas for em'lias work. Thirdly, she was damaged in her transit from Emilia to me and I fixed her according to my abilities but not sufficiently for me to avoid feeling a little pain whenever I look at her. So, if anyone out there is able to restring Sybarites and does not dislike repaints on a personal level, do let me know. Necrosha is wearing pieces from Sybarite Couture Salon and a Sybarite wig.
I called this picture Ador(n)ed.

Finally, I would like to highlight a few dolls that are not in my collection. All pictures below have been taken by Emila herself. Please be sure to visit em'lias flickr and homepage to see all her dolls:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emiliacouture/

http://www.emiliacouture.com/home/

Here is an amazing concept doll called the Black Butterfly, a former Fashion Royalty Agnes. Emilia created both doll and outfit:

Here is another former FR Agnes, pair of a set called "The Guillotines". Note this dress was made by Emilia in painstaking handwork:

Here is a doll from the Insectopia collection- as mentioned, Emilia is inspired by absolutely everything. This doll is the Golden Scarab and a former Fashion Royalty Colette:

Lastly, I would like to feature a doll from one of Emilias more controversial collections. The collection is called "Until dead do us Part". Due to what many felt as an offensive level of display of violence, Emilia was asked to remove pictures of this work from doll homepages. This collection evolves around the role of women in modern society, abuse and suicide. It is Emilias way of highligthing that women are often still looking for their rightful place in modern society and that there are many different layers and aspects to the topic of violence against women; as well as a comment on current ways of potraying women in the media.

Here is what Emilia has to say on the doll called "Hunger": "The second doll "Hunger" also has suicidal tendencies. She is a young girl who falls in love, and marries, a vampire as is "fashionable" in the TV nowadays. However, the story doesn't get a romantic happily ever after ending, but far more real one. It is also a potential ending to any girl who in real life falls for a guy with the "I don't know whether to kiss you or kill you" pick up line. I think the trend of romanticising danger is not a healthy one, though admittedly it is not the first time murderous rebels are idealised".