ARTICLES on GlamourOZ Dolls® (Jozef Szekeres Dolls®)

 

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MEDIA BIO on GlamourOZ Dolls®
One Line Bio

The DOLLS 2020 award winning GlamourOZ Dolls® is a new brand of Australian high-end fashion dolls, approximately 18 inches tall, created and produced by Jozef Szekeres Dolls®.

One Paragraph Bio

The DOLLS 2020 award winning GlamourOZ Dolls® is a new brand of Australian high-end fashion dolls, created, sculpted and produced by internationally renowned Australian artist, Jozef Szekeres of Jozef Szekeres Dolls®, with “Fashion Discovery™”, the first season’s fashions inspired by Stephen Moor. The approximately 18 inches GlamourOZ Dolls® relaunches the Jozef Szekeres Dolls® 2003 Elizabet Bizelle® brand with an entirely new 14 point articulated body sculpt that captures the original 2003 posed doll’s aesthetics of detail, grace and beauty, with a new face sculpt to lead the brand. Also relaunched with new face sculpts, is her sister Kotalin Bizelle®, and their two new GlamourOZ® friends, Lucille Lei® and Bindi Merinda®.

Comprehensive Bio

Founded in 2003 by internationally renowned Australian artist, Jozef Szekeres as Jozef Szekeres Dolls®. GlamourOZ Dolls® is a new brand of Australian high-end fashion dolls. with products ranging in size from 16 to 18 inches tall. Jozef Szekeres Dolls®  relaunches the 2003 Elizabet Bizelle® fashion doll under the new GlamourOZ Dolls® brand, with an entirely new 14 point articulated body sculpt that captures the original 2003 posed doll’s aesthetics of detail, grace and beauty, with a new face sculpt to lead the brand. Also relaunched with new face sculpts, is Elizabet’s sister Kotalin Bizelle®, and their two new GlamourOZ® friends, Lucille Lei® and Bindi Merinda®. The “Fashion Discovery™” first season of GlamourOZ Dolls® posthumously celebrates, the till now unpublished true 60’s fashions from Australian artist, Stephen Moor (1915-2003), internationally renowned for his artworks in many mediums, including painting, sculpture, and stained glass. GlamourOZ Dolls® ‘Kotalin Bizelle® Ribbon Reveal™’ mainline edition was honoured with the prestigious 2020 DOLLS Award of Excellence Industry’s Choice in the ‘Collectable Teen/Adult Doll’ category.

Media Interview

Q. What are your inspirations for the GlamourOZ Dolls® line?

JS: I have a huge personal Fashion Doll collection, which I love, having multiples of my favourite bodies and faces, and drawers overflowing with their fashions and accessories. But though I love all of them for what makes them special or unique, not one of them were truly answering what I wanted and needed in a 16″ Fashion Doll sculpt.

So, to answer my own want and need as a doll collector, I wanted to return to doll making with a new fully articulated doll that embodied the original aesthetics of my 2003-2006 doll release… sinuously tall, and elegantly graceful from head to toe. The contemporaries of the day included Gene Marshall – the very first 16″ fashion doll – created by Mel Odom, Alexander Fairchild, Tyler Wentworth, and Clea Bella. The original Elizabet and Kotalin sisters were a frozen posed limited articulated doll, at a time before advanced articulation was explored in 16″ dolls. My 2003 doll then, was in a faux articulated pose. I knew the look I wanted, and so I presented that, but I had not yet the knowledge of how to achieve it with true mobility. Now… I’ve applied that same grace in every body part for their new GlamourOZ® bodies, with advanced articulation, and now my doll can move as I’d always imagined and wanted her to be able to do. With an emphasis on the graceful through line in her stances, from head to toe, as only an animator could truly understand (I used to 2D animate for Walt Disney Animation, focussing on the Disney Princesses, and helped them to launch the Disney Princesses line in Australia).

 

Q. So tell us about your dolls, they look really amazing!

JS: I believe my GlamourOZ Dolls® bring a unique Catwalk Supermodels aesthetic to the Fashion Doll world. Being head and shoulders above the rest in height was a result of studying and understanding those Supermodel body proportions, and letting that guide me as I sculpted the doll, rather than following the established 16″ height trend, resulting in my doll being 18″ tall.

With 14 points of articulation, and an additional set of removable frozen-actioned posed hands and additional removable flat feet, to go with her standard set of GlamourOZ® hands and GlamourOZ® high heeled fashion feet, all these will allow for loads of fashion forward posing and play opportunities.

 

Q. That brings me to ask, will the GlamourOZ Dolls® be able to share clothing with other 16″ dolls?

JS: Though taller in head-to-body ratio then to her 16″ doll-range counterparts, she can still wear 16” clothing and shoes from most other 16″ lines, as comfortably as her own fashions.

I’ve always had this as my target…. if I can create the best Supermodel doll body I can, with beautiful matching faces, then no matter what she’ll wear… the aim is to present the fashion elevated to that of a catwalk presentation.

This is why I think Supermodel Models wear fashions in high-end fashion shows rather then regularly proportioned women. Supermodel proportions elevate these already beautiful fashions… to a truly amazing fashion sketch proportions given life. I’ve found that result to be true when the GlamourOZ® Models share other 16″ dolls clothing.

Average IS beautiful in the real world, and can also be in the doll world, such as successfully proven with the 12″ Lammily Doll, created by independent doll designer Nickolay Lam. I have two of his dolls, and I love them. I understand and admire why he felt a need to create his doll, but my girls catwalk strut a different path. They have not been designed as a child’s play doll or a PC teaching tool about body image (for children) as his have been, but have been created for the discerning fashion doll collectors, that are fashion focused in their thinking, which has an entirely different market focus. These GlamourOZ® Models are FASHION Dolls, with the emphasis on Fashion. And what I’m wanting to achieve is to have that fashion look at its very best when worn.

 

Q: Why did you choose to make the GlamourOZ Dolls® vinyl and hard plastic, rather then strung resin, as your previous 2003 doll?

JS: Durability was key, especially with all the new articulation and pose and play opportunities that will be presented. My engineering team took my sculpt and helped me link these separate body parts together to result in a sturdy ultimate collectable doll that can be played with, as well as beautifully posed to display. I personally like to have a travel doll (or two) with me that I can throw in my backpack, pull out and be glamorous with a flip of her hair, without fear of breakage. Ultimately, it just adds better value in material, and play.

 

Q: This first line of GlamourOZ Dolls® seems to have a distinct 60’s fashion feel about them, yet on a very modern athletic body! How did that come about? And what was your inspiration?

JS: This comes from a very personal experience. When in my early teens, I was introduced to a person who would be my sister’s future father-in-law. Stephen Moor was an already well-established Who’s Who of Australian artists, with his own brand named studio, having worked extensively around Australia creating stained glass LeadLighting for cathedrals and churches, event locations and private commissions, as well as painting beautiful works of art and incredible sculptures. A true renaissance man and artist.

Once he joined the family, we would have drawing days, where we would each draw female fashion figures posing together. He’d do one figure, then I’d draw a companion figure next to it, and visa versa, sometimes adding fashions to them. It was amazing fun and very instructional. Unbeknownst to me, he was teaching me about form and structure without it feeling like a lesson.

Before his passing, he gave me a folder of about 80 original watercolour fashion sketches he had done through the 60’s and 70’s, saying that he’d hoped these would inspire me into fashion, as he was obviously a true fashion designer at heart, but his artistic career successfully focussed him elsewhere at a time when people would stay a lifetime in one job or career path.

When I saw these for the first time as a teen, I knew they were special and important… a part of lost Australian true fashion history, that only the family had had the opportunity to see and enjoy up until that time. Created by an amazing artist in the time and of the time he created them, and well deserving of one day being shared with Australia, and the rest of the world.

When exploring the concepts that would become the first GlamourOZ Dolls® line, it felt only natural to have Stephen Moor’s amazing 60’s fashion grace their modern Supermodel bodies. As if these Supermodels had only recently discovered these 60’s fashions themselves today, and proudly wanted to strut down the international fashion catwalks in them.

I also thought it would be something special for my niece and nephews to one day look back at this first GlamourOZ Dolls® line and be able to know… that their uncle sculpted the doll, whose lead sister characters bear the names of their mother, Elizabet(h) Kotalin; their grandmother, my beautiful and supportive mother, Lucille; and their grandfather’s original fashions.

So, with the blessings from my brother-in-law and sister, the GlamourOZ Dolls® first line celebrates the “lost” 60’s fashions of Stephen Moor, which I’ve called “Fashion Discovery™“… seen by the world for the first time, in miniature. I only wish he, and my own artistically supportive father, an accomplished and talented artist himself, who has now also since passed, to have seen the birth of my new doll and the whole line. I look at this first line as a family affair, honouring their support, help and love, in bringing this dream of mine to reality.

Beyond this first line, I plan to return with my own fashions, but I’ll always be open to the possibilities of having other amazing designers join me to design for the GlamourOZ Dolls® future lines… as a Paris based designer had recently told me, “people WILL want to design for her”!

 

Q: So, what is the price point, and what will be released with each doll?

JS: The GlamourOZ dolls® average at retail around the USD$330 mark, for a standard mainline release, which will include the doll with rooted hair and hand-applied eyelashes, a stand, a cutting edge amazingly made fashion set with beautiful detailing, four sets of hands, two sets of feet, and glamorous accessories to fit out the garment set.

 

Q: How large will the editions be? And how and where will Fashion Doll collectors be able to purchase the GlamourOZ Dolls®?

JS: The first mainline features eight dolls utilising four different character sculpts, with each produced in editions of 375 pieces. There will be two variant editions of 100 pieces each, that at this time will be exclusive to my online store. Preorder was first available mid 2017 (now closed), with conlpeted production run shipping end of 2020. Availability is directly and exclusively through my website.

 

Q: You mentioned eight editions, two variants and four heads, will this mean one or more of the character face sculpts will have more then one usage or release?

JS: Well, with this new line, I’m relaunching the 2003 characters, Elizabet Bizelle® with her sister Kotalin Bizelle®. Each of these characters will have two mainline releases of 375 each, and will also be 2 exclusive variants of 100 pieces each. I’m introducing two new characters, Asian sculpt Lucille Lei®, and Black Australian sculpt Bindi Merinda®. Each of these new sculpts will also be used twice in inaugural mainline editions of 375 pieces each.

 

Q: Well, your GlamourOZ Dolls® do look head and shoulders above… and not just in height. True fashion icons, and mannequins of fashion. Do you have any last comments about them?

JS: My hope is that the fashion doll collectors of the world, will resonate with that same want and need I had, that they don’t yet know they have… yet… Till they see my new inaugural GlamourOZ Dolls® “Fashion Discovery™” line.