Fashion doll

A fashion doll is a dressed figure made to show how clothes looked, rather than only to be played with. Before printed fashion plates, makers displayed them and courts and families sent them between places so that a style could be seen and copied.

How old is the practice?

A letter of 19 November 1515, written for Francis I of France to Isabella d'Este, asks for a doll dressed in her clothes and hairstyles. Modern writers often call eighteenth-century examples "Pandoras"; the origin of that name is unsettled. Surviving eighteenth-century dolls such as the Met's were often fully dressed, with petticoats, shoes and accessories.

Sources

1. Doll in a box, ca. 1748. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
2. "Living Dolls": François Ier Dresses His Women. Project MUSE

See also

• Mantua

Read more

• A Doll Is a Dress Rehearsal

Last updated October 14, 2026 · Markdown