Restyling, Photography and Vintage Barbie Fashion

This transcript was generated from the episode captions and lightly edited for readability. Names and product terms may occasionally be imperfect. Quoted dollar amounts retain the wording of the interview; the currency is not always specified.

0:00Hello dolls and accessories. I'm your host Kelly and this is Barbie Talk. Barbie Talk with Kelly in Pink. Today's guest is someone whose Instagram truly lives up to its name. Welcome to the dollhouse. Steve has built an incredible collection full of Barbie and Ken dolls, beautifully designed backdrops, and photography that transforms Barbie into a work of art. His attention to lighting, styling, and storytelling makes every post feel like you're stepping into a miniature fashion editorial. Please welcome Steve. Hi, Steve. Welcome to Barbie Talk. Hi, Kelly. Welcome to my dollhouse. I love it. I love the dollhouse. Well, I want to get right to it.

0:47I've been following you for quite some time and I absolutely adore your content and I want everyone watching to get to know Steve a little bit more. Welcome to the dollhouse is your Instagram. And so tell everyone a little bit about yourself, where you're from and how your relationship with Barbie started. Well, you guys all know my name is Steve. Uh [snorts] I'm from Long Island, New York. And I started playing with Barbies when I was a very little boy. I remember having a Western Ken and a roller skating Barbie. I don't remember how I acquired them, but somebody in my family must have purchased them for me when I was a very little kid. And um I specifically remember those two dolls. They didn't survive throughout my childhood. And then when my younger sister was born, she's the one that had all the Barbies after that. And then I was playing with her Barbies. And then I had my own stuff like He-Man and all that kind of stuff. So, did you and your sister kind of share that? Did you guys play together? Yeah. Awesome. That's so so sweet. And I have a pictures I have pictures that I took when I was a kid, like of my sister's dolls like set up in the house and like she had the Barbie glamour home and um I have a photo I can show you actually. I have it right here. This is probably the first photo I've ever taken of dolls and this is probably like I don't know 1986 7 something like that. Oh my good. Here it is. How sweet. How Oh my goodness. So,

2:12you took this photo. I'm trying to see if I can make out what Barbies are there. Yeah. So, this is on my FisherPrice camera. Yes. And this is in my parents like basement. And that's the roof of the glamour home and I set up all these dolls and I took a picture. So, I've had this in me like my entire life. It just didn't [snorts] come out to the level that it is now until later on in my life. Seems like the love for photographing Barbie has always been in your blood. Yeah, it started very young. It started very young. And I love that. I used to take pictures of my Barbies doing things, too. And one day, I guess my sister actually took a picture of me playing with my Barbies. Oh my god. Adorable. This is probably in the '9s. This is definitely like so cute. Yeah, in the '9s. So, I thought I would share that, too, since you shared that. So, since Western Ken or roller skating bar, you that's the first Barbie you remember. Do you still have them? I know you said they were quite played with. They didn't survive, but later on I bought one of each to have for myself. I have them here. I can show you. I'd love to see that. This is Western K. He's a little beat up. But here he is. He's so handsome. He is a handsome dude. So handsome. Look at him.

3:21I have his hat somewhere, but I couldn't find it cuz it's a hot mess in here. So, it's okay. He's pretty complete. Just like his fake leather is kind of worn off. The leather on these fashions, they were known to do this. They start to peel. But I mean, he's in good condition. Let's see his pants. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But his boots look good. Yeah, he still has all his stuff. So, has his torso expanded? Because that tends to happen with some of these, too. He's a little like wobbly, but that happens to Yeah. Yeah. And then this is roller skating Barbie, but she's not in her original outfit. She's redressed in this fabulous superstar Gerardo fashion. of course. No surprise that Steve, welcome to the dollhouse takes one doll and transforms her into something completely different. Oh my goodness, she's stunning. Yeah, I love this dress. Oh my goodness. I think it's like ostrich feathers or something like that. But she deserves like a whole Yeah, turn her around.

4:18She deserves like the whole moment with like the whole Wow. Yeah, this dress is really cool. Oh, look at that face. Hello. Look at that face. This is gorgeous. You have such a skill and an eye, Steve, let me tell you. We will get into that again. Your collection is absolutely stunning. How would you describe your collecting style? I kind of collect a little bit of everything. I love everything Barbie, every era of Barbie. There's something in it that I respond to that I love. So, I just kind of collect things that I like. I don't set out to complete a series necessarily or have all of one thing or another. I just kind of gravitate towards what I think is cool, what I think is beautiful. Barbie has such a like a history of fashion and throughout her whole lifetime that uh I always loved fashion and and design and it's just something that I really love as well Barbie. Yeah. And I usually ask uh my guests like are you an inbox or out of-box collector? And obviously you like to photograph them, but I do see some boxes behind you too.

5:16So are you kind of a 50/50? Like describe that. I'm more of an out- of-box collector. I just have some things in boxes that are either special or I haven't gotten around to take them out of the box. Do you tend to buy in box to remove or do you buy out of box as well? Both. Yeah. If I can't find something out of box, I'll buy it in the box and then tear it apart. A lot of my collection I found too like going to flea markets and stuff. My partner and I every weekend we go like flea market shopping. We have our little spots that we hit like pretty much every weekend and we rotate, you know, different neighborhoods and stuff like that. But on Long Island, there's like a lot of different little places that we get. I found a lot of my collection that way. And um if you see my makeover Mondays with Giovani, a lot of those dolls are dolls that I found like in our travels.

6:01So they just get right into my collection. So I have bins and bins and bins of dolls. Like you can't see all that. It's like there's a closet over here. It's packed to like the ceiling of bins of dolls. I have dolls over here. I have boxes in the other room. Like it's a little crazy. [laughter] It's okay. The Barbie chaos is a good thing. Is there a doll that you have there that's in box that you will never remove from box? Uh, yes. Okay. This doll is very special. My partner bought me this doll for my birthday as a surprise when she came out and uh he drove all the way to Manhattan to get her and surprised me that evening with her. It's um Versace Barbie and she was purchased at the Versace store on Fifth Avenue when she came out. So, wow. Round of applause for the partner. This is fantastic. So, I'm never going to take her out of the box cuz she's just really special and she's stunning and I would love to photograph her, but I if I ever find a loose one, maybe I would. Maybe I would deal. Yeah, I don't blame you. Oh my goodness. And so, what year is she from? I must say that on the 2004. So, this is the 2004 vers. Oh my good. That platinum blonde hair, that eye makeup. My goodness. I mean, you could photograph her like this. I know it's not your style, but it's still Yeah. Oh, look at the dress at the bottom, too. It's the best.

7:26[sighs] They don't even need to say much. Just a few words. Yeah. Beautiful. Oh, she's stunning. I agree with you. That one stay in the box. She's like special. Very special. If I ever find one that's like loose, I will buy her just so I can do my thing. So, you mentioned that there's something about every era that you love about Barbie. Yeah. So, I guess it's hard for you to pick your favorite, but if you had to pick a favorite from each era or one or two eras, which ones would it be? Well, I would say my favorite era is probably Superstar era because that's my era. I mean, that's where I grew up. That's what I remember as a child. That's what made me excited or loving Barbie. that whole glamour and style and all that stuff from that era. So, that's my favorite era. Probably from 1977 to 1987, those are like the years that I find to be the greatest that I enjoy. Do you have any there that you can show us? I do. If I tilt the camera this way, like this cabinet over here has like most of my superstars in it, but they're like buried in there. I see fabulous fur, which is one of my favorites. Oh, yeah. I see Sweet Roses PJ. I see. Oh goodness. What else do I see in there? All the good ones are in there.

8:41Peaches and cream is in there. Crystal Barbie, day to night Barbie. Day to Night Barbie was probably one of my favorites from childhood. My sister had her and uh I think like the fact that you could like transform her look from like one thing to another was like fascinating to me. And any doll that was like that, it was like I loved it. Yeah. At the top is some vintage stuff. Oh, I love that. And then this shelf has superstar. There they are, the beauties. They're all damned in there. [laughter] And then going down there's Well, is that a Is that a Sweet Roses Christy or is it just the dress? No, it's just the dress. It's twirly curls Barbie. Gotcha. And it's in a peaches and cream dress. Oh, her dress. That color looks stunning on her. Yeah, she looks beautiful.

9:32Oh, there's California Dream. Love that line. We won't mind the naked girls, but wow. Like it's it's it's a you know what? Like I'm sure you're changing them out so often. That's probably Oh, I see some rockers. Very nice. Very nice. You have got a lot of beautiful Ken's that you photograph as well. Would you say you collect more Barbie than Ken? Is it 50/50? Well, actually, when I started Instagram, I was thinking of doing like a Ken thing because I always felt like Ken got the shaft and um I had a lot of Ken's at that point in my collecting and um I was, you know, redressing them and stuff like that and starting to take pictures. And I was like, maybe I should just do like a Ken cage. And I think I started like if you go like way way back to the beginning, I think I started with like more Kens and then Barbie just took over. I have a couple here. So, this guy I photographed recently and uh he is the um Doctor Who Ken. And I dressed him in this vintage. This is Brad's outfit. I think it's from the ' 70s. I mean, why don't they make Ken look like that? He's so handsome. And this outfit is just incredible. I mean, look at the color. It's like so cool. It suits them very well. I love the necklace. Very nice touch. My favorite pens of all are the Barbie basics jeans kens. I don't know if you're familiar. Bill Green's beautiful collection. I

10:56love those guys. Actually, that whole line is like my favorite collection of probably all time. Same. The Barbie B6 Dunham line. And this guy, I'm sure you recognize him. I do recognize him. Look at his hair. It's like it's perfect. It's a little like puffy, but there's a lot of volume. I like him. I look that handsome. I love this guy. Yes. with the watch. Yeah, it's beautiful. And then I have one of my sister's Ken's from childhood. Oh my goodness. Yes. So, he's still in his original outfit. This is um Jewel Secrets Ken. This poor guy. I love him though. You know what? Like, I like the hair. And this is the same Ken they used for Ken from Barbie and the Rockers for the second wave. And he big blonde hair. Mhm. The only thing is don't cut his hair, shave it, cuz then he doesn't look good. Like it's got holes in it. You got to leave him with his hair. So, I've never cleaned him up. This is just the way that I found him at my parents house when I was grabbing all my sister's stuff. Are you going to do something with him for like future? Yeah, I'll probably clean him up at some point and, you know, just make him a little bit more presentable.

11:59But I have like a perfect one that I bought like after the fact. So, I have photographed him, not this doll, but the same doll, but another version of him a long time ago. Do you have a mini a mini? I do. Yeah, I have him here, too. This is Mini Steve. Oh my goodness. Who is this? Okay, so this is the BMR man bun. Ken, did you do something to his face? So, he was repainted by an artist that I found on Instagram. He's called Just a Artwork and um he did this guy for me a couple years back and uh I sent him a photo and uh he just repainted the doll in my likeness basically. Oh my god, I love him. He looks just like you. That's why I was like, "What Ken is this?" Yeah. [snorts] So, he's pretty cool. He looks awesome. [laughter] So, he goes with me like to convention and stuff like that. He looks just like you. So, whoever that artist was, again, kudos to that artist. That's fantastic. So, now like I don't photograph Ken as often, but I I still pop him in there occasionally. You did a beautiful shoot recently with um the new basics by the pool, and this handsome fellow was Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, come on. Look at this hair. Look at this hair.

13:08I actually cut his hair because it was a little too crazy for me. It is. It is a little wild, but he's some like color. Yours looks really cute, but mine was like a little nuts. [clears throat] Yeah, he looked like a clown, so I put it down a little bit. Mine is still hard from the box, so I'm trying to just like not touch it too much. But yeah. Yeah, definitely very handsome. When did collecting start to become more than just owning dolls and more into like a true passion of yours? After my partner and I met, it kind of became more of like I want [snorts] to collect more dolls and Barbies and stuff. And um we were at a flea market as usual. And um he bought me like my first like vintage Barbie and vintage Ken. And that's kind of what started me collecting like more seriously and getting into like vintage stuff and all the other eras. I have those two dolls I can show you too.

13:59So, this is the first vintage Ken. And I don't think he was in this outfit. I think I redressed him. But there was this little old lady that worked in the flea market at the time. And she had this this little tiny booth and it all had vintage Barbies and other dolls in it. And um we befriended her and uh he purchased these for me from her. So, this is the uh the vintage Ken. Look at that. Handsome. Handsome. Yeah. He's a straight leg Ken. I think he's probably 1962ish. I don't know. He's very cute. I love the jeans. I love that they have like this little zipper in the front. It's like super cute. The fashions they made back then, Steve, are obvious. I know. That's why I love the ' 60s and the '7s. Like those eras are so great because the clothing is incredible.

14:48Mhm. Incredible. The dolls may not be flexible and it may start, you know, they're rotting and having issues, but yeah. And so here's my first vintage Barbie. These two are probably the oldest dolls that like the oldest in terms of years that I own. I've had them for about 23 24 years, but these are probably the oldest dolls like in my collection. And she looks great even with the bangs, the makeup, the ponytail. She needs a little like work on her hair, but I'll get around to fixing her up one day. But she's pretty. She's very pretty and her makeup looks fantastic. I've come across some vintage ponytails and the makeup is good. Do you know what number that [clears throat] one is? I feel like it's like probably number four or like whatever like the later one was. I don't think she's like not like number one or anything. Of course. Is a number one something that you would inspire to get. I mean it's kind of out of my price range, but I mean I mean it would be nice to have one. Every collector would love to have one. It's like the ruby slipper of collecting. I like that. It's like the ruby slippers of collecting. I like that. Okay, so now we can talk a little bit about your beautiful photography work. It's impeccable. I love what you do. It looks like your dolls are starring like in a magazine cover. How do you come up with how to style a doll? And can you show us a couple of dolls that you styled recently? I get inspired from either TV or from

16:11music or from something that I saw just around or I have like a Pinterest that I like collect fashion photos and old magazine covers and like just stuff that inspires me like outfits that I really love or like colors that I really respond to. And so that's kind of like where a little bit of it comes from that. And then a little bit comes from it could be the doll that inspires me or it could be a Barbie fashion that inspires me or something like that. So it comes a little bit from different places and um I have to like feel it in order for me to like really get into it. Sometimes it's it's harder than other times. Sometimes it comes really easily and other times it it takes a little bit of work but I get inspired from everything. So it could be various things. It's not like the doll first. It could be a fashion first or Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it's sometimes it's a doll first. Sometimes it's a doll that I haven't photographed in a while and I'm like, "Oh, I miss you." Like, "Let's do something." Or I'll be like in this room and I'll just stand here and look at the wall and be like, "Okay, so who's talking to me today?" And you know, whoever speaks to me is whoever I grab. So, I don't do a lot of pre-planning when I'm doing a photograph. It's a little bit like I mean, I'm thinking about it, but it's not like I'm planning out like this day I'm going to shoot this, this day I'm going to shoot that. It's a little like kind of up in the air and I I kind of just go with the flow and see like what comes out of it. So, how long does it take to

17:34prepare like one Instagram post? Are you doing it within 5 minutes or is there taking a bit of time? Sometimes I could spend hours on a photograph [laughter] cuz it's like it's styling the doll, it's putting the outfit together, it's finding the pose, it's doing the lighting, it's doing the editing, it's like it's a whole event. And you're really good with like your backdrops and your lighting and positioning and angles. any tips or tricks that you could give to maybe other people who are not so good with doing that? Well, you want to make sure your lighting is really good. So, having a good light source. I use a ring light as like an overhead light and then I kind of use these other little lights. I can show you at the end here. What about natural light? I sometimes will use natural light too. Like there's a lot of photos that I've done just sitting in my living room with the light coming through the corner. in that corner of my living room. The light that comes through in the afternoon is like perfect for like doing like photos. It's like very filtered.

18:29It's just very soft and it creates a really good mood for that. Yeah, that works great. I probably would do more natural light if I had my setup in that area cuz it's only in that one area where the light is good. Everywhere else in my house is dark. So, but it's like where my furniture is. So, it's like I can't really do much there. I can only do like certain things and it's probably like more like a closeup or like you know a 3/4 shot. So I typically will shoot in my I have like a foyer when you walk in the door it's like an area there and I have a little like pedestal and on that pedestal is like a board and like I have these backdrops that I bought on Amazon and they're just paper and they clip into this thing and I just shine lights on them and change the colors and stuff. So these are the lights that I use. I got these on Amazon and I have two of these and so I kind of just like position these. These can change color. It can change color from like blue to like pink. So I can change the color. I can change the intensity. So I play around a lot with that. And then I have my ring light which is like just just like a white light. And then I just kind of like adjust it. So I what I do is I sit on the floor and my my stand is probably about here right where the doll stands. And so I'm like under like below her or him and then I'm looking through the phone and positioning everything and kind of like testing the lighting and then

19:49I do like a couple shots. Do it like this and I'll turn things. Yeah. That's how I typically will work. I'll tell you like and I think a lot of people have said this before. It looks like you're like in a professional studio. Yeah. Know and it's like and no it's in my foyer. Like it's literally sitting on the floor with like a It's like very like jerryrigged. Yeah. Exactly. But it's nice to know that this is all attainable. Like sometimes we feel like, "Oh, we can't do this." And it's nice and apprec I appreciate you sharing your tips because we all kind of think like, "Oh, there must be like a studio with like some professional lighting." And it's like, "No, man. It's off of Amazon." Yeah. Everything I shoot is on my phone and uh most of it is in is in my little area over there with my little paper backdrops. Sometimes I'll add like furniture or like little props and stuff like that, but I typically will shoot very like minimal and it's all about just the doll and the outfit or the pose or something like that. I'm inspired by fashion photography and by the photography from the original Barbie product from like the 1980s, how they showed like the fashions. A lot of that was very inspiring to me. So, I feel like a lot of what I do is in a similar way to kind of that idea. at convention. There's a photo of my friends and I that we were like setting up outside of um one of the events. [clears throat] They have like backdrops where you can take pictures and so him and I are like on the floor like and somebody took

21:09a picture of us from behind. What a great segue into convention. So tell us a little bit about your experience at the recent National Barbie Doll Collector's Convention. You were there in Austin. So tell us a little bit about your experience. Maybe for someone who's never been there before. Just walk us through like what your experience was like there. maybe how your days were cuz everyone said very overwhelming and there's lots going on. It's very overwhelming. When I first got there, it's kind of more about like getting to know all the people and like meeting up with your friends that you haven't seen in a year. So, it's a lot of that. It's a lot of like taking pictures with each other and just like chatting and room shopping. So, that's like the first thing. I got there on Monday. Convention technically doesn't start, I don't think, until Tuesday or Wednesday was the first event. I think it was Wednesday night. I think it was Monday evening. Yeah. Yeah. So, I got there Monday and I think I registered like Monday evening. So, registration, there's like a big like line and you go and you pick up your stuff. They give you a badge and they give you a bag of goodies. So, up until then, it's like room shopping. Then you do that and then we just hang out and chat and it's fun. The best part of convention for me is like the people. It's like hanging out with all my friends. It's like taking pictures together, taking pictures of our dolls together, shopping together. It's like all that is like the best part of convention for me. How many times have you been to convention? This was my fourth. Orlando was my first one. That's going to always be my favorite cuz it was my first and it was actually my birthday. So, the first Barbie

22:33convention I went to, the day of the convention was my birthday. And I met like all these people from Instagram that I had been following for a while and never met in person. And um we were all sitting at a table together and they all took me out to dinner for my birthday and they sang happy birthday and I cried like [laughter] I probably would too. It was amazing. It was amazing. It was so like sweet and it made the whole time for me. Let's see the recent convention doll. So this is the box. I'm sure you probably all seen this already. Yeah, the flirtar. And here she is in person. Beautiful. I love the face mold, too. Yeah. [clears throat] And those showstopping shoulder flowers. Oh my goodness. Beautiful. Yeah. We were actually playing around with this at the table. Like it kind of looks better with the shoulders like down here. Yeah. There's a little baggie on the side. What is that? Is it like earrings? Oh, it's her earrings. Yeah. I guess they didn't put her earrings on to give a little bit more of that wow factor with the shoulder, I'm assuming. Yeah, maybe. So, I haven't taken her out yet. She'll be coming out. coming out.

23:41Yeah. My other convention dolls I haven't removed from the box. They're kind of just like in there waiting for me. [laughter] So, you talked about room sales, which is obviously very very exciting. That and the people is like the best part. Like I go for like the shopping and the people, of course. Do you have any recent purchases that you made at convention there? Yes. So, I bought this girl who I wanted for a while in a roale. She's stunning. Oh my goodness. I love the dress. Yeah. So, will she come out of the box? Of course she will. Okay. I was just wondering cuz for me who's someone a box collector, the box is like the right I know it's it's a pretty box, but yeah, I'm going to probably take this apart. Oh my goodness, she's stunning. Oh my goodness. Yeah, she's gorgeous. She's so beautiful. She's gorgeous. So, that's one thing I bought. R says I bought like tons of accessories, which I Yeah. Well, I mean, you kind of have to consider, but you know. Okay. So, there's kind of a funny story behind this. Whoops. We love hearing funny stories. So, typically you you pack like a travel doll for convention and you bring that doll with you everywhere and you photograph it. I used to just bring my mini me, but I have brought him and like another doll with me. So, my convention girl that I brought with me this year was the Mave Riley Barbie who I've been obsessed with like lately. I did a photo shoot with her maybe like a month ago and like uh I was like inspired by uh Madonna's new album and I did like her like kind

25:07of in this like black like leather thing. Yeah, it was kind of cool. So I was obsessed with her and she sat on my coffee table for like a couple weeks after that and I'm like I'm going to take her to convention with me. So she came with me with my mini mate. And so I got to the airport and I was talking to my friends and I realized that I left all the accessories on my coffee table and I didn't bring them with me at all. So I had the doll and all the clothes but no shoes, no jewelry, nothing. So I was like, well, I just have to buy stuff when I get there. So my first room sale that I went into, I found like a bunch of Barbie basics fashion accessory sets that I didn't have already. So, I found like one in one room and then one in another room and I just ended up buying like all of them. So, I bought like all of the sets that I didn't have already. Oh, I love these. These, in my opinion, are the best modern Barbie accessories that there are. The shoes incredible.

26:00The little accessories are incredible. The scarf, the belt, the little laptop. Like, it's just I've never seen this one. Oh, this is from the like the bathing suit one. Oh, sweet. Yeah. Oh my goodness. You know what? This almost could have worked for the yacht night, the yacht theme. Yeah, I did something a little different, but Yeah, you probably had something planned, but Oh, yeah. Beautiful. So, just really great like shoes and stuff. Here's another like one that's really good. Oh, I love that. The look. The look. I love this. Yeah, that's from this. So, I bought a bunch of those. Now, did you fly or did you drive? I flew. Okay. I was thinking when people drive I guess they could fit a bit more versus like Well, actually I learned my lesson when I went to the second convention which was I think it was Palm Springs was the second one. I bought a bunch of stuff and I had to buy another suitcase to get it all home. So um at like 6:00 in the morning we had to drive back from Palm Springs to Los Angeles and then fly back to New York. So, we left the hotel and then we went to Walmart at like 6:00 in the morning and bought a suitcase and then packed it in the parking lot and then drove back to LA and then flew home. I've heard so many stories like this. It's So now, now I pack an empty suitcase and I put my clothes in the empty suitcase. So, I have two suitcases and a carry-on. So,

27:23that all goes with me. Yeah. So, I have an empty suitcase to fill and then I have the suitcase. So, I go there with one bag and I come back with like two though. got to be strategic. You got to think ahead. I've had people say that they've shipped their dirty clothes home because they had to fit all the purchases in. Hey, it's convention. It's only once a year and if you're fortunate to go every year, like you got to plan ahead. So, yes. So, I recommend multiple suitcases. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I didn't buy a whole lot this convention. Like I bought a whole lot in previous conventions, but this was like the last doll that I bought. She's the Louis Vuitton Barbie. Don Barbie. She's beautiful. Oh, wow. And she comes with shoes. Yeah. Three pairs. Three pairs. She comes with three pairs of shoes. Look at that dress. Yeah, she's stunning. Oh my goodness. She also comes with the shoe boxes. The shoe boxes right here.

28:15Yeah. I think they fell out a little bit, but Oh my goodness. And let's see the back of this box. Oh my goodness. This is stunning. That's beautiful. Also once convention starts, room sales wraps up and yes room opens. Yeah. So I think like people started getting there on Saturday and I think there was some room sales on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and then Wednesday is usually the last day for room sales. It ends Wednesday evening and then um after that the uh sales room opens which is Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then um typically the people that sold in the room sales will come down to the sales room and then have the rest of [clears throat] their stuff there and then there's usually some other people that weren't part of room sales that then join the sales room. So it's like a giant sales room of like Orbee craziness. What's your favorite part of convention aside from the people and the shopping? It's just a great experience being there and seeing like uh all the different one-of-a-kind dolls and dolls that they auction off for charity. There's a lot of beautiful creations that you wouldn't see unless you were there. Also, like the Mattel event is fun. You get to see some like sneak peeks on stuff that's like coming soon. So, that's always fun, too. And then the giveaways. They give you lots of stuff. So, are we going to see Welcome to the Dollhouse in the fashion show at any point

29:35in the future? Probably not. I don't know. That's not really my thing, but I'm kidding. I just fling your thing. [laughter] But I mean, I could see you doing like the western Ken. You could rock that. Yeah, maybe. [laughter] Never say never, Steve. Never say Western Steve. Western Steve. Yeah, I got to dress this guy up as Western Steve. And you guys could twin. Come on. That'd be awesome. Or Barbie and the Rockers Ken. You'd have to get the blonde wig, but you know, that would be funny. That'd be funny. Yeah, I have participated in the competition before, not this year, but years prior. I did some photography and uh won prizes and stuff like that. So, that's fun, too. Speaking of photography, did you do some photography work for Bill Greening? So, Bill is a fan of my work and he contacted me and asked me if I wanted to collaborate on some images with him. So, of course, I was like, absolutely. Like, so yeah. So, we partnered on some images that I photographed of dolls that he created and then he sold some of those prints at convention and autographed them and um also is selling them at some doll shows and other events that he will be appearing at. So, um there's more to come with that. It's very exciting. So, that must have felt like such an honor to have Bill reach out to you. Like, what were you feeling in that moment? It was

30:57cool. I was like, "Wow, this is so cool." like I admire his work so much and uh some of the dolls that he's created are some of my favorites. So for somebody that created those dolls that I loved to like my photography, it was it felt good. Definitely. For sure. Do you have a favorite Bill Greening doll? I have a lot of names. I know a few. I know you like the basics line. The basics line is stunning. The Barbie basics Jung line specifically are the ones that are my most favorite. And then his styled by design doll is another one of my favorites. Stunning. If Mattel were to walk into your room or email you and say, "We're going to repro only one doll, whether it's from your collection or any Barbie in general, we're going to do a repro." Which one would you recommend they do? I think they should repro Cara and Brad. I don't have a Brad. I have a Cara. I have a ballerina Cara. So, this is Ballerina Cara. She's redressed obviously because that's what we do here, [laughter] but she's stunning. Could you imagine them doing like a Cara and Brad get set?

32:02They never did a set, I don't think, ever. But to have that as a set, I think would be incredible. Oh my god, she's beautiful. She's stunning with that stuffy face. Beautiful. So Stephie is my favorite out of all the girls. Yeah, Stephie. She's my favorite. Do you have a doll that has a memorable story attached to it? So, this was from convention last year. We were in Kentucky and um I really wanted a golden dream Christy. She was like on my list forever and I'm like I want to find her at convention. And so like I think I was there I don't know a couple hours and I stumbled into this room and there she was sitting there and so I got her and then um I was so excited and called my partner. I was like, "You're never going to guess what I just found." And it turns out that he actually bought her for me for my birthday as a surprise like right before that and I didn't know. And so I went and bought her. So I ended up with two. Yeah. When something's meant to be, it's meant to be. So that's kind of a funny story. So here she is. This is the girl I got at convention and she's gorgeous. Now this wasn't a room sales purchase, was it? Yes. This is a room sale purchase. Really? Cuz I would assume room sales you kind of get a bit of a better deal. Yeah.

33:20Okay. Okay. Oh my goodness. She's beautiful. So, she stayed in the box. And did you see the back of the box? I think I think it's just a drawing of her. It's great. Like these illustrations are incredible. Like Yeah. I want like this on my like living room. Yeah. Wall. Yeah. Like these pictures are so good. They're so good. Yeah. I love all this illustration. Love it. So, she stayed in the box and I decided to take the one that he purchased for me out of the box. So, well, I I've seen you photograph her before. Yeah, this is the last time I photographed her. She was wearing this. So, yes, I've seen this outfit. She stayed in this. I love this tuxedo. It's so cool. Yeah, the tuxedo is gorgeous. The white like just looks so crisp on her skin tone. I love her hair even though like the highlights in it, the headpiece. Yeah. Beautiful. So pretty. And that fashion is from '8s. Yeah, that's okay. No, exactly. 83, 82, 84, somewhere in there.

34:18Absolutely stunning. Do you have some of your favorite dolls there that you can show us? So, there's an artist that is a repainter. His name is the Doll Holic and uh I commissioned him to do some repaints for me a little while back and um there's four dolls that he created for me that they're stunning and they're like my most favorite dolls in my collection. So the first one is a Ken and he was the de los Muertos Ken the first one and this is him. Hold on. This is the Das Mues doll. Yeah. So he removed the paint and repainted him as this handsome devil. First of all, I would have never thought that that's the face beneath the paint. That's why he looks like I've never seen this face before. Yeah. So, I really wanted a tan in his skin tone. And at the time, there really wasn't any. And um I was like, "What does this guy look like under all that face paint?" Wow. This is what he looks like.

35:16When you said it, I'm like, "Hold on. The Dia de la Muertes doll has makeup." Yeah. So, this is the Harley can face sculpt. I believe this is the same face mold as this guy. Really? Yeah. But the skin tone is a little See, he's much more tanned. Yeah. And he drew the beard on, I'm assuming. How did he take off the face paint without damaging the doll? They use acetone and acetone doesn't damage the face. Mm- It just removes all the factory paint and then they can go in and repaint. He's beautiful. Sorry, can we get a shot of his beautiful outfit? I was so obsessed with his face. So, the out Sorry, I went and like It's okay. Put him away. So, the [snorts] outfit is by my good friend Brooke. Miss Barbie Boulevardier, Miss Talented Brooke from Australia. Brooke from Australia. You made this and gave this as a table gift during our springs convention. I absolutely love this outfit. It's incredible. And he looks great in it. He looks fantastic. And I love these like linen pants and the pockets and the pleats and the shirt.

36:22It's like it's so good. And like the hand in the pocket. Like he's just Yeah. Yeah. He's styling a profile on this dude. Sure is. So, did the Dia de la Muertes doll, did this one have a hat? Yes. And that's what his hair was like underneath. Yeah. I never touched his hair. And actually, I think the artist just like glued it down or gelled it down because it was still pretty much like this when I sent the head to him. I think he just kind of cleaned it up and made it like just more slick. He's more than handsome, this guy. And I have a feeling that after this episode, the Dia Muertes doll is going to go up. [laughter] either gonna sell out on eBay or marketplace or where. Yeah. [laughter] So, that was the very first one. I bought two and I kept one as is. And then this guy I had repainted. So, another one is this gorgeous girly.

37:11Have to fix her hair so you can see her eyes, but yeah, I was going to say I can't really see her eyes. Oh, wow. And what doll is this? She actually looks like one of the Looks dolls. She was uh Lord of Vacation Barbie. So, it's basically just a Mackie face and um she's like tan and um he repainted her. So, he did he did a doll similar to this years ago and I absolutely like went crazy over it. I was like, "Can you recreate this for me? She's so beautiful." And so, uh he did like a similar version of her for me. I do not have like a steady hand to do this. If I had a steady hand, I would be doing this too because like I tried to do face painting and it's just I don't have the hands to do it. I barely have steady hands to take pictures. I know. I would have never guessed cuz your pictures are stunning. Yeah. Well, I use the timer. I set the timer and then I like stand back and like let it do its thing. Some stuff I do like handheld. Like if I'm doing an outdoor shot like that's handheld and sometimes I'm doing like natural light on my couch like that's handheld.

38:14But usually it's a timer. Beautiful. Oh god, she's stunning. So, that's another one. This is my favorite Stephie of all time. And here she is. Oh god. Stephie with the dark hair. Do you know who she was? Can you guess? I'm I'm trying. She was rrooed. I'm assuming. Yeah, she was r-rooted and repainted. Couldn't I? No. No. I can't. No. It's Hispanic Barbie from 1979. This doll is from 1979. Yeah. I bought her at a flea market. She was like a couple bucks. She was destroyed. Like her hair was a wreck. Like she had plugs missing in her head. Her makeup was all screwy. And I wanted her to be like restored and like saved. You saved her. Just modernize. I let him go. I was like, "Just do something that's like I want her to have straight black hair and I want her to look kind of like very dramatic, but you're the artist. Like do what you think is great." So that's what he did. I was like, "Oh my goodness. Oh my god." Uhhuh. Yeah. So, she's like my favorite Duffy and probably like one of my favorite dolls in my whole collection. What's wonderful is that these are all one of a kind. Yeah. Nobody else has our So, no wonder when you photograph them, I'm like, "What doll is that?" Because it's been custom made, right? Mhm. What have you learned about collecting and the doll community that you would pass on to others? I've learned a lot about the different

39:37face molds. I knew there was different faces, but I didn't know like the kind of history behind some of it. So, like that and like the history behind like different dolls and um different eras and and stuff like that. I think that's what I've learned the most and getting to know people from the community and like just like talking about different eras and different dolls. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I've learned a lot just being on the show and listening to people and even the way you gave us tips earlier about photographing. Yeah, even watching my friends take pictures and like seeing like what they've done like has inspired me and you know, I've learned things just by watching like other people. Yeah. For sure. For sure. I always like to ask our guests if there's something in their collection that's maybe one of their prized possessions. Maybe it's a grail. Maybe it's something rare and unique that no one's ever seen. Do you have anything like that that you can share with us? So, I have one more repaint and she's very special. I'm going to show you and then you can guess who it is. I'm sure you'll know right away who it is, but I don't know who this is. So, this is a repainted version of the Carl Loggerfeld Barbie. Oh, her face looks different. A little different. Yeah. I mean, I know it was repainted. This was the tooth fairy Barbie who has the same face mold as the Carlo Barbie. And he recreated

41:02her to look like the Carl Loggerfeld Barbie. So, she's very special because that doll is like one of my absolute I would love to have that doll and she's super expensive. That's a grill. So, I kind of figured like I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to own her, but maybe I can have one that kind of looks like her. And so, this girl was created for me to kind of resemble her. Wonderful. Can we see her whole outfit top to bottom? I just redressed her cuz the last time I photographed her was a while ago. She was naked on the shelf, so I was like, I need to put her in something quick because I got to show my camera. Yeah. Yeah. So, she's in this cute little like jeans and leather jacket outfit. I love that. Oh my god, her eyes look so blue. Yeah. Very blue. I love her eyes and her makeup. I love the smokey eye. Beautiful. And her eyebrows. Yes. Oh, wow. She's gorgeous. Do you have a favorite fashion or a few favorite fashions that you've dressed your dolls with recently that you can share? I have so many favorite fashions. I think like the ones Are you more modern? Are you like vintage '8s? Like what kind of And I know you shoot everything. I just wonder if you have like if there's one that you prefer to shoot or you really like to shoot. I really like mixing decades together. If you look at my work, you'll see a lot of that. And um it's like modern, it's ' 60s,

42:22it's '7s, like it's a little bit of everything. Same thing with like the dolls. Like I'll use a lot of like vintage dolls on like a modern body and like just to get like a pose or like you know an attitude or something. So that's what I enjoy the most is like mixing things up and trying to create something exciting and interesting. This is an Alfred from the '60s or maybe it's early '7s. It could be late '60s, early '7s. And um this girl is a modern girl. She's one of Bill Greening's the Barbie the look collection. She was um I can't remember her exact name, but I think it's like the tea time one. She had like a pink top and a floral skirt. So, I dressed her in this vintage like Francancy fashion, which I thought was incredible. I mean, look at like the the colors. This was like perfect party or perfect for I can't remember her her exact name, but yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. She's so cute. And I love this mix of like modern with like this vintage Yeah. So, she's a modern doll. This is a vintage outfit. Sometimes I'll do like it's the top that's vintage or and it's she's wearing like a modern pant or like something like that. I did a bunch of my convention shots that I shot was a mix of like I tried to do something like a little Barbie iconic. So, like during one event she was wearing like golden dream Barbie's pants but she

43:43had like a white like tied front top. So, I did like little like hints of like vintage Barbie like in a modern outfit. So, yeah. Yeah. that's on my Instagram. So, she's sitting on like a Vespa and she's wearing gold pants. Those are Golden Dream Barbie's pants. And then she's wearing a modern white shirt, which I think was from the Barbie style set. So, there's that one. And then there's another picture of her where she's like leaning up against the thing outside and she's wearing like a pink and yellow top and white pants. So, the pink and yellow top is vintage Francy and the white pants are like non Barbie, but they're a modern. I like that the mixing of the two. It almost looks modern. Well, that's the thing. like some of these fashions like the colors and the they just fit so great on certain bodies that uh it just creates a whole new like Yeah, I just love it. So, I do a lot of that and your work is fantastic. Thanks. What does your t-shirt say? So, my t-shirt is one that I made. It says welcome to the dollhouse with my Instagram name and this is a photo that I took a while back. It's a Barbie looks. It's Andra and she's giving this little like Madonna sort of like '8s vibe. I created this shirt just to kind of wear at convention so people would kind of see my Instagram and stuff like that. So So they're not for sale. [laughter] Do you for sale? But maybe one day. Welcome to merch. Maybe I'll have some merch coming. We'll see. Yeah, that'd be I

45:06have some I have some ideas in the works though. Good. Okay. Hush hush. We'll see. We'll see what happens. Follow Welcome to the dollhouse. Yeah, Steve, thank you so much for being on Barbie Talk today. It was wonderful to get to know you, to hear some of the stories behind your collection, your passion for doll photography, your experience at convention. Your creativity goes way beyond collecting, and it's more than just about dolls. It's about bringing them to life through imagination and storytelling. I can't wait to see what you create next. Awesome. See you on the Instagram. You will. Take care, Steve. Bye. Bye. It's amazing how one doll can bring together photography, [music] fashion, and imagination in ways that never stop inspiring us. [music] Make sure to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell if you love all things Barbie. And if you enjoyed this episode, click here to see one of my other episodes. Thanks for watching. [music]