Girl, Adorable
By Karyn M. Peterson -- Playthings, 12/1/2007
Inside every girl is a pearl! That’s the mantra of Adorable Girls, a new soft doll collection from Phoenix-based Adorable Originals, based on the T-shirt collections it has sold for nearly two decades.
“In the process of creating the T-shirts, the characters became lifelike to me,” designer Melanie Corpstein tells Playthings. “It was just a natural progression to make them huggable.” Corpstein first got into toys a few years ago with eight basic dolls based on her most popular shirt designs, including princess, ballerina, and big and little sisters.
The success of those led to the recent debut of six named characters that are “diverse, fashionable and [carry] a positive message,” she says. “My mission is to teach young girls the value of inner beauty and self-worth which will hopefully last them a lifetime.”
The dolls have been a hit with the company’s gift and specialty retailers, and new catalog and toy store accounts have signed on, encouraged by free freight on first time orders. The dolls have also been named to several top toy lists this year.
“We are so pleased with the feedback that we are receiving,” Corpstein says. “[Buyers] have told us that it is about time that someone created a doll with age-appropriate clothing and wholesome features.” Additional doll characters, accessories, clothing and a book series will debut in 2008.
