Featured Artist - Lori Lyon

Along with our events and announcements, we are going to be spotlighting our Featured Artists. We are beginning with our Couture Doll Shop’s store fronts on Main Street, but will do the same for store fronts on the new streets as they become available. Right now we are taking applications for what we are calling Phase 2 because we simply haven’t named that street yet. More information on that soon; but for now we will begin with our first Featured Artist!

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Lori Lyon

Madeleine Rose Couture
Main Street

Lori isn’t really new to a spotlight. Her backgrounds in both dolls and fashion have prepared her well. She began designing and sewing for her Barbie dolls at age 7, and well improved on her art with an AA in Fashion Design from the Institute of Design and Merchanding in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in Hautedoll magazine and the online magazine, High Maintenance.

As early as 2004 it was obvious that Lori Lyon was definitely someone going places in the doll world – just check out some of her earlier works!!

Her designs have also been seen in these popular magazines - Dolls, FDQ and High Style. And many of us were either introduced or reintroduced to her when she decided to join in the competition at our sister site,

Couture Doll Design Challenge. Lori did quite well there winning several challenges - she was definitely a contender! Eventually this led her to her new home with us at Couture Doll Shops! Here are a few of her current offerings. As you can see they are still beautiful and ever-improving, just what they have to be in order to be successful in any type of fashion-oriented industry!

So what else could an article about Lori Lyon possibly serve up you might say!?! Well, what we hope to do is give you a little peek inside the real person behind the store front we call Madeleine Rose Couture. Behind every store front on CDS there is not only a shop, there is also a person who developed that shop – and that’s what our spotlights will speak to – so let’s go!

A self described sidetracked home executive, Lori Lyon is an artist who came to doll couture through an interesting route. Her marriage and subsequent birth of her daughter, Maddie Rose, resulted in her decision to be a stay at home Mom. For relaxation she turned back to her early days of Barbie collecting, and soon she discovered she wanted more – more even than her previous vintage delights; she now mulled over the idea of adding some of the new Silkstones to her collection. With her passion and very little extra cash, she didn’t think she’d be able to add much until her husband turned her on to our “industry” from his activities on eBay. He showed her how other fashionistas were adding to their dolly $$ or whatever through this online auction venue. Needless to say, she was immediately hooked. After all, if others could do it, why couldn’t she?

Lori offered her patterned outfits for Barbie on eBay, but from networking there, she began to see a whole new breed of artists joining the world of clothing Barbie-sized dolls! And, although pioneers like Matisse led the way in influencing Lori, she felt the market for the smaller fashion dolls becoming more and more saturated. Perhaps, she thought, it was time to look at fashions created for other dolls, but which one would it be?

The only big doll she had was Gene, and this doll seemed to have enough of her own wardrobe. So, Lori began searching out items made specifically for Robert Tonner’s Tyler because she felt this would be the next “IT” doll to design for! In researching Tyler, Lori also found artists who made incredible fashions for big dolls; specifically the designs of artists like Superdoll, Red Silk Thread, and Janis Kiker. Lori concluded that making fashions for Tyler would be a better size for her to design on, and she instinctively knew she wanted to be on these artist’s level, and was not afraid of the hard work necessary to get there.

Today Lori has achieved her aspirations, and designs for a variety of dolls besides Tyler. Drawing her inspiration from runways, current designers (Dior, LaCroix, McQueen, and others), Japanese culture, anime and Manga, vintage movies, fashion, and fabric – actually a combo of fabrics and textures – Lori continues to present her incredible visions on her website named for her daughter. Your journey will take you into a shop of incredible beauty where your can expect to find stunning One of a Kinds and Limited Editions as well as her MRC hosiery and Rose Room exclusives.

What you won’t find are any commissions open or new collections…..right now…she’s been rather busy developing new designs! But a fabulous treat Lori has had time to work on has been her blog. This has been such an interesting place to travel. Lori's latest offering is a "how to" on the beautiful gown she produced for the recent CDS fashion show! When you have a moment be sure and check out both Lori's storefront and her blog titled The Roses Couture.

And, for those aspiring to create your own doll fashion art, Lori had these comments: "Do what you love. Don't expect to become a success overnight, it takes a long time and a lot of work to make it. Be flexible, be able to take constructive criticism, find your niche and go for it!" Well, Lori definitely always goes for it -- and so can you! Be inspired today to start your own sewing project; it really is FUN!!