Marie Migliaro

of

by Lisa A. Lawrence

A Brooklyn, New York native, Marie Migliaro was the second daughter of three girls.   She was the baby of the family for ten years until her younger sister was born.  While Marie loved dolls, her older sister didn't.  Because her mother loved dolls also, she and Marie bonded over them. 

When Marie was 14, her family moved from New York to Bergen County, New Jersey. "Living in New Jersey was very different from New York," Marie remembers. "In New York, you can take a bus or train anywhere.  That's not so easy in New Jersey.  However, the school system in New Jersey had much more to offer in the arts than New York schools did. I found myself loving all my choices!  I not only took academic classes to please my father, but I was an art major.  I always loved to draw, sketch, paint, etc., and what I loved to draw the most were people's faces.  I also always had a love of fashion design." 

Marie continues, "I think that I have always known how to paint/draw, etc. I have been doing it for as long as I can remember.  I have taken classes along the way, of course.  My first recollection of drawing was with a TV show called 'Winky Dink' (boy, I am aging myself here).  It was a show where you put a plastic screen over your TV screen and used special crayons to draw over what the TV person was drawing.  I didn't get one until the day I drew on the TV screen without the plastic!  I also liked to draw with John Nagy.  My older sister was also quite good at art, but she didn't like to do people -- just scenery.  I loved to do people!" 

"As far as sewing goes, it was my mother who taught me how to sew.  At first she sewed all my doll clothes for me.  I was the envy of all my friends.  I have dolly suitcases bulging with her fabulous dresses!  Sometimes she'd let me design the dress and, of course, I watched her sew.  Then she would show me how to do it myself.  As I got older, I took the mandatory sewing classes in school."

After graduating from high school,  Marie went on to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York to study art and fashion design.  She had gotten into the Parsons School of Design as well, and truly wanted to go there, but she went to Pratt , a four-year college, to please her father. At Pratt, she received more sewing lessons.  "Our teacher was Lady Bird Johnson's personal designer," Marie recalls. "He was quite demanding, so I learned to anticipate criticism.  I think I am my own best critic.  I won't send something out that I don't feel is well done.”  Since college, she has continued to take courses in figure drawing, water-color painting, etc.

"When I left Pratt," Marie explains, "I got a job at McCall's magazine, working in the pattern department.  It wasn't the job I really wanted.  To make a long story short, I left and got a job in the Art Department at Business Week magazine for McGraw-Hill.  I worked there until I had my first daughter.  I stopped working to raise my four children and went to work after my divorce when my children were in school.  I now work as a legal secretary during the day and as a "mad" doll artist at night - lol!"

"After I was married," she continues, "My husband and I lived in Michigan for approximately 6 months where he worked on a power plant.  I was very lonely there.  I often did not have a car to get around in and without one, you were stuck.  I learned a lot of new country-type crafts and kept myself busy."

Marie can't remember when she got her first doll.  "There have been many, many dolls in my lifetime," Marie states. "However, as an adult collector, I remember the first ad I saw in a magazine for Gene®!  I was mesmerized!  Up to that point, I had only what was left of my childhood dolls, a few Oriental dolls I had collected as souvenirs on vacations, and a Cabbage Patch kid from Babyland General in Georgia." 

"Once I saw Gene, all my love of fashion dolls came flooding back to me.  I knew I had to have her!  It took me a while to save enough for that first Gene, but once I did, I couldn't stop collecting.  She was a ‘Pin-Up’ Gene and I'll never forget the feeling I got when I first opened the box!  I felt like I was 5 years old again, holding my first doll!  That doll remains untouched today, sitting on my dresser in my bedroom. But now, she's dressed in ‘The Kiss.’  She's a reminder of a doll that changed my life, literally."

After Marie got her first Gene, she started seeing that people were designing clothes for her and actually repainting Gene's face.  "At first, I was terrified at the thought of repainting," Marie remembers. "But then I got another Gene and decided to give it a try.  After all, I had been painting faces all my life.  The designing part was easy.  I got a magazine with a basic pattern in it for her and tried my hand at it. I had seen some beautiful repaints on eBay® and decided that I could probably do that!  I started simply at first, basically going over the lines.  Then I got bolder.  I started actually removing (yikes!) the old paint and repainting her with new paint!  I loved the idea that Gene could actually have different looks and that not each doll looked the same."

When Marie had surgery on her foot, she was on short-term disability for almost 2 months.  "I was bored and needed an outlet," Marie says, "so I got another Gene, repainted her, and redressed her.  As money was tight at that time, I decided to put her on eBay and 'see what happened.' Well, she sold.  I was so excited that someone liked my designs.  So I did another and then another.  All of them sold.  And, with each sale, I was able to buy another doll and redo her.  I was having a ball, doing what I had always loved my entire life - painting faces and designing clothes!"

Marie attended her first Gene Convention in Cherry Hill, N.J. "I went all by myself, which was a bold move for me." Marie states, "But I made many, many new friends. I had a sales table and sold almost everything I had brought. It was so exciting to me. I was having a ball. All these doll collectors in one place! I had never really met a lot of people who appreciated dolls before and it was wonderful to be able to be in a room full of people who all felt like me."

Marie will repaint "any doll she can get her hands on."  She has repainted Gene, Madra®, Violet®, Eve®, Alex®, Tyler®, Esmé®, and Sydney®.   Almost all of her early work was totally redressed repaints.  Today, she still does dressed repaints, but for the most part, she sells the dolls nude and the outfits separately.

Marie has done quite a few commissions for both her repaints and her gowns.  She has recreated brides and their gowns with dolls.  Occasionally, she's done celebrity repaints when requested.  Also, if requested, she will recreate her past outfits as long as she hasn't sold the original as an OOAK.

Currently unable to make a living from her doll creations, Marie continues to work as a legal secretary. She does, however, have plans to work solely in the doll business.  "I have opened my own little doll store," Marie notes. "My son-in-law owns a pharmacy/gift shop and I sell not only from his store, but from my website as well, www.dreamgirloriginals.com.  I also do doll shows.  The doll business in his store is mine, but the store is his.  At some point, perhaps when my son graduates from college, I hope to be able to devote myself full-time to my dolls and doll business."

Asked where she finds her inspirations, Marie replies, "I get my ideas from everywhere.  While at Pratt, we had to carry a sketchbook with us at all times.  We were to draw people we saw in everyday life.  I may not carry that sketchbook with me now, but I am quite observant.  I may see something that inspires me - sometimes, it's just a color, or a certain look.  For some of my designs, I get a lot from the fabric itself.  When I go shopping for fabric, sometimes the fabric will tell you what it wants to be.  I love to design gowns that cling to the doll's body and show it off to perfection.  That requires just the right fabric - scale and design.  I also get some of my inspiration from old movies - especially the Hollywood glamour girls!"

Some of Marie's work requires research. "If I am doing a period piece, which I don't do often, but have done sometimes for conventions or commissions, I will search for as many different photos as I can find.  For example, for my Brad Pitt repaint, I printed out several photos of him in different poses and looks and tried to get the overall 'feel' of him.  When I did a commission for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I found as many photos of her in character as I could find. I wanted her outfit and her look to be perfect.”

While Marie has also been inspired by fabrics she finds, she's also been known to search for a particular fabric that she has in mind. Sometimes she has to make design changes when she's unable to find fabric in the correct scale.

"All of my outfits are removable," Marie points out. "The length of time needed to create them depends on the complexity of the design.  Sometimes it all flows very smoothly and it takes me less time than I thought.  Sometimes I have to re-work a design until it works.  Since I create all my own patterns (I use the drape method), sometimes it doesn't work as I had originally planned.  Sometimes I get "happy surprises" and sometimes I don't.”

When doing repaints, Marie finds that it takes her about an evening to get all the original face paint removed. Then she spends another evening or a few hours to do the face.  "The eyes are the hardest part," Marie says. "As the saying goes, 'eyes are the windows to the soul.'  So, if the eyes aren't right, you might as well not go on.  Once I have the eyes the way I want them, I go on to the lips.  Once the eyes and lips are done, I go to the finishing work, blusher, nails, toes, and breasts, if so desired.  Then I allow the paint to dry for at least 48 hours and use sealer to protect the paint."

When Marie received her "Love at First Sight" Gene, it immediately reminded her of her mother.  "My mother used to wear her hair in a similar fashion and the dress was close to one I remember her wearing when I was a child," Marie recalls, "so I repainted the doll to resemble my mother!"

Marie has also been inspired by movies and actresses of the past.  She recreated a scene from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," where Marilyn Monroe is wearing a little black dress and leopard shawl as she first enters the ship.  Marie has also done Audrey Hepburn in "Sabrina" and Dorothy from the "Wizard of Oz," complete with the ruby slippers!

Marie also repaints male dolls.  "I have been repainting Trent for quite a while," Marie explains, "under the name 'Dreamboats.'  I have had my male repaints in Jim Farone's book.  I have also done Matt since he came out.  I actually love to do the male dolls!  I personally love Trent's sculpt and he is amazing with a repaint.  There is so much you can do with Trent." (Marie's Trent repaints were featured in the August 2003 issue of High Maintenance.)

Marie's favorite thing is to do repaints.  When she's in her studio painting all day, she's unaware of the many hours passing by.  On the other hand, she would love to just design her outfits and leave the sewing to someone else!  "The only problem I would have,” Marie acknowledges, “is that I'm quite particular. If the gown didn't fit just right, I wouldn't be happy."

Marie notes the distinctions between the creative processes she experiences, depending on whether she's doing a repaint or making an outfit.  "Although I have had many drawing courses for fashion design, and I can draw and sketch, the designs come from my head!"  Marie states, "I create them in my head - complete with accessories.  Then I go about making them come alive.  That's not true of my repaints.  Unless a customer specifically asks for a certain look, I let the repaint 'come alive' as I work."

Marie has outsourced some parts of her designs. "I have used Marcia's (Facets) jewelry quite a bit," she notes. "For shoes (when I offer them with a gown), I use Kingstate, which I sometimes embellish myself.  On occasion, I even do my own jewelry."

Marie believes that she must wait for her son to finish college before she'll be able to work full time in the doll business. However, her daughter recently got married, allowing Marie to turn the extra bedroom into her studio!

"Since I also have a full-time job,” Marie says, “my dolly business is not ‘all-consuming,’ even though I wouldn't mind if it were. To date, I have only attended Gene conventions. This year I am also going to the Tonner convention.  I do take sales tables at the conventions and have done doll shows as well. [In ten years, I hope to be] a successful doll retailer with a happy customer base for my dolls, repaints, and glamorous Hollywood-style gowns." 

Marie's creativity in the doll world exceeds repaints and outfits.  She also writes "The Maxwells," and has graciously allowed High Maintenance to share this saga with its readers.