Valentine Gibson Girl

Valentine Gibson Girl

Ladie Faire Doll Designs

42nd OOAK Design:

Valentine Gibson Girl

Just spare one thought,

One word for me,

And say my Valentine you'll be.

Valentine Gibson Girl

I have done a Valentine doll every year since I started making OOAK dolls. This year I've done two for good measure! This Valentine design represents the "Gibson Girl" style popularized by the artist Charles Dana Gibson around the turn of the 20^th century. With her red and white "shirt-waist"-style ensemble, ornately-decorated hat and be-ribboned bag, she is ready for a Valentine’s Day promenade with her beau.

Valentine Gibson Girl

The accessory par excellence in this period was a hat–whether a small and jaunty bonnet, sporty "boater," or a large-brimmed "picture" hat, hats were festooned with ribbons, feathers, flowers, clouds of netting and perched high atop ornately puffed, coiled, and curled hair. This wide-brimmed straw hat is matched perfectly to the outfit. Swathed in white netting which extends as a veil in the front, it is trimmed with red ribbon roses front and back, a wide red satin ribbon encircles the crown and falls down the back. Finally, the hat is held on by a pearl-tipped hat-pin.

Valentine Gibson Girl

A starched white shirt with puffed sleeves, in layers of gauzy material in layers, combined with a sleek skirt was a typical day-time outfit for a turn-of-the-century lady. The "shirt" here consists of a white satin, strapless, sweet-heart bodice under a long-sleeved shirt of transparent white dotted-Swiss. The high neckline and gathered wrists are trimmed with lace and pearls; scalloped crocheted lace accentuate the v-shaped line of the bodice from shoulders to tiny waist, and heart-shaped pearl buttons march down the front. The shiny red satin skirt falls smoothly to the floor with a bit more fullness at the back and slight train, achieved by netting petticoat and bustle layers underneath. The skirt’s waist is nipped in with a "belt" of red and white striped braid and a lacy apron of dotted-swiss blossoms with red ribbon roses. The red satin is perfectly set off with a wide band of crocheted lace and a fabulous floral lace medallion on the back of the skirt.

Valentine Gibson Girl

This fabulous doll with her chiseled bone-structure and full figure is a "Charice" doll–these dolls work beautifully for period designs. Her lush, full red lips are as the manufacturer made them, but her eyes and eye-makeup have been re-done to be more period appropriate and to better match the colors of the outfit. Her large eyes are now a deep green with gold highlights. The doll’s thick black hair has been intricately re-designed into a period-appropriate up-do–the front is pulled back and puffed while the rest is pulled up into piles of curls. Accessories include "gold" earrings and bracelet, a bag matching her outfit, and red shoes.

Valentine Gibson Girl

Click here to go to my other Victorian and Edwardian designs!

Click here to go to Lilly Library at Indiana University's history and samples from their collection of Victorian Valentines.

Valentine’s Day was a popular holiday throughout the Victorian period and into the turn of the 20^th century. People sent "penny postcards" to friends and loved ones during the period represented by this design (about 1890-1917), and would collect them and display them in albums kept in the parlor—Valentine’s Day cards would have featured prominently in such collections and many of these cards still exist and are collected today. As well as the ornately designed, mass-produced lithographs, the turn of the century brought actual photographs into the card industry. Examples of both are shown here.