So as a consequence of moving and downsizing my parents in January, I inherited my mother’s New Mexico Christmas tree resplendent with southwestern ornaments. As a consequence of this I had to clean out some space in my garage (and downsize a few things myself) which led me to the project of cataloging all the outfits for my Cher (Doll) Christmas tree, particularly so that I wouldn’t buy an outfit twice in the future by accident (which I already did with Stepping Out).

So while I was making a handwritten list of outfits in the box, I decided to go ahead and make an Excel spreadsheet organizing them, and add outfits I didn’t have, discover which ones were legit. At the same time, I came across an outfit called Liberty Belle (what looked like a very lovely 1977 bicentennial Colonial American costume) from a series called the Boutique Collection. I had no idea really what that was even though I’ve seen it before in passing on eBay.

Soon, I fell into a two-week rabbit hole learning copious amounts of information about the Cher doll outfits. There was the aforementioned Boutique Collection and also the Designer Collections (in two box colors), a Montgomery Ward collection, blue boxes, purple boxes, green boxes, black boxes, orange boxes, pink boxes. And  WTF!?

I had questions, too. But nobody on Facebook, where Cher doll fans seemed to live, seemed to still be on Facebook anymore so my questions hit dead ends there. Luckily, the Cher doll outfit bible, Sandra Bryan’s book Cher Doll & Her Celebrity Friends, did help fill in some of the gaps.

The Dolls

Dolls on Cher Scholar: I’ve added a few new pictures and some links to fan experiences with Cher dolls, including a very funny video of every appearance the Cher doll made on Will and Grace (including the real Cher’s first appearance on the show and I think that’s makeup artist Kevin Aucoin sitting in Cher’s book booth).

The Outfits

The Doll’s Closet: This section has exploded! What sorry little cursory efforts I had made before!

There are new separate pages for the blue, green, purple, black and white box collections, images from the front and back of all those outfit boxes, ads for the series, better images of the iconic foldout brochure and I’ve added information about the accessory toys related to the outfits.

I also discovered some egregious information about how the outfits and toys were recycled after Cher lost cultural stock in the late 1970s (shocking!) and there’s an expanded section with links and better pictures about those outfits that have Big-Cher counterparts from her television shows.

I also found a video of a fan playing with outfits and Cher’s dressing room playset.

Other Cher Toys

Toys on Cher Scholar: It was time to clean up this page, to get better images for toys and see if new toys have shown up online. I’ve collected some early prototype images from Mego sales catalogs.

I also found this video of a real hairdresser playing with Cher Makeup Center.

New Paper Dolls!

While I was doing all that, I found out there’s a new Cher paper doll book coming out, Style Icons: Cher: A dress-up paper doll book by Elizabeth Weitzman and illustrations by UK artist Helen Green.

It’s about time we get a paper doll book for Cher. Growing up, my mother loved to tell me she didn’t have many real dolls as a kid and she loved styling her paper dolls. She was very disappointed when I didn’t like paper dolls as well (at all) and preferred my 3-dimensional Barbies. (Trying to make-believe paper-doll sex was very unsatisfying.)

The book’s summary calls Cher’s outfits “dazzling, fearless fashion…unapologetic glamour and trailblazing style” which includes “Mackie showstoppers of the 1970s….wild, punk inspired MTV moments…red-carpet reinventions…looks that pushed boundaries and redefined state and red carpet fashion.”

All that with only “ten of her most unforgettable looks,” 48 pages.

Release date: March 31, 1926