Fresh Doll Clothing Set - A Review!

 Hello Dear Readers,
Are people familiar with the Fresh Dolls? I've personally have heard of them and was a bit interested in them, but only recently got more interested in them when they announced plans to make fully articulated guy dolls. I guess I'm all full up when it comes to ladies, but say you're making a guy and I'm all there.

They're still working on them and you can see some work in progress pictures on their Instagram: Fresh Doll Instagram

And you can pre-order them at their official website here:  

Fresh Dolls

 *Heads up, a video auto-plays on their website*

I have two of the guys on pre-order for August... maybe September. They were supposed to come sometime in the summer, but got bumped back because they added wrist articulation, which I am fine with waiting for. It was one of the things that I was bummed about when the dolls were first announced so the one month delay is totally worth it to me.

Anyway, I'm kind of getting off topic. Fresh dolls have two different doll lines currently for sale, single dolls and the deluxe sets which is a doll in a formal outfit and a separate causal outfit. They also have a line of outfits you can buy as well. (The dolls are currently on sale on their website for the next few days just a FYI). While I'm waiting for my guy dolls I wanted to check out some of their other products. So I bought one of their clothing sets. I think right now the clothing sets are only for sale on their website. All but one outfit was sold out at Walmart.com when I checked and I can't even find their listings on Target.com. I don't think they're on Amazon yet.

From the Fresh website I bought "Shorts Outfit" for 6.49, I didn't have to pay tax and since I pre-ordered those two dolls I got free shipping. They even shipped it shortly after I bought it and didn't make me wait until the summer to ship it with the guys. It arrived in a plastic bubble mailer super fast. They mailed it on Wednesday, I got it on Friday, from California to North Carolina!

From what I've seen there's five different clothing packs and they are all packaged in the same way. They are attached to a cardboard backer and placed in a clear plastic bag. There's a cut out on top for it to be displayed on a peg at the store. The entire package is bigger the the current Barbie single outfits, if anything I'd say it was about the size of the 90's era bubble packages for single outfits (but not Fashion Avenue, those were bigger). The front has a very nice display where you can see the outfit. It also has a drawn logo for the Fresh dolls with illustrations of three of the characters, a nice stylized clothing rack image behind the outfit, and the illustration of some accessories on the edge of the backer. It's for ages 3 and up due to it being a choking hazard.

On the back the Fresh logo is repeated in the upper left corner. There's also a small section of text describing the Fresh dolls and their mission. Below that there's a picture of the owner and founder of the company, Dr Lisa, and below that is an image of the first wave of Fresh dolls, including the single dolls and the deluxe set dolls. It also tells me to "Collect them all!". At the very bottom is all the trademark information, some logos, and the bar code.

Opening the set is very easy, on the back at the bottom is a small flap that you can undo and the entire cardboard backer slides out. It takes a little wiggling, but it's pretty easy.











I was surprised to see that the cardboard backer wasn't held together on one side and it opens up like a book. The only thing keeping it closed was the plastic bag. A company like Mattel would have either taped or glued the two sides together. I much prefer it being not attached together since it's a lot easier to de-box since I'm not fighting to open it. Also, if I wanted to keep the backer, it's a lot prettier than if I had to tear it open.

However, I did have to fight with de-boxing it since they used massive plastic tabs to attach the items to the backer. Something like this is fine for the shoes and purse since it goes around them, but leaves giant holes in the clothing no matter how careful you are when cutting since the act of putting the plastic tabs in itself causes giant holes in the clothing. I hate these tabs, I even hate the small ones Mattel and Disney uses. They leave smaller holes, but they still leave holes. I did contact Fresh Doll on Facebook asking them to look into different ways to attach their clothing sets and they did reply that they'd look into it. Hopefully they do, and hopefully they don't think I don't know how to remove doll clothes without damaging it. As someone who has de-boxed a lot of dolls I can assure you it's not my carelessness snipping causes those holes.

Anyway, with some scissors and careful cutting all the clothing pieces are freed from their backer. We get a top, a bottom, a purse, and a pair of shoes. All of their clothing sets have the same basic components, there is a swimsuit that comes with a hat instead of shoes but the rest of them follow the same pattern.

Up first we'll talk about the shirt, the piece I wanted the most from the set. The shirt is really lovely. It's made from a pea green colored fabric, I'm not sure what type of fabric. It's a thin woven fabric, the front of the fabric has a slightly fuzzy texture but the inside doesn't, it almost feels like a very thin velveteen, but I'm not totally sure if it is. It's a sleeveless top with black elastic spaghetti straps. Along the top and at the underbust there's a row of white trim that's sewn down with green topstitching. The bodice features four pin tucks which is a nice detail. The top is made from two pieces sewn together and the bottom part is slightly flared which is very pretty. It fully opens and closes in the back some thin hook and loop tape. There is a fair amount of sewing errors on the top. It's mostly excess treads that weren't trimmed off. Also the very top isn't hemmed, they use the white trim so they don't have to hem it, which is fine, most doll companies simplify their patterns like that. However they left these points in the fabric where the guides for sewing the straps on. It's a minor cosmetic thing, but it looks slightly sloppy to me. I do think I will be able to clean it up, it just needs some minor trimming for both the thread and the top. They were kind enough to put the plastic tabs on the top under the white trim and only attach the bottom part at the back. It does minimize the visibility of the holes in the top.

The set also includes a pair of shorts. Made from a very thin denim these pants have a very pretty medium wash color with yellow contrast stitching. It has topstitched fly and pocket detailing in the front. For an added bit of detail it has a rolled hems. It also closes in the back with some hook and loop tape. There's a small sewing error at the back of the shorts where the hook and loop tape was sewn down. It looks secure, just slightly sloppy.

The shoes that come with this outfit are a pair of black strappy sandals. They are made from a very flexible rubber and are designed for a high heeled foot (I don't think Fresh dolls have flat footed dolls yet, which is fine since most of my dolls have high heeled feet). They have two molded in buckles on both sides of each shoe. There's no painted details on the shoes, but I don't really think they need them. There is a slit on the back of the shoe to help get the shoe on and off the doll.

The final item in the set is a purse. Made from the same flexible rubber as the shoes this purse is a very traditional style. It has molded on straps, one side has the Fresh logo molded in and a bow detail. It actually has an opening and you could put something in the purse. I don't have any small accessories from the set that can go in there, but I have plenty of small accessories around here that I could put in it. I pushed my finger inside to show how wide it could go.

Now that we've talked about the set, let's try it on somebody! I don't have any Fresh dolls, so I had to use the next best thing, Mattel. Yellow Top Made to Move Barbie was kind enough to be our model. Everything went on her very easily. I was a little concerned about the shoes since the MTM foot is a little bigger than classic Barbie foot, but she filled them out wonderfully. The top looks amazing on her. It is slightly big on her, but you can't really tell. And I think that means a doll with a larger bust will be able to wear it too. That green is such a lovely color and so uncommon in doll clothes. I think it's super cute and modest, but fun! I'm a little less impressed with the shorts. They're very big on her. When the waist of the shorts sit naturally on her, they're pretty low, which is fine it's still an acceptable length, but the crotch ends up being very low. When you pull the shorts to where the crotch sits properly, the shorts themselves are around her natural waist and they're very loose. I can't really say I love these shorts, but I'm not using them on the doll they're made for. I think with some darts in the back I could get these shorts fitting on this body a lot better. I'm not sure I will since I know how to make shorts and while I tend to dress my dolls more modestly, I love a good short short and like showing off a lot of leg so it would be easier for me to make something from scratch. However if someone didn't sew, I think it would be easy to hand sew some darts in the back to make these fit Barbie better. I will say, when I got the shorts one of the legs was unrolled in the package, I fixed it since the sides were sewn and it had just unrolled. However, this left the legs uneven. They don't look uneven at the sides, but you can tell at the inseam one leg is lower than the other. You can pull one side up so it's not as noticeable, but it is what it is. The purse is very cute and I like it, but it's kind of just there. I think a nice summer bag would be really cute with this outfit. I like the purse and might try it with a different outfit so I think it has some value for a different outfit. The shoes are cute, but again I think I'll put something else with this outfit. I think it's fine as a complete set, but as someone with so, so many shoes and accessories I can mix and match with stuff I already have. 

Overall, I like this outfit. It does have some things it needs to improve on, there's some sewing errors they could work on and I would love it if they stopped using large plastic tabs but I think it's a really cute outfit. It's cute, modest, trendy, and works great together, or with other outfit pieces I already have. I really like that top and wish I had it in other colors. It's a perfect outfit for summer and with they way they constructed it will fit a variety of doll. Also, it just feels more realistic that what Barbie's been coming out with lately. I like a well thought out outfit like everyone else, but man do I like an outfit that looks like something a regular person would actually wear. 

I'm really looking forward to what else Fresh Dolls will be coming out with. They seem to be a great company that's focused on the right things, filling a spot in the market that's clearly lacking while not tearing down other companies products. The CEO, Dr Lisa, seems to be listening to what's important to collectors and trying to grow the Fresh Brand into something children and Collectors will want. Barbie will always be my number one girl, but I am very excited as to what Fresh Dolls will bring to the conversation and do recommend checking them out. They're also on Facebook and seem to be pretty active in announcing what's coming out.

I just wanted to add, I also tried the shoes on a Silkstone, the doll didn't fill out the toes as well as she could but the shoes fit nicely and stretched enough to fit. I'd worry about them stretching out the shoes if left on for too long, but Silkstones and Model Muse dolls can wear these shoes.