meeting Tom Tierney

Look what I found today! Paper doll books featuring the work of designers you know!

Even better, I got to meet Tom Tierney, the man who created them. This happened by chance at the Texas Country Reporter festival in Waxahatchie.

Mr. Tierney has illustrated hundreds of paper doll books for Dover Publications. They range through all kinds of historical costumes, to a series on our First Ladies, to these that focus on designers and decades of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since he has done so many of these, he has had a lot of lattitude in picking new subject matter. One book he showed me had a famous voodoo queen as the subject. It must have been fun researching that one!

I asked him what he was working on now, and he said that his latest book was on stewardesses. This one has kind of a storyline, because the costumes represent clothes the gals bought during layovers in exotic lands.

These books are lots of fun, but there is actual research involved and some nice notes included. For instance…

In the 50’s books, there are notes on the foundation garments worn with the outfits.

Here’s a page showing clothes for these two models…

There are lots of details – The fabric that the originals were made in, notes on any extra padding and accessories, historical significance, etc. In the YSL book, the two dolls were based on his favorite models, and there is also a doll of Yves himself.

I had a great time chatting with Tom, and told him I would tell you all about it.  You can find him and his gazillions of books at his website. And check it out – he was nice enough to personalize all my books for me!

No, I will not be cutting them up.