Last June, when I was at the New York 75th Anniversary of Nancy Drew / 100th Anniversary of the Stratemeyer Syndicate convention, I was put in touch with someone who, I was told, could create any outfit for a doll that I wanted. Well, I have always been eyeing some dolls that I see at the store that I wanted to turn into Nancy and her friends, but since I knew I couldn't do that myself, I decided to put this person to the test!

Boy, did she surpass my every expectation! What I got were the perfect personifications of Nancy, Bess and George! As you can see from the pictures, Nancy has just walked off the cover of The Moonstone Castle Mystery, while George is the splitting image of The Clue of the Broken Locket, and Bess bears the look from The Quest of the Missing Map.

The amazing creator of these looks for my special dolls is none other than Nancy Hardy, a doll-clothes designer extraordinaire! I recently interviewed her about her work:

TL: Are you a fan of Nancy Drew (or were you as a child)?

  I've been a big Nancy fan since I was around 12 years old, and I'm still actively trying to complete my collections today. I collect all the various series, but the Files & Super Mysteries are my favorites to read.

   TL: How long have you been designing clothes for dolls?

  Since I was around 4 or 5 years old, so it's been over 20 years!

   TL: What got you started in designing clothes for dolls?

  I started when I was very young by draping pieces of fabric around my dolls, in my mind seeing them as fabulously stylish creations. When I was around 7 or 8, my Grandma started teaching me to sew, and I still have my first two designs, which are held together by 4" long stitches! I kept practicing, though, and I continued sewing for my dolls, both in my play years and as I became more of a collector. I started working for other collectors by chance when I saw a request on a supermarket message board for someone to sew costumes for vintage action figures. I guess my name went around, because business grew from there on!

   TL: Is this your first time "creating" Nancy and her friends, or have you done it before?

  Yes, this was my first time. It was something I'd considered doing for myself before, but I'd never got around to it. With this project, I finally had the incentive to try it!

TL: With these three dolls in particular, where did you start?  Did you envision their outfits, or did you look at various covers to determine what "look" would be best for the dolls?

  Once I knew which period I was being asked to recreate, it was pretty easy. I don't know if it's a "designer thing," but I can often look at a doll and get a basic idea of what I think will look right on her. Being well acquainted with the characters certainly helped too! I wanted the dolls to be instantly recognizable, so I played up their most dominant personality traits. I knew from the start that Nancy needed to wear yellow, as she's often portrayed in that color on the book covers. By using a bright, eye-catching shade, I felt that she'd also stand out as the leader and the main character in the set. George belonged in something "tomboyish," instead of a pretty dress. I don't think she'd have forgiven me for subjecting her to life in high heels and a crinoline!  Bess was the hardest, but I knew that she needed something very feminine. Once I decided on these basic concepts, I went through my books and got more detailed ideas.

   TL: Which doll did you start with?

  I started with George, because she was the one whose outfit I had envisioned the clearest.

  TL: Which of the three (Nancy, Bess, or George) did you find the easiest to "create"?

  I cut all my fabric free-hand (without a pattern), so Nancy's dress pattern was the easiest to design, as I'd done similar styles before. Also, she had the easiest hair to style, just being a simple flip.

  TL: How long, from start to finish, did it take you to complete all three?

  Well, these took a lot longer than normal, as I was unusually busy at the time! I think it was around three months between the time the dolls were mailed to me and when I sent them back. I guess if I'd worked without interruption on this project, I'd have finished them in around a week or two. I never sew without interruption though, as I have another full-time job, plus I help with the family business too.

  TL: Did you have any ideas you wanted to do for the dolls, but then scrapped along the way and changed your mind?

  Oh yeah! Bess was my most troublesome customer. First, she picked a full-skirted party dress with lots of frills to emphasize her femininity, but then she decided that it didn't quite fit with Nancy and George's more casual attire. That's when she changed to the lace-collared sweater and circle skirt. She also wanted very wavy hair to begin with, but it seemed she was having a bad hair day! Luckily, I noticed that she was sometimes illustrated with a ribbon in her hair, and I suggested that she go with that style instead. This turned out to be very suitable with her new attire!

  TL: Did they come out as you had envisioned them when you began?

  Yes, they did! And that's when I knew they were "just right".

  TL: If someone wanted to contact you to create some of their very own one-of-a-kind fan dolls, what would be the best way to contact you?

  They can reach me by e-mail at nancy@sleuthsemporium.com. I'd be happy to create dolls for collectors of all series! I can either use their own designs, create them myself, or make exact reproductions of cover illustrations.

   TL: What is your "vision" of Nancy Drew?  How would you describe her and how do you think she influences both children and adults today?  Are you surprised she's still around after so many years?

  Oh sure... start me off with the easy questions and then hit me with the deep stuff! Let me think...

 

I think Nancy is the epitome of what little girls imagine being at 18 - both smart and attractive, with good friends and little parental supervision! I'm afraid that she's lost a lot of her former influence on children today, but she's obviously gaining a lot of popularity among adults. She greatly changed my own life in a round-about way, as it was through Nancy that I discovered the Hardy Boys (my main series love!), and it was through the online Hardy communities that I've made a lot of my closest friends. The Digests were also the very first mysteries I read, and they developed in me a great love for mystery novels in general, which has grown into a collection of several thousand! So Nancy will always be very special to me. I'm not surprised in the least that she's still around - she's a classic & continues to change and adapt to the current times. I'm expecting her to be around forever!  

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