Be a Doll, Would You?

Whoever said dolls are for kids was clearly paraphrasing that annoying cereal rabbit and therefore absolutely no one to be trusted. That rabbit is ageist; dolls are not just for kids. (Actually, dolls shouldn’t really be for anyone considering at least 63% of them eventually try to kill their humans according to every scary movie I’ve ever kept my eyes open long enough for, and the ones who don’t either get eaten by the house pet or have their hair chopped off by a bored toddler.) But what about paper dolls?

Paper dolls are straight up for adults. COOL adults. Besides, I don’t think a single “kid” since the hyper-polite 1950s has been able to be trusted with something so delicate.

Except — we very mature and responsible adults are probably not nimble-fingered enough to go about snipping little bits of paper around those infuriating tabs, and don’t really have the patience nor the proper leg circulation to sit on a floor cross legged for over an hour to do so.

Which is why Flatforms are The Thing.

(Not the shoes.)

Flatforms are high fashion more-than-paper-dolls, handmade with the care of a couturier by L. Michelle Reneau, sketched and photographed by art director Kristin Eddington. A New York based fashion editor for the past decade, Reneau began in 2011 after seeing the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2012 runway show. She was inspired by the “magic of the otherworldly collection” and reminded of what drew her to the fashion industry in the first place: “an obsession with fantasy.”

She created a few for Man Repeller using favorite looks from the Spring 2015 runway (Delpozo, J.W. Anderson, DSquared and Saint Laurent) and we, because we’re adults (hello), took them on a wild jaunt around the city.

Shop framed originals here for the fashion lover who still looks to this industry for a little bit of whimsy. (Flatforms are hip and on the Instagram too.) And, because none of us particularly feel like doing anything other than reading comments today, tell us which ones are your favorite.

[Flatforms by L. Michelle Reneau]

Photos by Charlotte Fassler