Mdvanii

Mdvanii was originally conceived as a conceptual art and fashion doll for adults (and particularly art, fashion and doll collectors) by artist BillyBoy*. Since 1990 it has known to have been a collaboration with his life partner, artist Jean Pierre Lestrade (a.k.a Lala). The doll was originally made in a matte Caron make-up toned hard resin and 25 cm (9.8 in) tall. Mdvanii debuted on February 14, 1989 in London, England.

Mdvanii was conceived by the artist, collector, social figure, and designer BillyBoy* whose involvement with nostalgic and antique dolls started at a young age. He was a collector of antique French fashion dolls and Kamkins cloth dolls but also Barbie dolls and other vintage post-war fashion dolls since the early 1970s. He started to re-design dolls for his own amusement, re-painting and re-dressing Barbies but also other commercial dolls from the 1960s and 1970s as a teenager. He received press as early as 1978 in notably France and other European countries and the US for his work as an artist and in high fashion which frequently mentioned his passion for dolls. He also at this date had a large collection of fashion dolls, mostly Barbie dolls dressed by major fashion designers from all over the world made for him personally by the designers he befriended or knew. In 1983 he was contacted by Mattel, France after an article in French Elle magazine appeared By early 1984 he created for Mattel the “Nouveau Théatre de la Mode Barbie”, which was the first Barbie doll bearing a designer’s name on its box, also well as his follow-up Barbie doll for Mattel, USA, called "Feelin' Groovy Barbie" in 1986. His book titled "Barbie, Her Life and Times“ was published in the US by Crown Publishers, accompanied by a world tour of a selection of his vintage and unique haute couturier dressed Barbie dolls called "BillyBoy* Le Nouveau Théatre de la Mode".His book which came out in 1987 was translated into a number of languages for many different editions including Japanese, French, Finnish and German.

Mdvanii debuted on Valentine's Day in 1989 after two years of development. The doll was introduced as a fashion doll, but the embodiment of an ultra-sophisticated thinking woman of a post-Feminist genre who, in this case, was bisexual. She was the first anatomically correct fashion doll with an adult (non-parody) storyline including homosexual, lesbian and bisexual personality traits. She was presented with a wardrobe of high fashion clothes made in France with identical construction as human-scale clothes. Mdvanii, referred to as "she" by the artist for which he insisted was also attributed many different intellectual attributes and a precise personality. He claimed Mdvanii had a soul and was his avatar. She was launched as the first "fashion doll as art" concept.

...
Wikipedia