These dolls come as a (stylish) force that promises to offer even more in the immediate future - after all, their wardrobe is permanently updated, according to the seasonal fashion trends, there are dolls (that look nothing like dolls, more like runway supermodels) that have exclusive designer wardrobes, meaning that they actually present and, obviously, promote, the latest fashion creations and innovations of the world's best designers.



This doll fashion world doesn't end here. Are we dealing with an actual doll culture? For sure we are. There are forums, chats and contests, there are text contents, all about these dress-up games - an entire online community that seems to be extending. While some sites simply presents dolls with cute (and some might say, model-like, skinny) figures, with big, surreal and shiny eyes (that even blink lately, grace to animation features) and with highly desirable, hot, even burning, clothing items (that seem like they were just devolved from the latest haute couture fashion shows), other websites extend the fashion palette to detailed make-up options and personality-construction features, with complex stories on and about these supermodel dolls.

After all, we already have - and possibly even play - with virtual decorating games, with their out-of-this-world furniture pieces in vibrant colors that we love to place in our perfect little virtual rooms. Now, we dress-up girls in animal print miniskirts and red high heels, we apply purple eye-shadow and pink lipstick, we select the most glittery chandelier earrings and pretend that it is all real - it could be real, except our parents or our shyness never let us leave the house with animal print miniskirts.

In some way, these dolls are like those popular and trendy cheerleader-type girls that we (the less popular, less trendy or less exuberant ones) look up to in high-school: they always seem to have the hottest clothes to go with their hottest attitude. Now, these dress-up games give us the chance to make-belief, to simulate feeling like we are the covergirl on, of course, the hottest fashion magazine.

Is this doll power harmful? If colors, designs, flower prints, fluffy coats and pink bows are harmful, if fashion itself is harmful, then yes. And until now, fashion never harmed anyone - the most extreme thing fashion could imply or lead to is a shady superficiality and a tendency to looking no further and no deeper than the optical appearance. But this might be considered a plus in the context of the pragmatic world, where brands, labels, looks and trends are raised up to the statuses of genuine values.

But above all, dress-up games construct a surreal fashion fantasy, a virtual creative world, a world that is basically inspired from the real world, yet it is more fulfilling, more tempting and more affordable - and who can resist it?