Sitting in the studio, undressing Barbies, boxing NiniMomos, and sending out invoices, I'm starting to paint a picture of why and how NiniMomos are made the way they are, and cost exactly what they cost.  I sat down with Nik and Marie to get the lowdown on what goes into a creation, and how far they’ve come as designers, and as a company over the last fifteen years.

AP: Explain how you have grown as designers over the years.

NM: “I look back on the early 2000s for example, and I remember using big beads, and having simple designs which were generally inspired from pageants.  Gowns were simply the canvas for our beaded designs and their shapes were easy and simple. Now, after 2005, we are more couture, more detailed in our designs, and have more overall, involved dolls.  We stick with the pageant theme, but the dresses are not necessarily those that were worn in the pageant.  We are inspired by the major fashion houses each year, and always look back to years past for ideas.”

ML: “Like Nik said, in the beginning, the form or styles of the gowns didn't vary very much. They served mainly as the "foundation" for our beadwork. As time went on, we were inspired by more complicated designs. Actually, this trend was seen in pageant gowns too. It was a rare occasion to see a pageant Contestant wear a gown by a widely known couture fashion designer when we first started creating our dolls. With this inspiration, I had to make the dresses far differently. We aren't creating many of those simple gowns that would take under an hour to sew. Now, recreating some of today's haute couture gowns could take a full day or more. In fact, with some gowns, the embellishing process takes a fraction of the time compared to sewing the gown. With many of the gowns we have made, the design involves manipulating the fabric in non-traditional methods like origami folds or creating paillettes from fabric. Talk about thinking outside the box! Whatever techniques used to create a gown, the result will not be a success if proper scale is not maintained. 
 

This ninimomo in the making shows the complicated process of a flowing ball skirt covered in literally hundreds of custom created heat cut organza leaves, each of which have been individually hand-sewn onto the skirt. Although the bodice of the gown has been completely smothered in hand-sewn beadwork, creating the skirt was far more labor intensive and took a multitude of hours.

AP: Marie, how have your sewing and beading skills improved over the years?

ML: “I really learned beading as I went along.  I found beading techniques that I liked, and I took classes, or followed books to figure out the beading processes.  I will not disclose all of my secrets, but what I will say is, as time goes, and trends change, I find new heights to reach, and there is no end in sight!” As for sewing, over the last 15 years, Barbie’s look and body has changed.  This has certainly lifted limits for me, and I have been able to focus more on fashion and couture as the newer dolls show off our designs so much better.  The challenges that I have faced over time with creating gowns have been incredibly instructional.  I’ve made research on not just the dresses, but the actual designers part of my weekly routine.  It’s important to get as close to the source as possible to see the designs come through in the dolls. Each gown is a new challenge but it makes my job even more interesting!" 

some of the more complicated sewing and beading techniques used at NiniMomo

AP: Nik, what do you do to the hair and face of the dolls and how has that changed since you began?

NM: “We re-paint the faces, and make them a little smokier and dramatic. We root eyelashes, except for the silkstones, and occasionally, depending on the design, we re-root heads. The hair is always re-styled and one of my favorite parts of the process. When I look back at my earlier work, I sort of cringe sometimes, saying to myself, 'What the hell was i thinking?' Our Delegates are so much more refined with the paintwork and lashes. Its good to see a clear evolution of where we were then and now."

Future NiniMomos with various hairstyles, makeup, re-roots and hair accessories.

AP: What about the materials?

NM: “We only use the best materials.  Eighty-five percent of our material is silk, something that we didn't focus on all that much when we began. With Barbie's scale, you would think we would be limited to prints and proportion when trying to achieve a design. However, for past few years, we create our own prints through various techniques - hand painting, dyeing etc. Marie is a really talented painter, something she discovered through NiniMomo. "

ML: “We have so many different types of materials we use. Lately we've been using a lot of leather and feathers and I don't know how many yards of organza I go through per month but its A LOT considering Barbie is so small! Right now, we're using at least 7 yards of black tulle to create this gorgeous McQueen for our customer, Beverly Bailey, and I cannot believe how much tulle we're going through! There really is no limit to the types of materials we use."

some examples of NiniMomo's use of silks, feathers, custom hand-painting and texturing

AP: Ok, so let’s talk prices. To the untrained eye, Miss Ireland 2011 and Miss Buriatia 2011 have a very similar look about them, but Miss Ireland was marked almost $500 more than Miss Buriatia.  What makes Miss Ireland so much more?

NM: “Interestingly, both gowns are from the same collection, inspired by one of our favorite designers, Zuhair Murad. Both gowns are made in nude organza, each featuring our quintessential hand-sewn beadwork. However, Miss Ireland has over 4000 tiny, genuine Swarovski crystal rhinestones which have been laid out in meticulous stripes throughout the gown.  Miss Buriatia, who features a lot of hand-sewn beadwork, some Swarovski elements and great accessories, did not require the same amount of tedious hours to complete. So, in this example, the exorbitant cost of multiple grosses of Swarovski crystal rhinestones paired with the labor intensive task of getting the striped patterning perfect drives up the cost of this particular Delegate. Not to mention the full re-root on Miss Ireland in blonde and pine green”

AP: So comparing Buriata and Ireland are like comparing Apples to Pomegranates?

NM: “Nice try, Shangela! Our dresses are more complicated than ever; it doesn’t take a day to design a dress anymore. Although both of these designs were easy to sew as gowns, in this case, it was the embellishments that were labor intensive. Like we mentioned though, most times the construction of the dress may take longer than the intricate beadwork.  The hours, days, and on occasion, weeks that go into just one gown is unbelievable, but that’s what we stand for.  We want to put the best out there to share with everyone, but this quality comes with a cost.”

You could say that you can’t put a price on a Ninimomo, but they actually have to in order to keep Nik in good coffee, and extra shirts at convention.  Every doll has is it’s own unique feeling, and inspiration behind it that whichever Ninimomo you end up with, you are going home with a piece of perfection. 

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