What Pullip was the first you ever set eyes on? Mine was Classical Alice. I remember her from a tiny stock-photo on Amazon.co.jp, popping up in my recommendations. I did not know what a Pullip was back then, but I thought that she was the most incredibly beautiful doll I ever saw. (Imagine me, when I found out that Pullips can move their eyes side to side. What a revelation of endless possibilities!) It was during a time, when I had just stopped collecting Monster High dolls because the new releases weren’t my cup of tea anymore and there was also self-induced pressure to grow up. (Because all of those collectibles out there are for children-pure logic!) So I kept Classical Alice on my wishlist for several years and silently watched Groove release the Sailor Moon Series, while denying myself the fact how desperately I wanted to get into Pullip-collecting.
By now I am so lucky to enjoy my collection everyday and get enormous joy from it. Adding Classical Alice was a dream come true because she will always be the definition of Pullip for me personally. Groove has quite a preference, when it comes to Lewis Carol’s tale about a girl named Alice and her trip to Wonderland. My first review on this blog was about the latest Alice-release (Optical Alice) and there will be at least another Alice-review coming your way soon. Classical Alice was released in 2013 and a recolored version of her, Classical Alice Sepia, was released in the following year. The original version’s color-scheme revolves around the prettiest medium sky blue, gold, golden beige, dark brown and white. Combined with Classical Alice’s dark blonde wig, she definitely reminds me of the classic movie by Walt Disney (although there is also Pullip Fantastic Alice that resembles the cartoon Alice even closer).
Classical Alice’s face-up is simply amazing. If I had unlimited income, I would love to get another Classical Alice-doll to re-wig her and show off her beautiful expressive eyebrows. They kind of make her look thoughtful, serious and yet sweet. Her face-up is quite cool-toned and so are her medium blue eyechips with white accents on a black base. She got lots of fluttery drawn-on lashes at the outer corners of her eyes that alternate between different tones of dark brown and are accompanied by dark brown eyeshadow. Right in the middle of her upper lids, she wears a thin line of pastel blue eyeliner that really makes her eyes pop. Between this blue eyeliner and her dark brown crease, she wears light brown eyeshadow and there is the tiniest trace of cold-toned blue above her crease and below her brows. The same cold-toned blue can be found on Classical Alice’s lower lids; next to the pink and white highlighted inner corner of her eyes.
Her eyelids are a natural beige with very dark brown eyeliner. It is the same color that the waterlines of her eyes are colored in. Classical Alice’s lips are pale on the outer corners, but a rosy and slightly glossy pink in the middle. The same pink is used to blush the outer corners of her cheeks to fade into her eye make-up, to shade the bridge of her nose and to make her blue eyeshadow pop at the inner corners of her eyes. As I said before: Everything is very cool-toned, but gives still a wonderfully sweet effect.
The highlight of Classical Alice’s wig are lots and lots of ringlets in a golden dark blonde. As it is the case with curly wigs, they tend to get frizzy, but I have moved her around a lot by now and her ringlets still look nice. In my Pullip’s case, you can see a little bit of the wig cap at the back of her head and on the sides of her bangs. Not ideal, but those are also the areas that get covered up with her headband. Her even cut bangs are nonetheless quite thick – so thick that they gave me a hard time while I was taking pictures of Classical Alice’s face-up. They did not want to stay away from her forehead!
Alice dolls (so far) always wear an apron over their dresses. Classical Alice’s apron is mainly out of a soft white cotton and two types of beige lace with golden threads are giving it structure. The skirt’s hemline reminds me of a bubble skirt, which contrasts the a-line cut dress underneath it. On each side, right above the hemline, there is a dark brown bow with a white pearl in its center. The apron closes in the back with velcro.
The same types of lace are duplicated on Classical Alice’s medium sky blue dress out of satin that matches her eyechips perfectly. It is high-necked with lace on top and directly under her collar, there is a big bow out of brown ribbon and golden thread, which is also embellished with two white pearls at the top and with two strings of golden beads going down from its middle. When Alice wears her apron, this bow is still supposed to show and to be worn over it. On her puff sleeves the two types of beige lace are repeated and on her a-line skirt there is one strip of lace on its middle before it gets more structured near the hemline. The hemline consists out of a big blue ruffle, more beige lace and at the very end there is another kind of beige lace (this time without golden threads) attached to it. This lace is bigger and wide-meshed, breaking the continuity of Classical Alice’s stock-outfit nicely. The dress also closes in the back with velcro. Due to its satiny fabric, I recommend that you should be extra careful, when redressing her because velcro can damage this kind of fabric very easily!
There are not that many accessories that I can write about, but in lieu thereof her extremely pretty headband continues her trend of broken continuity. Let’s get the negative right out of the way: This headband will not stay on her head, ever! Everytime you move her, it comes slipping right off and there is no option of wires, ribbons, etc. to make it more fitting. I just learned that you call this type of headband Alice band in the UK-how very accurate: It sits wrapped in satiny dark brown fabric on her head and attached to it is a big bow. The main fabric of this bow is satin with white and dark blue stripes. It is decorated with the same two kinds of beige lace with golden threads that we already know from her dress, but aΒ third kind, which is about twice their size, is also joining the party. The main focus point is the light and dark brown cameo in the middle of the headband that has a dark bronze-colored metal rim and sits on top of another dark brown bow. I really love this mix out of different fabrics that should not match, but somehow complement each other. Classical Alice’s stock-outfit kind of reminds me of Japanese dishware, where every dish has its own color, shape or decoration; but still manages to look harmonious and pleasing to the eye.
On her legs Classical Alice is wearing black and white striped tights and shiny black Mary-Janes with a little bit of a heel that seem to be two sizes too big for her. Those shoes add to give her a somewhat childish and innocent character. Right now I can only remember one Pullip with the same type of stock-shoes, which is Dahlia Cinderella and another very innocent character.
If you are looking for a classical doll, Classical Alice will be (not only name-wise) a good choice for you. I am sure that you will appreciate all the thought and creativity that Groove put into her. Due to her wildly large popularity, I cannot imagine that I am standing alone with this opinion!
Thank you so much for reading!
Theri