Friday, January 07, 2011

Help Me Out

So can anyone name an special occasion for girls at which the girl wears a veil on the back of her head, besides a Catholic First Communion? I ask because the latest American Girl catalog is out, and there is a doll-sized cream dress with a veil. Of course, the dress has a lilac sash, which is not the custom with First Communion dresses, but what's up with the veil, then? The interesting thing to me is that they didn't have to include the veil. Any little girl making her First Communion could easily pin a handkerchief or a piece of tulle on the back of her doll's head. Or even get a bridal style dress that is made for the 18" doll. Of course AG wouldn't make money on an item they didn't produce.

It also comes with a charm that says "Proud." I don't get the current trend of flinging "positive" words around everywhere, either. You know what I mean, the large wooden shelf sitters that spell out LOVE or BELIEVE. Or the little rocks with "inspirational" words on them. Is wearing a charm with a word on it really going to induce more of the sentiment expressed?

I am reminded of a special outfit made several years ago for AG's doll Bitty Baby. It very clearly conveyed baptism dress when you looked at it, being a long white dress with white bonnet. I could see why they wouldn't want to call it a baptism dress, and I imagine they would be sued if they made an out-and-out First Communion dress. I still find the veil weird.

2 comments:

Elephantschild said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincea%C3%B1era

Could it be that?

My sister lives in Miami. Quinceanera for girls is ABSOLUTELY HUGE, with halls rented, meals catered, etc.

Barb the Evil Genius said...

Yeah, I've heard a lot about Quinceaneras but I forgot that they do seem to wear a veil for that. It's possible this is more a Quinceanera dress except: 1)Hispanic culture is "in." I wouldn't think American Girl would be shy to call it that. 2)As you can see from the picture on the Wikipedia page, Quinceanera dresses go *all out*. The AG dress is very plain. 3)The Girls of Today dolls only seem to have stuff made for them that is age appropriate. Not even any official "first dance" type dresses or anything like that. Doll merchandise (and their magazine) seem to hover right around tween age or slightly younger. But it's a possibility. Thanks for the info.