VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
Written By: Karen Pasquali Jones
She shops at Chanel, drinks, smokes, dates Action Man on the down low (gasp!), and is all like "Barbie, who? " she ain't you're average Sindy..
Clutching her new Sindy, Sophie Garner carefully brushes her doll’s blonde hair before choosing the latest outfit to dress her in – a tiny faux fur-trimmed couture jacket and skirt suit. Next, she selects miniature accessories including a designer handbag, diamante earrings, sunglasses and stilettos. There’s even a teeny bottle of perfume to ensure Sindy smells as good as she looks before heading off to the shops for a spending spree on her mini platinum credit card.
Over the coming months, Sophie is planning to create a detailed set of designer stores, including Chanel and Dior, which will cost hundreds of pounds to create, for the City Chic version of the popular doll to visit. But she doesn’t mind because, for her, Sindy isn’t just a doll that will eventually get discarded when she becomes too old to play with her or when a new ‘better’ toy comes along. That’s because Sophie isn’t a child – she is 48, a vocal coach on popular UK TV series The Voice Kids, and she collects the iconic British doll and all her accessories as a way to relax.
“I’m obsessed with Sindy,” Sophie admits. “I always have been and always will be. For me there’s nothing better to spend my time and money on. Sindy makes me happy in so many ways.
“Being with her is creative – everything is miniature but beautifully detailed and I can lose myself in her tiny world for a while. It takes me away from everyday problems.
“Other people do crafts, and I collect Sindy dolls. I don’t keep them all in their boxes on shelves though. I dress them in the latest fashion and accessories, do their hair, and make dioramas – tiny sets that are to scale (Sindy’s are 1:6) and truly detailed. It’s therapeutic and a form of mindfulness that I get lost in as it’s so absorbing.
“My obsession with them is healthy and artistic. I know collections can be a double-edged sword and some people show signs of unwell behaviour. It consumes them and their lives.
“I know some Sindy collectors have thousands of dolls that are never taken out of their boxes and are on display in cabinets. They spend all their money on them and don’t do anything else. But I’m nothing like that.”
Sophie, who lives with partner Paul Hanson, a historian, in Olney, Northamptonshire, first received a Sindy as a present from her parents when she was seven.
“She was the ballerina version of the doll, with the most beautiful ballet shoes,” Sophie remembers. “My parents didn’t have much money and so couldn’t buy me all the accessories.
They saved up to buy me Sindy’s living room which was empty – they couldn’t afford all the furniture – and a kitchen without an oven so she couldn’t cook it in.”
Sophie didn’t forget about her the girl-next-door doll – which was launched as a British rival to Barbie in 1963 – and asked for a Sindy doll for her 40th birthday from Paul.
“Maybe it was a mid-life crisis, but I suddenly wanted to recreate my childhood but have all of the furniture, and accessories for Sindy,” she says. “When I woke up in my birthday Paul had bought me the original Sindy house and two dolls – the ‘active ballerina’ one and Popstar Sindy who came with a keyboard and guitar.
“I loved them and couldn’t have been happier. I found dressing them or doing their hair lifted me if I’d had a hard day at work, and so I began ordering more dolls and accessories to treat myself, and my collection grew from there.”
Now the dolls – who all have names – litter her home, and she spends a lot of time and money updating her collection.
“Paul groans when he sees parcels arriving knowing they’re all Sindy items,” she says. “This week I ordered 10 things, including a bespoke 1970s blue velvet lounge suit with diamante belt, a fridge, sofa, 1940s couture suit that was £47, and a picnic set.
“It’s not like I’m frittering away my money – they’re all necessary. I’m recreating Abigail’s Party [an iconic 1977 stage and TV play by Mike Leigh] in a diorama and need these miniature props for styling. It will take me two months to make but it’s going to look fantastic.”
Indeed, she’s bought tiny Dunhill cigarettes for the Abigail’s Party set, which will also have tiny bottles of gin, whisky and Barcardi in the drinks cabinet.
As well as Sindy dolls, Sophie also has Patch, Sindy’s baby sister, and an Action Man for the sets and to act as Sindy’s boyfriend. Plus, thousands of accessories, a vast shoe collection and fashionable walk-in wardrobe.
She has found fashion designers through Sindy groups online and through Facebook to create bespoke couture outfits which she doesn’t mind paying “a lot” for.
“Sindy is a fashion icon,” Sophie explains. “She has always kept up with trends. She looked like a Biba or Mary Quant muse when she was launched. There was a version with short, blonde hair fashioned on Princess Diana’s hairstyle and the Emanuels, who designed Diana’s wedding gown, made outfits for her in the 80s.”
Sophie’s obsession with Sindy has taken her to Dollycon, where she posed with life-size Sindys, and she is now planning Sindy Summit with a couple of other collectors for next year to celebrate the doll’s 60thbirthday.
“It’s going to be a huge event, with activities, buyers, and sellers,” she says. “People will come from all over the world.”
Mention Barbie to Sophie and she shudders.
“She’s Darth Vader,” she says. “I hate her. She’s the antithesis of Sindy, who’s fun, fashionable and accessible. Barbie is fake and cheap.”
Sindy hasn’t been without her problems. In the 1980s she was given a makeover to try and boost her popularity after Barbie elbowed her off the top spot. Mattell, the creators of Barbie thought she looked too much like Barbie and legal battles ensued, meaning Barbie went under the knife again in 1994.
“Barbie’s toxic,” Sophie says. “Sindy is special. I don’t have children, but these dolls are not my babies. They are just pure fun. My friends think my obsession is hilarious, but they look out for Sindy bits for me. Paul does get annoyed with all the deliveries, but he’s creative and helps me with my sets. At the moment he’s busy decorating a Sindy house he made for me from a bookcase, which is going to be gorgeous.
“I don’t go a day without spending time on my Sindy dolls and collection, but they are an outlet for my creativity which is at the core of my identity. Quite simply they make me happy and fulfilled.
“I have fun taking photos and putting them up on social media with captions like: ‘Sindy’s hungover’. I also make sets with a miniature box of tampons in the bathroom and Sindy in the bath saying: ‘She’s having a bad period’, or ‘Sindy is p****ed off because she went shopping to Chanel and had to wait behind a woman who wasn’t well dressed at all.’”
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