u/Old_Play6432

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Dear friends!

This year marks 15 years since we started creating OOAK (One-of-a-Kind) Barbie dolls. To celebrate, we would like to look back at some of the brightest moments in our history, our most iconic dolls, and all the adventures we have had along the way.

We were previously known as AFD group dolls, but not so long ago we had to change our name because of unwanted political associations. We used to live in Moscow, but left in 2022, and since then we have been living in different countries. We are currently based in Spain.

When we first started, we naturally turned to the popular culture we grew up with. We created dolls of famous people from our own country and neighboring countries, and eventually even created a large project dedicated to the cultural context of our families.

Today, I would like to tell you about some of the works we are most proud of.

A&D Dolls & Lena Katina (2012)

Lena Katina (2012)

The voice of our rebellious youth – t.A.T.u. and one of its lead singers, Lena Katina. When she launched a solo career after the band's breakup, we wanted to support her and made a doll in the image from her debut video Never Forget.

Our doll appeared on the morning show, where we staged a fan meeting and presented the doll to the cameras. It was all staged, but it became part of our story.

A&D Dolls & Roza Rymbaeva (2013)

Roza Rymbayeva (2013)

Roza Rymbayeva is one of the most famous Soviet and Kazakh pop singers, with an extraordinarily beautiful voice. She has been performing on stage since 1975.

In 2012, we flew to visit Almaty, the former capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and bought her new album Eternal Spring (Vechnaya Vesna) in a local store. It became one of our favorite albums in our music collection.

A&D Dolls & Roza Rymbaeva (2013)

A year later, having gathered enough courage, we created a doll inspired by Roza Rymbayeva and flew back to Almaty to give it to the singer personally.

We did not expect any kind of response, but unexpectedly, a press conference was organized with representatives of all the major television channels in the country. During the press conference, we presented the doll to Roza and gave interviews.

A&D Dolls & Roza Rymbaeva (2013)

The singer gave us an autograph and kindly answered all our questions about her life and work behind the scenes. We also had a chance to talk with her for a little while.

That meeting — and that doll — became one of the most memorable moments of our lives.

Alla Pugacheva Dolls by A&D Dolls (2013-2014)

Alla Pugacheva (2013–2014)

Without a doubt, Alla Pugacheva is one of the greatest pop divas of the entire post-Soviet space, and she is also well known in many other countries.

Her voice and songs have been part of our lives since childhood, and many of her lyrics have become quotations. There is no doubt that she is one of the biggest figures in popular culture and an iconic singer.

We gathered our courage and decided to create a series of 13 dolls, portraying her in some of her most famous looks. Thirteen was chosen because it is Alla Pugacheva's favorite number.

Alla Pugacheva Dolls by A&D Dolls (2013-2014)

The project attracted a great deal of public attention. Our dolls were widely covered in the press, and television programs were made about the project.

We worked on the dolls for an entire year, creating one doll per month — from April to April — and finishing the series just in time for Alla Pugacheva's 65th birthday.

Alla Pugacheva Dolls by A&D Dolls (2013-2014)

Unfortunately, we were never able to give the dolls to her personally. Later, however, the dolls found their way into the private collections of her fans.

Galina Ivanova OOAK Doll by A&D Dolls (2017)

Galina Ivanova: Welcome to the USSR (2017)

For a long time, we had wanted to create a project dedicated to the cultural context of our families.

Today, this project could potentially be perceived as an example of propaganda. But nine years ago, we simply wanted to recreate the scenes that were widely presented in the Soviet media and that were part of our families' everyday lives.

Galina Ivanova OOAK Doll by A&D Dolls (2017)

We spent a long time looking for a doll with the right Slavic appearance, and we were lucky when Mattel released its first celebrity doll of Russian origin — Natalia Vodianova.

We used her doll as the base for creating the character Galina Ivanova, a photojournalist who set off on an exciting journey through the Soviet Union, visiting Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Latvia.

The project was our attempt to recreate scenes from family stories, photographs from old magazines, and films that form part of our families' history.

Galina Ivanova OOAK Doll by A&D Dolls (2017)

Whether that history was good or bad, this was simply what it was for us.

To create this photo project, consisting of more than 300 photographs, we used archives of Soviet photographers, Soviet magazines and postcards, original fabrics from that period that had been kept in our grandmothers' closets, authentic accessories, and an enormous number of hours of work in Photoshop.

There are also many little Easter eggs hidden throughout the project. One of our mothers worked at a textile factory in Kazakhstan. One of the photographs recreates a picture of our grandmother taken in a photo studio in 1965. And there are many, many other personal details hidden throughout the project.

Galina Ivanova OOAK Doll by A&D Dolls (2017)

A separate Instagram profile dedicated to the project still exists today, and it is still under our old name, AFD group.

Thank you so much for reading such a long post! ❤️❤️❤️