F for...

FORENZA 

Another popular clothing brand, one I did actually have some of. One in particular was this sweatshirt:

The line's slogan was "Accept no substitutes," as seen on their clothes tags (this one has the slogan in Italian: Non accettare sostituti):

I did see plenty of other girls at school wearing Forenza sweaters. This was one way I tried to keep up with fashion of the day, though I did not seem as in tune as some of the others at school seemed to be.

And on the subject of fashion...

FASHION DOLLS:

I had quite a few of these back then. I wasn't too big on Barbie, as I only recall ever having one or two Barbie dolls, including this one:

Rather, I was more about other dolls, including this small-doll line from Mattel:

The Dazzle line from the early '80s consisted of 4 1/2 inch dolls, made with scaled down head molds of two previous Mattel dolls. Each came with a removable outfit, and extra outfits were sold. I had all the original items in the line--eight girl dolls, a town play set, a horse and four extra fashion sets. Two new girl dolls and two boys, and two more outfit sets were introduced before the line was discontinued. I never got those items. One of the later girl dolls is seen in the photo on the left. She is wearing one of the separate outfit sets, whereas the others (the eight original dolls) are in their stock outfits. The other new girl and the two boys are not pictured. No extra outfits were made for the boy dolls.

Before Dazzle, Kenner had produced a small fashion doll line called the Glamour Gals. I had two of those. This was produced in the wake of the success of Kenner's Star Wars action figure line. Unlike Dazzle, the Glamour Gals had the same girls produced more than once in different outfits--often painted-on (such as pants, bathing suits, and shirts) and unremovable. Some even had the same outfit design in different colors. The Glamour Gals had numerous play sets, including a dance club, hair salon, car, several "date" sets (each with a boy doll) and even a cruise ship. I wasn't as big on this line as I would be on Dazzle a year later. I only had two Glamour Gals, and believe these were the ones (The one in the blue dress I had for sure):

One fashion doll I seem to remember wanting but never got (I must not have begged too hard) was also made by Kenner. It was called Darci Cover Girl (pictured below). Unlike Barbie, whose female dolls usually stand at 11 1/2 inches, Darci was 12 1/2 inches tall. She had no boyfriend, but two female friends, Dana (African American) and Erica (redhead). Darci herself was produced with different hair colors. A blonde one is in the photo. Darci was before the Glamour Gals. This is the most I remember since I did not have this line. I do remember the commercial.

I know had some other fashion dolls, but am not sure what those ones were. 

FASHION PLATES:

This was one of my favorite toys growing up. It allowed kids to design clothing.

Saying "young ladies" in the commercial was rather sexist. But for those who did not want to design clothing, there was this similar toy:

And in the 1990s, a Fashion Plates edition was created for the boy band New Kids on the Block (I never liked them, BTW).

The Fashion Plates toy was first introduced in 1978 and is still around today, with more than one edition.

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FINISHED for today. More GREAT stuff tomorrow.