It was toward the end of the 1950s that the fashion doll trends splintered and separated into three distinct formats. Just as in the beginning where the “adult” dolls were either leaning more towards a young girl mood or busty teenager or adult allure, one of the three new aspects could be called the “Queen of Outer Space” school of design and demeanor which, just like Zsa Zsa Gabor’s look in the B-picture, includes tight, strapless clothes, negligées in net and sequins and peroxide hair tones.

The mood was definitely as Warhol "superstar" Candy Darling would say, a "blonde on a bummer” look, and the fashions, even though influenced by Paris, took on a slightly seedy aspect when commercialized and left unlined. Figure-hugging capris, sheaths, and twin sets in knit were standardized.

The second school, the “Tasteful First Lady” syndrome had that clean, sober, and mature look that portrays the kind of Fifth Avenue authority-- the Sak’s, Bergdorf, and Bendel’s mentality seen in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

The third was the collegiate, Patty Duke - style “Gee, Mom!” school. Tomboy-ish and enthusiastic, dolls of this nature were constantly going to senior proms and fraternity dances. They were graphically portrayed ogling photos of boyfriends dreamily and hanging out in the “Pop Shoppe” style diners - sipping “Cokes” with aesthetically bent straws, an image which was captured forever by Irving Penn for Vogue and by advertising seen in the Saturday Evening Post and just about everywhere else.

Needless to say, most of the dolls, even though the facial features adhered to one of the three sanctions, their wardrobes had smatterings of the other two if the basis was strongly directed to one. The torrid sex kitten-style doll at least always had a few “around the house” or “school yard” outfits. If Jayne Mansfield could put on an apron in Frank Tashlin’s film, “The Girl Can’t Help It,” and if Mamie Van Doren could play somebody’s aunt in “High School Confidential," then it is within reason that a doll that resembled them could do so as well.

Some of the dolls wavered between two schools, in a nebulous limbo (or should I say "bimbo"?). If it was hard to differentiate between undefined doll personalities, it was usually because these were the lesser known and lesser quality ones.

A few examples of lesser-known dolls and their categories include Richwood Toys' Sandra Sue doll of 1956. Packaged in an immaculate white box with a Victorian silhouette cameo framed in black in the center of the cover, she fell into the “Tasteful First Lady” syndrome, especially when dressed in a typical puffy white net inaugural gown-like strapless outfit. The black taffeta bodice and the Watteau-like garlands of flowers, draped as panniers, resembled the cover of Album du Figaro, on which Bettina had modeled a similar Fath creation a few years earlier. The outfit also looked like a 1956 Balmain dress model.

The Cosmopolitan Doll and Toy Corporation of Jamaica, New York featured their Ginger and Little Miss Ginger in outfits that this author feels look like “I Love Lucy” couture. A full skirted short sleeve dress in cotton black stripe print with a ruffled petticoat is covered by a jacket in red with pointed lapels folded back to reveal that they are in the same print as the dress. Two big buttons are on the lapels. The sleeves, also in the striped print, are trimmed in the same lace as the petticoat. Her hat, very “Lucy-goes-out-and-buys-a-hat-despite-what-Ricky-has-said”-ish, in straw with flower trim really gives the word “matching” a run for its money. As a matter of fact, the whole outfit does. Ginger and her smaller namesake did however have very Balenciaga-looking hats. A big picture hat in horsehair, flat like a carpet, is the acme of simplicity. The oversized straw boater, the kind that men wore in 1900, and just like the one Balenciaga invented for women, is fashioned in stunning miniature, complete with the black velvet band with stylized bow at the back. She had a few things like the full skirted white bib fronted sleeveless jumper dress under which went with a simple pale pink collarless shirt which had that early Hubert de Givenchy separates look about them.I must insist though that her wardrobe, although sitting neatly on the edge of the “Tasteful First Lady” syndrome with its couture references does evoke Lucy, Donna Reed, and a host of other television sitcom characters.