Red Lamé Gown Ensemble

The Franklin Mint in its heyday was a quality celebrity doll manufacturer;. During the days leading up to a sell-out and eventual discontinuation of the doll product lines, strange things started to happen.

One day, while browsing eBay in 2008 or 2009, I came across a Diana outfit in the familiar navy ensemble box titled "New Red Gown." I was so excited I could barely stand it. I couldn't understand why I didn't know about it from doll friends. I nearly swallowed my tongue with hope it would be the red beaded "Liz Dole" gown by Jacques Azagury.

But it wasn't a new gown. It was an OLD gown. It was a gown from a limited edition dressed doll from 2004! However it was priced at an eye-watering double of the original separate ensembles, and collectors turned up their collective noses. Eventually, the remainders were flogged off the website at around $20 and they were snapped up which is how they came to be on eBay.

Here's a link to the information from the People's Princess doll in the Red Lamé Gown Ensemble (LE 750).

After years of moaning that the Mint should sell outfits separately, that there were too many dressed limited edition dolls, and outfits that had previously only appeared on dolls, here they were and I had missed them. They didn't sell all the LE outfits this way, but the change in business strategy should have been a sign...perhaps it wasn't as drastic and earth-scorching as the down-size of the Winter of 2003/2004 when hundreds of FM product items landed at Tuesday Morning (a close-out discount chain), but it was a slow fizzling out that brought the collection to a close with a whimper.

The gown is an oft-copied one, but FM did produce an especially accurate copy, including the ruby spray earrings (in place of the usual ruby pearl drops.) This product offering was the end of a beginning. I could have kept buying boxed outfits...in fact, I still sometimes do. But not in boxes and not from the Mint!

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