Popovy

ART + CULTURE:

Meet the Popovy Sisters, twin doll-makers bewitching the world with their hyperreal creations 

The duo design each of their collections based on different themes, with past collections including ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Royals’. Occasionally they will also collaborate with other creatives to create one-off custom dolls. Over the years, the sisters have acquired a kind of cult status, due to the fantastical nature of their creations.

“The dolls allow people to plunge into the world of fairytales,”

they explain, “we create complete characters, not just the doll itself but the image as a whole, starting with the wig and the make-up and ending with the costume. It all works as a single organism.”

The sisters made their first doll in 2004 while on a course in clothes design. “We found ourselves in a doll exhibition and we got so carried away that we took a masterclass and started trying to make dolls. Since then we just haven’t stopped.” Because each element is produced by hand, the process calls for the sisters to inhabit various roles all at once – as well as artists, they are skilled mouldmakers, costume designers, hairstylists and photographers.

Combining historical and contemporary references (the face of the doll is partially based on the model Devon Aoki) adds to the beguiling nature of the dolls, making them difficult to define. Created with such extraordinary attention to detail that they appear hyperreal, each doll is treated as a unique character with their own markings and traits, such as pierced ears, tattoos, and even individual moles and freckles.
The sisters explain that the extreme, angular frame of the dolls is based on fashion sketches, and serves to enhance the final silhouette. “They are not natural, it is by no means a real body,” they explain, “we’ve extended their proportions and elongated the neck. Due to the way the fabric falls, when you dress a doll with more natural proportions, the body of the doll looks bulky and the neck looks too short.”