Introduction:

I’ll make this quick because this is a long, long post. I wanted to include some of the illustrations from the magazines for those who haven’t seen them before. Each one featured Barbie’s diary as she travelled around the country. There were photos of the scenery, animals and people. I especially wanted to include the maps and the detail of what should be with each outfit as a few are incomplete.

Diva, Dee Dee and Mbili are dolls from my own collection. Lea is one of the 180.

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A small group gathered at Cruikshank’s warehouse where a makeshift changing area has been set up near the shipping container. Vivienne was there of course; she would be in charge of the first shoot. Becky had come along to help the models get ready for their photos. Midge was busily setting up her equipment. Jan was there too but she had just come to watch.

Vivienne gathered everyone to explain how things would be done.
“I decided that it would be fun to have a theme for each shoot and mine will be to showcase fashions from a particular continent. Of course, the other Showrunners need not do the same unless they want to. I’m going to start things off with Africa. Now, remember, ” she added, “these dresses are not national costumes, they are fashions which have been influenced by the culture of the country.”

Here are the magazines that these fashions came from:

The Showrunner:

The Models:

“Before we begin, I’d like to introduce our models today.” said Vivienne. “This is Diva who works for the Cruikshank Foundation and her friend Dee Dee. This is Mbili and last but not least is Lea. I would especially like to thank Mbili for joining us at the last minute when our other model was unable to be with us.”

• Diva -TNT body with dance action
• Dee Dee – TNT body
• Mbili – Model Muse body
• Lea – articulated belly button body

After the introductions were finished the models went to change into their outfits, assisted by Becky.

Diva was the first one to be ready. Her outfit was inspired by the culture of Uganda. She tied the headscarf two different ways. This outfit was a tight fit on Diva as it was designed for the belly button bodies. I was not able to do the back up properly.

Uganda

Nigeria

Dee Dee wore the Nigerian fashion and she too found it a tight squeeze. The top fit her but the skirt was very snug.

Senegal

Lea was next wearing a fashion from Senegal. It was a good fit on her.

Kenya

Mbili had no trouble fitting into the dress from Kenya. The correct necklace was not there but Vivienne provided a similar one which Mbili wound around her neck a couple of times.

Midge took a few group shots after each model had been photographed. Jan got behind the camera so that Midge could be in the final shot.

But it wasn’t quite over.

“Wait.” said Vivienne. “There is one more dress. We have some incomplete outfits that arrived without any documentation. So, I decided that we’d have a Mystery dress at every shoot.”

“Who’s going to wear it?” asked Jan breathlessly.

Vivienne smiled. “We’ll make it fair. In this box are seven pieces of blank paper and one that says “Mystery Dress”. Whoever gets that one wears the dress.”

Everyone, took a slip of paper.

“Sorry Jan.” said Becky. “I’ve got it.”

Here is Becky in the dress. I don’t have the magazine for this dress so I don’t know what country it’s meant to be from. Hopefully by the end of this series I will have found out the identity of this and other mystery dresses. The beads don’t go with the dress but I thought that they looked good with it.