American Girl Deep Dive // Samantha's Outfit Collection
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 พ.ย. 2023
- Today we're talking about everyone's favorite It-girl American Girl doll -- Samantha Parkington. She has quite a wardrobe, but is it actually historically accurate? Let's compare fashion plates, advertisements, and photographs to find out!
What's your favorite Samantha outfit?
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If you're up for them, I'd love to see more! I was the target audience for the American Girl dolls in the mid 80s, but I never had a single one, because my then-step-father was very tight gripped on the money when it came to "frivolous things" for me. ... Even if he wasn't the one actually paying for it, because he didn't have a bank account. So this is a way for me to get to see the things I missed!
I feel that way about computers and computer games. I am trying out a lot of '80s and '90s games.
My parents didn't allow a computer until 1996, and we never had any gaming consoles. The one PC they then got for us all (because of school requirements) was only allowed for school work.
I do agree that one shouldn't hang at a screen 18 hours a day, but their hatred of computers and games was excessive.
And this was even before the internet was particularly expansive, and most people I knew with computers didn't have it.
I used to hang out at my grandparents quite a lot. Mainly because I liked it there, but also because *they* had computers, internet access, and games.
I don't think it has ruined my life that I played Tetris at theirs...
I wanted these dolls for my little girl, but we really couldn't afford them. She did get one, the my look-alike one, about 2004, and I remember it cost $89! Not counting shipping and tax. And, as it frequently happens, I liked it more than she did. She preferred her Loving Family dollhouse and dolls. My granddaughter is now playing with the American Girl doll.
Please do continue this series! It has been very important to my understanding of the clothing worn in different eras! If you could continue through to KIT, that would be very helpful for me anyway! Claudie does not have much in her collection, but if you could go over what she would have worn, that would be great! Shoes and accessories included.Thank you so much!😊
The nightgown is quite accurate actually. Crocheted or knitted lace yokes were also really popular. I imagine you could probably make some of the missing items that you really love by finding patterns and drafting guides. That'd be how I would go about it. same for making things that are more accurate to the era.
Yes, I would definitely want to see you continue this series, at least with Rebecca's collection. It's too bad Samantha and Nellie's meet outfits weren't too historically accurate. Yes, tights and bloomers with elastic at the waist and cuffs were obviously not accurate for the Edwardian era, but I just figured they were meant to simulate long stockings and drawers, while also making it easy for a kid to put them on the dolls. Samantha's BeForever meet dress looked surprisingly modern. Even if it's not accurate to the Edwardian era, I think it would look cute for the modern day.
Yesssss more! You could just show pictures of the bad dresses.
I have been WAITING for this as a lover of historical fashion (although not a very educated one ahahah), and of Samantha specifically. I lost my mind when she was rumoured to be coming back in 2014, then nearly passed away when I saw the crimes they committed to my girl. I appreciate being affirmed in thinking that, while not perfect, her original collection was at least more accurate than Beforever! Amazing video as always!!
My mom made me Nellie costume for Halloween when I was 10
Regarding Samantha's shoes in her meet outfit: in the drawings of her book, she's wearing boots, but since Pleasant Company didn't have a lot of money starting out, they just gave her and Molly the same plastic Mary Jane shoes to save money. Same with the underwear.
Her bridesmaid dress was one of my favorites as a kid! It's so cute.
i would LOVE to see further videos in this series!! kit is my absolute favorite, i've done a lot of pinterest trawling and have found some pretty good sources for things that inspired her more accurate pieces! i found a butterick page with her beforever christmas dress on it!
Ooh, can you share a link?
i still would love to see someone redo the doll dresses to be more historically accurate... especially Samantha as she was one of my favorites
These videos are so full of information. Even though some of the outfits are not historically accurate, they are cute. American Girl should hire you as a design consultant! I would love to see more of these videos as long as you still enjoy making them.
xoxo's Sandie
Please continue! I would love to see you cover Kit and Molly. Not so interested in the newer dolls (year wise and also in production timeline, lol) But have loved seeing the older/original girls. So impressed by your collection, I can't wait to have a daughter or two someday and collect for them! I had Samantha as a kid, my mom got almost the who original collection for $100 at a garage sale. So fun to see it all again!
I actually shuddered when you showed the Bridesmaid dress. 😂
Please continue this series. It is so fascinating!
Yes, please, as to further videos in this series. (I have 1940 Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs; would that help with researching Molly, Emily and Nanea? (Per the Wikipedia list of American Girl doll characters, those are the 3 from the 1940s; I was only aware of Molly, because I bought the books for my daughter when she was younger.)
It might! I haven't tried seeing what Pinterest would pull up for them yet either.
Yesss! I have been waiting for the Samantha video ever since you started the series and even if some outfits are more fitting for earlier or later years I still think most of them are so pretty (we don't talk about Beforever, obviously). If my cousin allowed it I would make play dresses for her daughters, but alas, she doesn't want me to sew them things while they are still growing so fast. Kind of understandable, but sometimes you just get the urge to make some children's dresses...
I would very much appreciate a video on Rebecca as I think her wardrobe can most easily be transformed into historybounding.
For childresns play dresses, you can use techniques like shirring and expandable backs to make things that will be good for a span of several sizes! Make sleeves and waists with adjustable elastic that cn be replaced if they grow.
@@GreenGleem I know. I tried to explain it to my cousin, but she still said it would be a waste of fabric and my time as they have no real occasion to wear such dresses anyway... they are not historical costumers, obviously XD
I would love to see a continuation of this series!
I got Kirsten in 1989 for Christmas, and my cousin got Samantha a year or so later. Her mom made her Samantha a winter cloak out of my cousin's outgrown rabbit fur jacket. We thought it was the best thing ever and even better than the official one.
This series has been great and you've covered dresses/outfits I didn't even know about. I hope you continue it, I am curious to see how accurate Kit and Molly were.
I've enjoyed this video series, I would love to see you cover how you would redesign the outfits to make them more historically accurate, or talk about fashion trends AG missed that would have been appropriate to cover in the time periods they touch on!
I adore this series, and would love for you to continue it, even if you're just showing pictures of the doll outfits rather than owning them yourself. I love your perspective on all of these outfits. Also, I admit that I cackled a little bit at how INaccurate Samantha's collection is overall - there are some people in the AG community who hold Samantha up as the pinnacle of research while deriding dolls made later in the company's history as totally inaccurate, and as we've already seen in your series, that simply isn't true. Doesn't mean they aren't a fun time, but not necessarily accurate! Thank you so much for making this series, and I really do hope you continue it.
From my memory (without looking any of this up), Samantha's "meet" dress style plaid was worn with a pinafore at school. It was a little darker plaid. Maybe the people making the movie did more research and decided to morph together some of her outfits.
I would love any more of this series that you want to make! They're so fun and informative :)
Samantha was the doll that I had so this was super nostalgic for me! I had her bed & even had the human version of her nightgown :)
Glad you're covering Samantha! I took her Christmas shopping with me this weekend 😂 she's iconic
Please do the rest of the historical dolls! I love the series and recently bought 2 dolls and am reading some of the books. I'm learning how to sew and am making their clothes from the historical patterns. My inner child is sooo happy since i had the dolls but could never afford much clothes for them as a kid :) and l love learning about the hostorcal clothes.
Yes, it's here!! I've been looking forward to this video so much!! 😃 Love it!! ❤️
More for sure if your up to it. I've been on a weird binge lately of historical clothing and AG stuff so finding this channel is just kismet.
Yes! Please continue!! Love these!
amazing!
Obsessed with this!
Love your AG content! Here for more AG outfit reviews and accuracy assessments
I love all your AG videos! I hope you continue and expand them (along with all your other videos too).
This American Girl series is amazing, I can’t wait for the next one! :)
samantha is my favorite and i was really excited to see this pop up in my feed!! i'd love to see you do the rest of the series, i love learning a lot about the different fashion eras through the dolls!
hi! ive rewatched this video so many times now, including the other videos. idk why, cause i never thought i would be interested in the fashion. but i would love if you make more videos about the other dolls! i love these
Yes please continue 😊
I would love as much of this series as you want to make!
I love these! I would like to see as many as you would make 😊
i would love more videos like this and as far into time as you are willing to go
Yes! would love to see more!! Show the good, bad and ugly! Like the way you show references.
please do more videos in this series! i am so obsessed with them
❤ i really enjoyed this video! I watched the several other American Girl ones that you did and all of them are marvelous! I think you ought to do videos on the accuracy of all the historical dolls’ clothing lines, because i think there are a couple inaccuracies even in the later ones. This would be wonderful!
I'm rather late to this, but I'd love to see more of these if you're up to it!! I just found your channel today and have already watched ALL the AG ones! :D
I’d love more videos in the series!
Best Samantha video ever!!!
Haha! Thanks!
I love all things American Girl so yes, more videos of this type please 🥰
I love this series! Please continue through the rest of the historical girls. Pretty, pretty please!!!
Super interesting :) I watched all of it!
Thanks! 😊
This is an amazing video! (As always.) I really loved hearing your thoughts. You always put so much effort into your videos, and they are extremely well done. I'm always so exited when you post! Keep making amazing content. ❤
~Sophia~
Thank you! 😊
And you might chat with Engineering knits about the research for Molly, both for the knits but also catalogs for the era, could be a fun co lab.
Yes please i love rebecca
This is by far my favorite AG commentary. I came across this video a while ago and keep checking back to see if you've posted any new ones! Keep up the good work :)
Thanks! I hope to do Rebecca's and Claudie's sometime in the next couple months. And have you seen the others I've already done?
@@LadyRebeccaFashions omg exciting! I have- they’re wonderful! Looking forward to seeing more :)
I would love to see more videos like these! You know so much about the clothing! Also I was wondering what you think of her beforeever winter coat? Thank you for sharing!😃
Thanks! I think her Beforever coat is not too far off in shape, though it seems later 1900s or even 1910s. And the color/fur color seems unlikely, though I've never seen it in person.
@@LadyRebeccaFashions thank you very much for helping me out! I appreciate it! ❤️
I really appreciate you walking through all the outfits. I kind of want to get a few for my doll I made to look like me as a girl (which the red jumper absolutely crumbled into nothing). I really want something accurate to a period after seeing your videos!
My young nieces are getting into the American Girl Dolls, so this was very helpful! :)
I would love to see more of these!
The garden party/lawn games dress reminds me a bit of a lingerie dress, which was very popular from the 1900s through the 1920s. The waist might still be a bit high, but the rest of it looks close. I could be wrong! Samantha was the beginning of my love for 1900s fashion.
I would love for you to continue doing this series. I love seeing the outfits and hearing your perspective. The first dolls I got were Julie and Ivy, mainly due to the fact she reminded me of my chilhood best friend named Julie(looks like her too). From what I've seen her outfits are pretty spot on to what I remember wearing from that era. I did have an opportunity to get either Felicity, Samantha or Kirsten but due to a younger selfish sister I left the store without getting one. I love your enthusiasm and passion for these dolls. Maybe you could consider making your own fashion accurate versions of the outfits you don't have and would love to have in your collection. Just a thought.
I think the new stuff is really cute even if it's not accurate. I'm not a stickler for accuracy, I just care if it's cute. I hope you do more of these videos!
Thank You! I love Samantha and her clothes. She was the first doll I ever purchased from Pleasant Company. She was my daughter's doll. I have since purchased Beforever Samantha for myself. I love some of the clothes that are inaccurate but kinda figured they weren't right for the time period. An interesting observation: the pale green floral special day dress looks very similiar to my daughter's Easter dress from the late 80s. I have had a grin on my face the whole time, so yes I would love a Rebecca video and I have Kit if that's something you could do. I can't wait to put Samantha in her red plaid Beforever Christmas dress! Thanks again!
I’ve really enjoyed this series so much! Thank you for doing it, and PLEASE continue. I’ve often wondered if some of Samantha’s outfits might be better suited to Rebecca? And I’d love to hear your thoughts on Claudine’s collection (their time periods being so close together), even if you don’t own them and just show photos. I also thought most of Claudine’s collection is totally inappropriate (and inaccurate) for a 10 yr. old. Please show us what she likely would have worn.
Yeah, most of Claudie's stuff unfortunately isn't historically accurate at all. I do plan to do a video on Rebecca and Claudie, but I'm not sure when.
I’m very protective of Samatha’s lawn party outfit because my mom made me that dress for Halloween one year and I went around trick or treating as Samatha with the matching doll for everyone who had no idea who I was.
Aww, I love that!
Can't wait to see Rebecca dress
I have been loving this series and it would be great if you could continue it! Samantha is my favorite American Girl! Love the dolls and the movie! My sister had the Samantha and Nellie dolls and would let me play with them when I was a kid. I also had Samantha’s movie coat that you showed at the end, but in a child size. I wore it for several winters. But for some reason the colors were different. It was dark purple with black faux fur trim. The style and details of the coat were the same as the doll’s though.
That's actually a different coat! It's not Samantha's, but I think it was released around the same time, or a little bit earlier, and was intended for the girl of today line. It looks pretty similar in style to Sam's newer coat though.
That’s so interesting to know! Thank you! Now I have to look it up! 😊
I would love it if you at least did Rebecca since I actually have her doll and she's actually one of my favorites as far as the historical American girl dolls go.
Amazing research! Rebecca please! 😊
I would love to see as many of these videos that you would care to do
I love this series! Would love to see you remake some of the outfits that are all wrong.
I have actually seen Samantha’s lawn type dress on women from the 1890’s up to 1910.
To be fair about her flower crown, it was her mother’s from when she was a girl, so we should be wondering if it was accurate to the 1870s or so
Yes, please do Rebecca's collection! Would love if you continued further as well; I think it's fine if you don't own the pieces, you can just show pictures of the outfits.
Oh yes please go further! My favorite dolls are coming up (Molly, Emily, Kit, and Julie and Ivy!)
Please do more videos like this
I would love if you would continue the series!!! Maybe you could use screenshots for some of the items that aren't in your collection? I recently started collecting Claudie and would love to know which of her outfits miss the mark. Also curious about Nanea...and we gotta finish out the OG dolls and see Molly's collection!!
Have you considered doing a " correction" to those "Be Forever" AG clothes?
No, tbh, Sam has such a huge collection that I doubt I'll make her anything at all. I'll probably stick with making doll clothes for eras that don't have dolls.
The original cycling outfit is so cute! I wonder if you could find a pattern for the blouse and re-create it for your Samantha doll? The cycling bloomers are pretty easy to make human-sized; I believe the illustration you showed came with a pattern illustration showing the pattern shapes, which are basically huge rectangles for each bloomer leg. I used that illustration and pattern image to make a pair of cycling bloomers for myself to wear in the Rose, White, & Blue Parade several years back, and they came out really well. Making them doll-sized would be even easier, if you wanted to do that for a video!
Maybe the leopard fur was supposed to be ermine? Also not one would find but more plausible.
would love to see them all to be honest even if just abridged! Also a doll collection video? what do you think of claudie? contemplating getting her, her travel outfit and her winter coat because they are so cute! but unsure on the accuracy
I think Claudie is adorable, though imo she has a much younger face than most of the other molds (kind of like Nanea and Makena). I think the travel dress and coat are pretty great too.
You might sew a bicycling outfit for Samantha, and then maybe even one for you, reminiscent of the Pumpkin dress perhaps. :)
Thank you for doing this. My daughter and I love Samantha and just got a white-bodied one with many of her outfits.
We would really love to see you talk about Rebecca and Claudie's outfits. Samantha, Rebecca, and Claudie all have drop waist fashions, and I'm wondering how they differ. Claudie's meet outfit really bothers me that the waist isn't lower. And, if you would continue the series further, like to Maryellen's time period, that would be so neat. My daughter loves sewing for her dolls, and the information you provide in your videos is really helpful. Thank you! 💕
The 1908 Sears catalog (which has been reprinted) would also be a decent reference as to girls' fashions of the 19-"oughts", as it had a section of girls' fashions with illustrations.
Although I wasn't aware that the details of girls' clothing changed that much from 1904 to 1908. (On the other hand, since Sears catalog fashions were sold to families living in remote areas (anywhere within a day's wagon ride of a train station), they might have been less "au courant" and closer to what upper-class girls on the East coast would have worn in 1904.)
Ive absolutely loved this series!! Im curious why the 30s on are harder to research. I would guess that we'd have more information more recently
That's the difficulty really - there's just kind of too much out there. I also feel like it changes less from year to year, so it's harder to pinpoint.
Claudie pulls of that Frilly Frock pretty well. I think that and Samantha's BeForever Special Day dress suit Claudie best. I'm biased tho, since I have Claudie and she's adorable. Also, isn't it weird how a lot of Samanthat's BeForever outfits could work for Claudie?
I love the hated beforever dress as a holiday dress for Courtney or 90s dolls cause its more accurate for a contemporary holiday dress. And her beforever bicycling outfit I stole for kit the pants and hat and sold the awful boots and top.
Sometimes I wish cute ruffly pinafores were still popular
1987 Samantha that's so cool
I love this series. If your able I’d like to see what you did buy from Claudie’s collection , because I did buy most of it, but I’m curious what’s accurate, even if you use photos from the website .
A Molly video would be nice and there is a LOT of catologs etc available for that era.
Fun fact about the talent show dress: It's modeled from a real Edwardian doll! You can find pictures of it from the Wisconsin Historical Society!
I have a Samantha; I've got the 3rd edition of her Christmas dress which I prefer to the others. It's too bad you don't like the skating outfit because I _adore_ it, and have always wanted a human-sized version.
You should totally make yourself the skating outfit! Which one is the third edition? I know in Beforever she had the plaid dress I shared and another one that was exactly the same but not plaid.
@@LadyRebeccaFashions I did finally have an 1890s dress made like I always wanted... If I ever get the time/materials, maybe then, haha.
The first two editions have floral or heart lace, the final version is more of a vine pattern. Also it was made into a darker red (they started calling it the cranberry party dress).
@@wherefancytakesme oh, I see what you mean. I've always just considered those as variations on the same dress, especially since there were so many different types of lace used over the years.
'Interesting' that, as the internet has made historical clothing research so much easier, the more recent outfit have been less historically accurate.
I would love to see Rebecca! And I'm really interested in Claudie, but she doesn't seem to have a lot of clothes available yet. (As in actual clothes for Claudie, not the flapper dresses)
I'd love you to keep this series up to more modern dolls, but I'm biased because Molly was my girl. 😂
Wow, you have lot of AG dolls. They are a little expensive for me and they hardly ever show up at thrift stores Though, I did find a Blaire Wilson 2019 "Girl of the year" last week and a "Truly Me(tm)" a couple years ago (neither have original AG clothes), but no historical dolls. One thing I do find at thrift stores are commercial patterns for doll clothes, not so much historical styles but it is interesting how many there are (and the original printed price!)
Yeah, I've only ever found one at a thrift store. Almost all of mine have come from either Facebook marketplace, eBay, or Mercari.
I would love to see a video with details about Molly/Emily/Nanea!
I have e few historical patterns for porcelain dolls, the only thing have to adjust them because the handmade one of a kind doll someone made for me is just a little bit either smaller or bigger depending the design. But that something for when my craft room is finished. And i even want to try to make it for a ball jointed doll. En those have such a tiny waist! I know I don’t know what gotten into me 😂. I never saw the American dolls in Belgium 🇧🇪 but they look beautiful.
I really want you to go through kit but I definitely want rebecca. My name is Rebecca so I grew up with her books. Kit is my favorite so I would love to see how acurate she is and how she could do better. I looked more like kit as a kid being blonde with blue eyes and short hair.
This is so interesting and fun! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I’m curious about the original outfits-I think you said they aren’t the what you’d expect from someone of her class. In the books, I remember the twins commenting on Sam’s tights being outdated, and I think I even remember Sam admiring their more modern dresses. Are her outfits appropriate considering her Grandmary is conservative and lives in the country and is likely not following current trends in the city?
As an aside, I think the sailor hat was intentionally costumey. In the book, it was a gift to the girls to make them feel like sailors on the island. They even contrast it with the very ornate hats the girls find in the attic (belonged to her late mom?)
Anyway, I know nothing but thought I’d ask how that context may or may not affect your thoughts. Thanks again!
The only remark I remember regarding the twins was a comment that I think was about long underwear. But no, it's not really that they were outdated, other than the cape.
Oh yes, that sounds right! Thanks!
I had been wondering how thigh-high stockings would have been held up on a girl's legs; the garter clips hanging from the undergarments make sense.
This is some incredible mobility of the waistline during what's supposed to be like two years of Samantha life? 😄
Please continue this series. I would love to see you do Rebecca's collection. I've always loved the historical American Girl dolls. I still have all of mine. Kirsten was my first but Felicity my second and my favourite. i also have Kit and really want Rebecca. I wish AG would get rid of BeForever and go back to the old outfits or at least offer the original outfits in addition to BeForever.
You can find really good deals on the original version of Rebecca on eBay and Mercari. I think I saw one for about $45 earlier today!
@@LadyRebeccaFashions Thanks! I caved and bought myself an original Rebecca with her accessories minus her brooch on ebay the other night.