Wedding dolls play a unique role on Hong Kong wedding days and this tradition is special for the city’s many married couples.
A pair of dolls (usually the stuffed animals known as plush toys) are dressed in wedding gowns, usually an elaborate wedding dress and suit, and used to decorate the wedding car or the newlyweds’ venue.
The plush toys are chosen from a variety of dolls of various sizes and shapes and are distinctively dressed to reflect the couple’s romantic story.
Irene Law Oi-ling, 65, has been making wedding clothes for these wedding dolls for 12 years and has heard thousands of eccentric inquiries from couples in love in Hong Kong.
“I often remind my clients that the easiest thing to do is to bring a pair of dolls that at least look like a human shape,” she says. “Still, they often don’t.
A pair of wedding dolls dressed by Irene Law. She has been making wedding doll outfits for 12 years. PHOTO: Irene Law Oi-ling
“Once a customer brought me a pair of seal plushes that I was supposed to dress in traditional Chinese wedding dresses.
“On another occasion, customers wanted me to dress a pair of turtle plush toys in a western wedding dress and suit. Your only requirement was that the turtle shell must be visible on your back. “
Designing and making wedding clothes for dolls makes them happy, Law says, because the clothes are made for exceptionally happy occasions.
She appreciates that every pair of dolls – no matter what shape or how human they are – has a special meaning for her customers.
Another pair of wedding dolls from Irene Law. She takes pride in the fact that every time she creates a new wedding dress the design is a little different. PHOTO: Irene Law Oi-ling
“Many couples buy the dolls from abroad if they travel together before they get married. Also, some of the dolls may have been used for suggestions, ”she says.
“However, trends change over the years, be it the dolls people choose or the details of the wedding dresses and suits they want.”
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The fashion trends in the world of wedding dolls directly reflect the rapidly changing tastes in wedding attire. Couples used to prefer their dolls, which were dressed dramatically with lots of ruffles and details.
Recently, however, Law’s customers have been asking for simpler designs with fewer frills and colors.
According to Law, there are particular trends that also relate to which part of Hong Kong their customers are from.
For example, when customers in Yuen Long, New Territories order traditional Chinese wedding attire for their wedding dolls, they ask for many more flowers on the female doll’s headdress.
Couples sometimes present Law with dolls that are not in human form. In this case, they demanded that the shells of their plush turtle dolls remain visible on their backs. PHOTO: Irene Law Oi-ling
“That’s because the main character in Chinese operas usually wears most of the flowers on their headdress,” says Law.
She believes that this particular request from her Yuen Long clientele is due to the fact that the area is more traditional.
Law says the culture of the wedding dolls likely stems from the Chinese tradition of decorating bridal carriages.
The modern interpretation of this tradition – opulently dressed wedding dolls for decorating wedding cars – has been in vogue in Hong Kong for decades.
According to Law’s sister, who has been in the city’s wedding industry since 1997, the wedding doll trend began in the 1990s.
A selection of dolls Irene Law dressed in her home in Yuen Long. PHOTO: Jonathan Wong
When Law entered the industry in 2008, it took her about a week to finish the wedding dresses for a pair of dolls, despite already having extensive sewing experience. (She worked in a factory that specialized in making children’s and baby clothes.)
Now she only needs one day per wedding dress or suit.
She takes pride in the fact that every time she creates a new wedding dress the design is a little different.
“I get inspiration from visiting real bridal shops, watching TV, cartoons, or reading magazines,” she says.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, she frequently visited bridal stores to memorize the fashionable new designs and how the dresses were made.
Shop assistants sometimes scolded her. “They asked me, ‘Why do you come so often?'” Law recalls.
Wedding doll dressmaker Irene Law at work. PHOTO: Jonathan Wong
Some of the wedding doll outfits Irene Law made. PHOTO: Jonathan Wong
The pandemic has hit their business hard; Few in the wedding industry have escaped the rigors of Covid-19 social distancing measures that either prevent or limit wedding banquets.
Law says her business has never been this bad.
Still, she is optimistic that Hong Kong culture will continue. “I think people will continue to like and want wedding dolls. At least for the next 10 years and hopefully after that, ”she says.
Law adds, “When I make wedding dolls I feel like a child and I am very happy to see the finished result of the dolls in wedding dresses. When I started the business 12 years ago, I didn’t know anything about dolls. Now I have the feeling that I know everything. “
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This article was first published in the South China Morning Post.
