Pleasant Line Aimed at Girls Who Want to Get All Dolled Up
To outfit little girls with fantasy wear, Pleasant T. Rowland has the most imaginative concept going. Rowland, a Wisconsin entrepreneur, author and former teacher, started her Middleton, Wis. firm, Pleasant Co., in September, 1986.
As part of her business she included an American Girls Collection of clothes for girls ages 7 to 10, with matching outfits for dolls. All the clothes and doll costumes are inspired by the make-believe characters in the accompanying, American Girls storybooks that Pleasant publishes. Clothes, dolls and books are available by mail order only.
The storybook characters are the old-fashioned kind. No bionic women or road warriors here. There is Kirsten Larson, a fictional, Scandinavian girl who settles on the American frontier of 1854. She wears country dresses and woolly separates that keep her warm on chilly Minnesota mornings. Samantha Parkington, an orphan who lives with her wealthy grandmother, has oodles of fancy party and day dresses for her activities at Miss Crampton’s Academy. The scheming, dreaming Molly McIntire, who lives with her mother while her father fights in World War II, rounds out the collection of characters, with her all-American girl, plaid jumpers, her pj’s and raincoats.
Most outfits are available in girls sizes 6x to 16 and range in price from $45 to $175. The dolls, dressed like various characters, are priced from about $75 and sold with their own, personal storybook. Their clothes are priced at about $16 to $42, with patterns available at $10 each, for home sewers. And there seems to be a market for it. Business has more than doubled each year since the company was formed, says Tamara Hauck, vice president of marketing and product development.
“Little girls are looking to emulate someone, and these characters can be used as role models,” Hauck says of Kirsten, Samantha and Molly. “The characters stand for solid American values such as courage, determination, familial love and the rewards of friendship.” Hauck contrasts these ideals to the life styles represented by typical “fashion” dolls, such as Barbie. “They have sports cars, dream houses and other material things,” she explains.
Fashions for her storybook dolls and for little girls are all conceptualized by Rowland and made of fabrics designed in-house. Cotton twill, taffeta, velvet and wool are staple fabrics for clothes, flame-retardant polyester and nylon fabrics are used for sleep wear.
Extensive historical research goes into the outfits, most of which (except perhaps the prairie dresses) are classics, meant to blend with clothes already in a girl’s wardrobe. A case in point: the Scandinavian ensemble of woolens are hand-knit in black and white yarns to create a Scandinavian pattern indicative of those worn at the turn of the century in character Kirsten’s native country.
Rounding out the line are some elaborate accessories for dolls and girls. A girl-sized sheared rabbit-fur muff and hat is re-created for Samantha in white faux fur. The World War II doll, Molly, has a tiny, monogrammed handkerchief containing an authentic 1943 steel penny used during the war when copper was in short supply. Some dolls even have paper dolls to play with.
But the accompanying books seem to be Rowland’s pride.
“It’s no accident that the dolls are sold only with the purchase of a book--they are not available separately,” says Hauck. “One of the objectives is to encourage young girls to read and to learn about history.”
The American Girls Collection of dolls and fashions are available through mail order only. To obtain a catalogue call (800) 845-0005.
