Word: plush
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...week later, I'm sitting in the audience at the plush Penn Club in midtown Manhattan, waiting to hear Post, the great-grandson of Emily, the etiquette pioneer. Post is turned out in corporate splendor--a sharp, dark gray suit. His tone is impassioned, as urgent as a preacher's. His message: Etiquette builds better relationships. Boiled down, he says, Biz Et has three aims: "Think before acting, make choices that build relationships, and do it sincerely." The well-tailored young business crowd pays rapt attention. They are the Rutgers pharmacy students fast-forwarded five or 10 years...
...actress had handed off her teeny heels and even teenier purse (which had nothing in it) to her agent. Sunshine's cast went home trophy-less so the only thing that survived on Breslin's arm was a stuffed monkey. "This is George," the actress said, introducing her plush date. Plenty of stars with whinier companions no doubt envied Breslin's choice...
They weren't the first designer plush dolls, and they probably won't be the last, but a cast of 15 unattractive, ever evolving characters called Uglydolls?each accompanied by a quirky, amusing narrative?have plopped down at the forefront of the designer-toy movement. The dolls' creators, David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim, are themselves outsiders in a nearly monopolized corporate toy industry. Their first doll, a snaggle-toothed, apron-donning orange blob named Wage who, the story goes, works at a grocery store and lives for chocolate-chip-cookie dough, was born...
Horvath was so thrilled that the day he received the doll, he carried it around with him and at one point ran into his friend Nakamura. "It was original and simple in a time when handmade plush dolls were too ornate and craftlike," says the Giant Robot owner. "The prototype had great energy and didn't ask too much in terms of analyzing it as a form or design concept. It was just easy to like. So I ordered 20." They sold out immediately. Kim sewed a second batch of a new character, Babo (Wage's blue, buck-toothed, dumb...
Despite the humble showing, Uglydolls were a hit. Adrienne Citrin, spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Association, which this year awarded Uglydolls Specialty Toy of the Year, says Horvath and Kim were the first to marry indie pop culture and plush. Nakamura agrees. "Uglydolls are self-deprecating, and it's an eternal question whether they're really ugly or not. They're made and designed well. They're soft and puzzling since you can't always figure out what their moods are from their facial expressions. They also don't fade," he says. Early on, Uglydolls appealed mostly to adults...