Daisy and Willow

Presented to the Busy Gals Doll Club
of Jacksonville, FL
18 October 2003
By Kerry Coleman  

Doug James and Laura Meisner, well-known and esteemed artists in the fashion doll industry (formerly Gene doll artists) collaborated together with the L.L. Knickerbocker Company to create this wonderful vinyl fashion doll and costume line.  They concentrated on the Mod era of the 1960s.  The fashions of the youth quake, as the movement was called were fanciful, colorful and most importantly, geared toward the young.

The collection begins with two groovy birds, Willow Somers and Daisy Field.  They are best of friends and live in the center of the mod '60's movement, London, England.  Willow is British and Daisy is British/Hindu.    The girl's fathers are co-owners of the popular store by the same name, "Somers and Field".  Willow and Daisy's defiant and debonair wardrobe consists entirely of items from their fathers' department store, from suave shoes and skirts to smashing jewelry and hats.  Daisy's mother was a renowned Hindu classical singer and Willow's mother was a respected novelist.

The original dolls were to be both bend and straight legs; the bend leg dolls were never produced.  In 2000, there was to be a new "French Creole" friend introduced that never appeared.  There also was to be a display case offered, shaped like the Somers and Field storefront. The case was supposed to be hung on the wall or stacked on another case.  There were also promises of dolls created of the girls' mothers, along with furniture and pets.

While the fashions were very high quality, with buttons and zippers, the dolls did have quality control problems.  They were strung dolls and many dolls had leg problems with the hips rotating out and the upper thigh not quite fitting into the socket.  All one has to do is to twist the leg slightly to get it to seat in properly.

The death of Daisy & Willow came about when the L.L. Knickerbocker Company shut down.  No other company came forward to save the Daisy and Willow line.  James and Meisner left the Daisy & Willow line in 2000/2001 and collaborated once more on the CED Fashion dolls until Meisner’s death in 2003.

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