Lulu Hashimoto is the world’s first “living doll fashion model”, and you can actually become her by putting on a realistic body suit consisting of doll head mask, a wig and stockings patterned with doll-like joints. As you can see in the photos below, the effect is pretty disturbing.
Becoming a living doll used to be mostly about applying thick layers of makeup, putting on the right clothes and posing in a doll-like position. You’ve probably heard about famous such “living dolls”, like Kina Shen, Kotakoti or Valeryia Lukyanova, but they could never achieve the level of realism displayed by Lulu Hashimoto, a true living doll and Japan’s newest fashion sensation.
Lulu Hashimoto is the creation of 23-year-old fashion designer Hitomi Komaki, who claims that she has also been a fan of dolls and considers them the “epitome of cuteness”. She has been creating ball-jointed dolls with a spherical figure for a head, for about nine years now, as a hobby, but she only got the idea for a real-life doll after seeing the life-size hyper-realistic doll heads made by a creative team called Nukopan. She found them fascinating and contacted them about working together, and they agreed.
“I actually discovered Nukopan two years ago, when they first released their doll heads. When I first saw it, it was as if they’d read my mind and put into shape something that I had always dreamed of,” Hitomi told Moshi Moshi Nippon, last year. “I still vividly remember when this feeling struck me.”
For the final element of the Lulu body suit, the ball-jointed stockings, the fashion designer Koh Ueno, who actually has a whole line of doll-like stockings, with doll-like joints airbrushed on the fabric. His detailed work is simply amazing, as you can see in these photos, and really add an extra layer of realism to Lulu.
Even though various human models have to put on the body suit to bring Lulu Hashimoto to life, her creator says that fans should trust that she has her own identity.
“Lulu-chan’s identity is mainly focused on her doll head. Even if her torso is a little longer or her height a little shorter/taller, that’s the reason why you can tell they’re all her,” Hitomi Komaki said. “You’ll see Lulu-chan in all shapes and forms, but don’t question which Lulu-chan is the real Lulu-chan, they’re all her. We want to tell the world that you’ll see Lulu-chan change in shape, form, and in fashion, but they’ll still all be her.”
Lulu Hashimoto made her debut as the world’s first living doll fashion model last year, on July 11, and her popularity has been growing among Japanese harajuku and doll enthusiasts ever since. She currently has tens of thousands of fans on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, and her following only stands to grow, as Komaki has big plans for her.
So far, Lulu has been making appearances around the Harajuku district of Tokyo, and holding her own event, called ‘luluroom’, but Hitomi Komaki hopes to partner up with brands and have her model products, and starring in music videos is also a very appealing idea. For now, the real-life doll is focusing on her fashion model career and occasionally stepping out on the streets of Tokyo to creep people out with her realistic doll looks.
Hitomi Komaki says that there is currently only one living-doll body suit in the world, but judgding by the success of Lulu and the appeal of doll-like appearances, it’s not preposterous to assume that we may see commercial versions of Lulu Hashimoto sometimes in the future.
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