Thanos Samaras is a man of many talents. In the doll world he is known as Yatabazah – the creator of beautiful miniature wigs of unbelievable precision. He tells The Bold Doll about his craft.
An exquisite Yatabazah beehive wig is modeled by Dheei. Tzulli looks on enviously in the background.
Renaissance Man is an overused expression, yet in the case of Thanos Samaras, it really does apply. Another person might be amply satisfied with the remarkable range of tiny wigs he makes for dolls, but Samaras has so much more than this going on in his life.
A successful actor, Samaras trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, and he has starred in several Greek-language films. Prior to drama school, he studied Art and Design at London Guildhall University, with a view to a degree in Architecture, before being accepted at RADA. His stage performances include works by Chekhov and Ibsen. His stage work garnered a Horn award nomination as Best New Actor. In movies, he was twice nominated for Best Actor at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards (aka the Greek Oscars).
A tiny platinum wig in the final stage of construction awaits a diminutive Dusty Springfield – unless it’s for Tzulli!
Behind the scenes he is a master of direction, choreography, set and costume design, lighting, sound design, and photography. To add to this already impressive resume Samaras has worked as a hairstylist in high fashion, represented by the prestigious Wall Group agency in New York. His hairstyles have appeared in French, Italian, German, Turkish, Spanish, and Russian Vogue, as well as titles including Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, and W Magazine.
Kristen Wiig, appositely enough, with hair styled by Thanos Samaras for W Magazine.
But to start at the beginning: Samaras explains how he became involved with dolls. “When I was a boy, I used to secretly – like so many of us – play with my sister’s dolls. She had some basic Barbies, and I gravitated towards a Steffie face one that unofficially became ‘mine’. I’ve been collecting and working dolls for 20 years.”
“The first doll I ever bought was a World of Love doll that I stumbled upon in a flea market in New York City, in 1999. I had no idea who she was but I was so attracted to her gentle, amiable features, small size and innocence, she had to come home with me. She became my constant companion in my travels, always in my bag. A few years later, after signing up on eBay for the first time, I was able to identify her and start collecting her entire line. That was my first collection, which lead to discovering more and more dolls, and my eyes slowly opened to the vast, mysterious world of vintage dolls.”
A custom hand-made doll sports a witty top-knot on her ironed dead-straight 60s wig. Muio-Bix looks on admiringly from his portrait.
“I have a few favorite dolls. I adore Mamzelle de Paris dolls by Kimo Ben, Blythe by Kenner, Mdvanii by Billyboy and most recently I discovered and relish Julian Kalinowski’s handmade dolls. He is truly an inimitable genius and someone I am honored to call a friend.”
“My collection has gone through many and varied stages. I used to own around three to four thousand dolls, from the mid 50s to the early 70s, all found on eBay. That was my education in dolls: learning and discovering about materials, styles, and fashion history. After a while it felt like eavesdropping on the 20th century, as dolls always have sociopolitical information embedded in them. I purged that collection and concentrated only on dolls that inspired me to create for them. That was Mdvanii and Blythe.”
Thanos Samaras at his desk with samples and reference materials. The full-size wig head is a reminder of the designer’s human-scale work.
“I have never collected anything by Mattel, it always felt too pristine and commercial for my liking. I much prefer Barbie clones and their wacky, unexpected, irreverent universe. My favorite clones are by Valentine, like the multi-jointed Debbie Drake, Polly Play Pose, and their variations.”
“My rule is, if I don’t have it on display, it goes back on eBay for someone else to enjoy. I have dolls displayed on shelves – weird mishmashes of different eras, types and sizes, like crazy clans. The Mdvaniis are inside a glass cabinet and glass domes, as they are very fragile. Some vintage Blythes are now in dark cabinets as they turn yellow with sunlight. I can’t treat a doll like a museum item, forbidden to touch and to enjoy. If she breaks, she breaks. Like humans, they have an expiration date as well.”
One of the wig and hat combos by Yatabazah for the Blythe Hears Voices range. Check out the website to see more examples. yatabazah.com
“At the moment, I guess my most valuable doll would be a Soraya Mdvanii doll, worth several thousand dollars. She’s exquisitely made and so very sensual to the touch. Heavy, satin resin, hand-painted features and human hair. I bought her from a collector online. I don’t buy expensive dolls anymore, my limit is $1000, and very rarely. The doll with the most sentimental value is definitely that $3 World of Love doll I picked up in New York. She’s a good friend and always around.”
On doll collectors in general, Samaras says, “I think doll collectors are people who are terribly creative and imaginative and think outside the box. We are also sensitive people who find the real world to be a pedestrian, brutal place and have sought refuge in a fantasy world.”
A whole host of wigs, yet just a tiny sample of Thanos Samaras’s prolific output.
Currently based in New York, Samaras was born in Salonika, in northern Greece. Even as a small boy he was intrigued by hair, “The first wigs I ever made were in childhood, for that Steffie face Barbie doll that I played with. She had very sparse, fine hair, I still hate a doll with too much hair. I wanted her to look like certain French singers and movie characters that I loved. So I harvested hair from the back of the head of some of my sister’s dolls and made five wigs, five completely different looks, in color, texture, length, style. There she was, a different doll in every wig. I was so excited by the transformation and have never recovered from that excitement since.”
“The hardest part of creating a miniature wig is the setting of the hair. I only work with natural fibers (human hair, mohair, or yak) and it’s like a proper salon roller set, but in tiny scale. It’s very time consuming and I’ve had to come up with many techniques and create my own tools. I always treat the hair in various concoctions, to make it more malleable and obedient to my ways. I enjoy the actual creative process itself, it relaxes me and takes me to a place where I’m most myself.”
Behind the scenes chez Yatabazah. Some work in progress, as well as the tools and materials that go into making these remarkable doll wigs.
Samaras gets much of his inspiration and reference points from old movies, and explains that he is driven by “sheer stubbornness.” Other influences on his work have been Alexander McQueen, Comme des Garçons, vintage Dior, Lanvin, and Yves Saint Laurent. “I am not too concerned or inspired by fashion, more so by real life or movies.”
In terms of projects Samaras is working on at the moment, he says, “I have a few ideas for handmade, human hair Barbie-size wigs using lace-front techniques and I’m also getting into the 16” BJD realm. I just bought a Pasha and a Popovy doll which I’m so damn excited to create for. It’s a new scale for me and a new universe to discover.”
On location with brand new wigs all showing a consistent, meticulous attention to detail.
“I enjoy what I make, but it’s a real thrill when people who collect my work enjoy it too. I have many ideas for new products and materials that I want to explore. I definitely won’t be switching to synthetics though, for me it will be organic materials. Always. What I make is fragile and needs care but working with organic materials is a very sensual dance, seeing how they react to moisture, heat, chemical concoctions, different dyes. I’m very old school in my techniques and I take pride and pleasure with that. It takes me days for each wig but in the end, she’s a part of me.”
“For the past seven or eight years I have had a line of mohair wigs for Blythe, which I still do and still enjoy. She’s a very transformable doll. I make human hair wigs for Mdvanii and for Julian’s dolls – in fact we just collaborated on a special edition of his Sylvain doll. Each of these dolls has a different vibe and I like switching approach for each one.”
“I also make wigs for any doll that’s out there: antique, BJDs, Barbies. I’m very happy to be presented with a challenge to fulfill a client’s vision. Often my clients have the most exciting, unexpected ideas for wigs that push me out of my comfort zone. I love it.”
“The most thrilling part of it all is finding new textures of hair and new sources. I am obsessed with this and relentless at researching and trying out different things. Most of my hair comes from Europe and is very expensive but I’m also fascinated by new hair technologies and how I can implement them into my old school ways. I also make hats and headpieces using antique and vintage materials like glass eyes and doll body parts, which I’m always collecting and filing away for future use.”
“It takes between four to ten days from initial concept to finished wig. When creating a new style I have to make sure the style will last and the color won’t fade. When I design a new wig, I then spend time with her, to see how she’ll age. I like to stir the customer’s imagination – to think outside the box and arouse the appreciation of handmade, bespoke products versus commercial factory-made ones.”
To find out more and see further examples of Yatabazah wigs, go to yatabazah.com. You can also visit instagram and facebook @yatabazah. Samaras’s personal website is donteverloveme.com
Ths feature first appeared in Fashion Doll Quarterly magazine.