Doll Clothes (1975)

The film begins with a shot of the cover of a book (made by the artist) which is decorated with a flowery border and photographic cut-outs of women wearing old-fashioned hats and clothes. Inside the book on the left-hand side is a photographic cut-out of a young woman (Sherman) in her underwear housed in a laminated sleeve underneath the label ‘DOLL’. On the right-hand side underneath the label ‘CLOTHES’ are plastic sleeves containing cut-outs of various outfits. The ‘doll’ comes to life and looks through the selection of clothes, grouped under categories such as ‘SCHOOL’ or ‘CASUAL’. Once dressed, she leaves the book and moves onto an adjacent surface featuring a hair brush, make-up and other accessories. The doll checks her appearance in a mirror, before a pair of large human hands enter the frame, take off the doll’s outfit, and put her and the clothes back into their respective sleeves. Returned to just her underwear, the doll appears to be frustrated, and the book closes. In the film’s credit sequence multiple overlapping cut-outs of the doll in different poses line up across the frame. Tate’s copy of Doll Clothes is number seven in an edition of ten (plus two artist’s proofs).