OVERVIEW: Les Mistinguettes

Lucette

This is a topic I've been sitting on since early June. I discovered Les Mistinguettes when Lucette popped up during one of my ebay rag doll searches. I thought she was cute and looked the line up. Unfortunately, they're a mostly European line, so finding deals here in the US and then saving up to import what I couldn't find took a bit of time.

Les Mistinguettes are a line of 10 ragdoll characters from France. Each one has a name ending in "ette." They're about 14" tall, but that can vary depending on their hairstyle.

Everyone but Louisette.

From what I can tell on Google, the original five dolls were Colette, Lucette, Odette, Francette and Paulette. Francette is the line's only redhead. Colette, the original blonde, is not part of my collection. I haven't decided if I want her or not. Odette has black hair and Lucette has dark brown. Paulette is the black girl. Naturally, adorable Paulette was not on Amazon, despite all four of the others being there, plus Jeannette.

Francette

I saw some excellent deals, so I grabbed Lucette, Odette and Francette from Amazon, and made an offer on the one Henriette on ebay. That was accepted. Once the trio from Amazon arrived, I knew I loved them, so I bought Jeannette, too. She actually made it here before Henriette.

I'm not positive of the release order for the second five girls. I have seen a photo of the original five plus Jeannette and Suzette, so perhaps they were next, followed by Henriette and Antoinette. Louisette seems likely last because she's the only one not included in the group image here.

Odette

These dolls have cute simple outfits. Their mary janes and hair are a fun corduroy material. Each one has some sort of eye decoration. Most of them have a full circle around one eye. Paulette and Francette have a blue crescent around one eye instead. Louisette has what looks like stylized winged eyeliner. Cheek decorations vary as do their lip colors. A lot of the girls wear a single striped sock, while some have one short sock or no socks. Jeannette is the only one to wear two socks. They have no undergarments on and "Les Mistinguettes" is rather amusingly written on their seats.

Henriette

Each girl comes packaged in her own decorative cardboard box. I adore the art on these and am sad that I don't have Henriette's since she was an ebay purchase and didn't come with hers. The doll is tied to a cardboard liner and you just clip the bit holding her down and she's free to go. Then you can keep the box for storage purposes. I've got a nice stack of them in my closet.

Jeannette

Collecting Les Mistinguettes might be a bit frustrating for non-Europeans. I'm not sure of their distribution over there, but I know Amazon UK has a far better selection, as do a lot of French language websites. If you go on Amazon right now, you can scoop up Odette and Lucette for good prices. Colette, Jeannette and Francette are still there, but for more. I got Paulette and Suzette from a Canadian site that charged only $14.95 for UPS shipping. I'll link to that at the bottom of this article. I had to get Suzette from Amazon UK, though she is also on ebay, but from UK sellers. Antoinette, however, I cannot find. I thought I bought her from Amazon UK, only to be told it was an error, so I picked Suzette instead. She seems to only be available from European websites where the shipping costs more than the doll. One even has shipping listed as FIFTY Euros!

Louisette, Paulette and Suzette

I think the line is adorable and worth checking out if you like ragdolls like I do.

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine, except the group image. That's a promo image I had saved from one of the sales sites.











RECOMMENDED SITES:
http://www.qhousekids.com/our-brands/deglingos/mistinguette.html
This is the Canadian site where I bought Paulette and Louisette. They have those two plus Henriette. They also have Lucette and Odette, but get those on Amazon. They're much cheaper there!

http://www.globetrotoys.com/en/#home_mistinguettes
Official site.