A GIRL NAMED SUSIE

Susie debuted in late 2003.  She is 11" tall with a fully articulated body with original face and body sculpts.  Her special facial sculpt and screening gives her a very "multi-ethnic" aura, while her articulated body enables her to have more posing capabilities.  Her body size is comparable to other 1/6 scale dolls enabling her to wear Jenny, Momoko, Who's that girl?, Barbie, and other similarly sized dolls' clothing -- and of course, Xclusively R&D fashions, and soon, collaborations with other special designers.

Susie is all about fashion, travel, culture, and the arts.  She can go from the glamour of the fashion runways to the exotic and traditional ways of her cultural background.  Never a conformist, Susie creates her own sense of style!

FUN FACTS ABOUT SUSIE

  • Susie is a 21-year old native San Franciscan.

  • Her exotic beauty comes from a Chinese-American father and Spanish-American mother.

  • She is an aspiring fashion designer and attends the San Francisco School of Design.

  • She works part-time as a fashion model and travels to photo shoots around the world.

SUSIE'S DESIGNERS

Susie was created by R&D Fashion Dolls located in Taipei, Taiwan.  She is the result of three years of hard work by Rudi Teruel and David Wu (the "R" and "D" in R&D!).

A native of San Francisco, Rudi graduated with a Visual Design degree from the San Francisco campus of The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM).  While attending FIDM, Rudi was introduced to dolls when a fellow classmate brought a vintage #3 Barbie to class to use as a fashion mannequin.  The doll captured Rudi's interest and he was soon on a mission to find out more about this intriguing doll.  Shortly thereafter, he discovered the "Barbie Hall of Fame" museum1 in Palo Alto, California and learned more about Barbie, becoming good friends with the owner and curator, Evelyn Burkhalter, in the process.  After graduating from FIDM, Rudi worked as a buyer and district manager for Silverstone Imports, a company specializing in Christmas collectibles and decorative home accessories.  During his eight years with Silverstone, Rudi traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia.  After he left Silverstone, Rudi opened his own specialty fashion doll shop in San Francisco called "In The Spotlight" .  Rudi operated In The Spotlight for five years until he moved to Taiwan to open a new doll shop in Taipei.

David Wu, a native of Taiwan, graduated from San Francisco State University (SFSU) with a degree in Mass Communication.  After graduation, David worked for local Chinese radio stations in San Francisco before returning to Taiwan to work for the Entertainment Division of TVB Super Channel (TVBS) in Taipei.  After meeting Rudi through a mutual friend, David became intrigued by Rudi's doll shop in San Francisco even though he was not a doll collector himself.  He thought it would be a great idea to open a similar shop in Taiwan, so he moved back to Taiwan with Rudi and opened R&D Fashion Dolls in January 1999.  David was able to use his expertise and work experience in the media to promote the new doll shop, which was the first specialty fashion doll shop in Taiwan. 

ALONG CAME SUSIE

COMING SOON!

1The "Barbie Hall of Fame" museum closed in 1999 after being business for 15 years.  Evelyn Burkhalter's collection of 21,000 Barbie dolls was sold to Mattel Inc. at an undisclosed selling price.