Issue 14 - Who is Heather Rosales? The Story behind the Wig Lady at Bbeauty Dolls

Who is Heather Rosales?

What you may not know behind the scenes

When I was very young, I grew up in a house where the family wallet was always empty.  It's probably from that, that I developed such a taste for imagination and fantasy and it's always been a passion of mine.  You could never tell me something was impossible.  My mind was always thinking of ways to get beyond, and make something happen.  I remember a memory where I wanted a kite because I was fascinated with a toy that could fly.  There was no money for such things and no YouTube to tell me how to make one, yet somehow I did craft one from things I found laying around the house and it did fly.

(Above: An early picture of my sisters and I playing dress-up in my mothers clothes and imagining we are gypsies.  I am in the center and I have to laugh at my sister next to me and her facial expression here.)

Running a doll company was not my initial use of creativity.  I started as a bridal designer and a photography director.  I first started with bridal accessories and then went on to design wedding gowns for private customers.  During designing an early bridal collection, I was asked to head up a marketing campaign for a private wedding venue to create marketing material to inspire brides to book the venue.  It was a small retreat on a large plot of land, very secluded and we used the approach of a romantic private getaway.  The wedding dress in the above picture was handmade by me for this project and then I staged romantic scenes, coordinated the shots and booked a photographer to do the campaign. This campaign appeared on their website and all the marketing material they handed out to prospective brides and I was very happy with the accomplishment.

Growing a custom bridal dress company was particularly difficult as brides often wanted to try different designs to select the right one and I was continually fighting against manufactured bridal shops.  I determined it wasn't the right industry for me, and gravitated towards a love for film reproduction and dived into fantasy costuming.   I really enjoyed making outfits and then bringing them to life in photography.  It was fun to pick models, create the costumes, and then find creative ways to shoot my visions.  This scene (above) recreated of Jasmine (movie Aladdin) at the fountain was taken in San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.  There were several fun scenes we did and these are still some of my favorite portfolio shots.

Over the years, I worked with all kinds of artists and photographers, and I absolutely loved all the projects.  (Above) Tinkerbell was where I first started airbrushing costumes to create prints and later on, I worked to create my own prints for characters. The clients were so much fun as well, and I became known as a princess designer and movie reproduction artist.  I worked with private entertainment companies all across the U.S. and even enjoyed some special projects with some big names like Sony Online Entertainment, Walt Disney World, NBC Television and even did some work for some famous singers and performers.

I especially loved doing gowns and it was fun to create different recognizable characters.  My husband and I often attended masquerade balls in Los Angeles to dress up and mingle with other costume fanatics. (Below, me as Ursula for Comic Con in a gown I had designed, I do love to play the villain sometimes!)

During my costuming years, I was fortunate to study under a master milliner who taught me the art of making hats from scratch.  Hats crept their way into many of my projects as a result. (Below: The Mad Hatter was one of the first top hats I built from scratch and was fun layering paints and fabrics to create the texture on this hat and integrate it with the costume).

I transitioned into dolls naturally after my two daughters were born and I began refurbishing my original American Girl Dolls.  I wanted to have imaginative play as part of their childhoods just as it was for mine.  In doing my own restoration, wigs were a particular problem and ironically it's what made me fall down the rabbit hole getting started as a wig vendor. I often laugh when I'm known as the "wig lady" when I've sewn custom clothing for 20+ years and only have done wig design for a few years. 

As I still operate both businesses, my sewing time is often packed with more projects than I know what to do with, but gradually I have been taking on less human sized projects and doing more doll collections. It is my goal to bring the elaborate skills I work with in costuming over into dolls when I have more available time.  Until that time, I mostly focus on small collections that I can manage around my bigger human projects to not overload myself.

In both businesses most of my clients have been women and/or girls and I found myself immersed in the lives of girls growing up, women run businesses, and women in families.  I have a special place in my heart for subjects such as Women Empowerment, Self-Esteem in Women, Women Artists, and Women in Small Business.  Doing collaboration projects as a sponsor, has allowed me to create opportunities on the subjects most important to me and I continue to explore ways to expand my support as I grow.

I hope you enjoy my upcoming collection for the Civil War / Victorian era and for the women in this collaboration who continue to join me in creating positivity, spreading imagination, and creating beautiful works of art alongside me.

Special thanks to Satenik Donaca, Ava Smith, and Sarah Tafelsky who have joined me on this historical collaboration and who have each impacted my life.