FashionStar Fillies - Chloe from Kenner Parker Toys (1987)

I know that this already sounds like a slogan, but once again I was surprised by the fate and I will repeat myself - I did not even dream that a horse from this series would ever come to me! I absolutely did not plan to include Fashion Star Fillies in my collection! And here came the queen of the 80s catwalks - Chloe.

I'll explain what I'm talking about here, because I think most people from my country have no idea what I'm talking about - this horse is a bit exotic for our conditions. Basically, probably everybody knows My Little Pony (MLP), right? These, I think vinyl, colorful-fairytale ponies that had various "cute marks" on the sides of their buttocks (and not only), long colorful manes and tails, and a lot of accessories. MLP appeared in the early 80s and belong to Hasbro company. They caused quite a fuss in the toy world, because it turned out that not only dolls can be combed and dressed. The MLP brand continues to this day and is widely known and still quite popular all over the world. In response to these fabulously colorful ponies, Kenner Parker Toys (KPT) (which was eventually acquired by Hasbro), headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, USA, began developing its own line of toys featuring fashionable fillies in 1987 - FashionStar Fillies (FSF). These horses were aimed at slightly older girls than MLP, and were to be an alternative to playing with Barbie-type dolls and based on children's love of horses.

The designer of the fillies was Erica Carlson, who has some experience in fashion and design, which is clearly visible in the colors and accessories of the horses. Erica later worked for Empire and was responsible for their horse series - Grand Champions and Fantasy Fillies.

After KPT was acquired by Tonka, the FashionStars brand was also available in England, Holland and Belgium. The packaging contained descriptions in English, French and Dutch. The warnings also had translations in Italian and German.

European models were not much different from those from the US - they were usually the same, sometimes some accessories were omitted, but this was more dependent on the resources of a given factory. The horses appeared in - the US, Canada, Holland, England, Australia, Belgium, France, Sweden and New Zealand.

The first series went on sale in 1988 as FashionStar Fillies and included 6 mares - Chloe, who we are talking about today, Joelle, Niki, Dara, Calla and Lani. Separately there were available 4 fashion packs dedicated to different mares and 6 sets of accessories called StarSpangles. The fashion packs and accessories contained cards showing how the horse looks in a given accessory. Each mare had different colors and accessories, but all had a star on their cheek. They appeared in four molds dated 1987 - Lippizan Step (Chloe), Palomino Walk (Dara, Nikki and Lani), Thoroughbred Trot (Joelle) and Arabian Canter (Calla)


All the first gen fillies in StarSpangles accessories (photo from Fb)

Second gen - Fellin' Fancy Chloe

The success of the first series of fillies led to the appearance of other series: Feelin' Fancy FSF (two new molds were added in 1989), Sassy Sixteens (foals, slightly smaller than adult fillies - 3 completely new molds dated 1988). Foals appeared in two more smaller series - SongStar Sixteens - as music stars and Sweet Scent Sixteens - smelling of fruit. Adult fillies also appeared in the Royal Beauties series, which were the only ones without stars. Star Styler also appeared - a set with the Star Braider. And finally Cliff appeared (new mold) - the only stallion in the herd who had a star not on his cheek but on his shoulder.

In this version instead of dapples there is a lace

The horses were unfortunately too much competition for MLP and in the early 90s the decision was made to phase out the series. Two molds did, however, break through to another toy series in 1995 - Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders.

Fashion Pack

StarSpangles pack

This is how the cards from the packs looked like

I don't know about you, but I came saw these fillies first on Pinterest, where I was looking for some traces of Barbie horses, and of course, at the first glance I thought to myself - gosh, these horses are cool, but unfortunately their colors - what a disaster! Today, as I am the owner of pink Allegra, colorful Betty or purple Lila with blue hair - these bright colors no longer make such an impression on me. And I find FSF molds really interesting and beautiful. And when one of the fillies appeared within my reach - it was obvious that she had to come to me. I knew almost nothing about her, apart from the fact that she was one of the FSF and from the advertisement I learned that her name was Chloe.

She arrived on November 16, 2024. I knew she was smaller than Barbie horses, so this wasn't a surprise to me. I was most surprised by her hair - the tail is extremely long, while the mane is relatively short, and the most mysterious were the four braids, shorter than the mane itself, the ends of which were machine-stitched - I've never seen anything like this.

This is what Chloe looked like when she arrived:

Her colors are fairly neutral - although metallic. She has shades of pink and silver. The hair is light yellow, straw - a typical blond. Chloe has light spots on her rump and back, similar to my Barbie Ski Funs - Blizia and Snowy - so you can say that she is a gray dapple mare. I also know her breed, because this mold is called Lippizan Step - so it is a Lippizan horse. And if it weren't for the pink, it would be quite fitting, because these horses appear mainly in gray. They also have a characteristic humpbacked head, but they are slightly more massive than Chloe's figure.

Sign: Made in China, (c) KPT 1987

Chloe has a signature on the inside of her hind leg - similarly to Mattel horses.

Her biggest problem was her hair. Due to the intense styling she had done in the past, the fibers had become terribly bent, which caused them to become tangled and frizzy.

It turned out that the braids were original - that's how she left the factory. It's amazing that they survived so many years!

As you can see, she had traces of contact with something blue - clearly traces of abrasion. As for the state of her paint - the paint loss is only on the bottom parts and is completely invisible when she is standing.

And I have to say that after meeting her live - I fell in love with her! Even before she returned to her glory! That vibe of the 80s, the quality of that time, the times of my childhood... It is not known what her story was before she got to me, but she survived almost 40 years and still amazes!

Of course, she first went to wash, the details are available in the video (below). I was very worried about her coating and paint, although it was not easy I managed to wash off the blue marks. After washing, I treated her hair with a bath in a fabric softener solution and Chloe went under the comb.

Gently, step by step, with the help of hair conditioner, the hair finally became combable. However, this was not the end of the problems, because it still tangled a lot.

The mane was in the neighbourhood of good, but the tail left much to be desired. I mentioned earlier that during unboxing I was terribly surprised by the lack of proportion between the mane and the tail, so much so that I suspected that the mane might have been trimmed. It turned out that both the mane and the tail were original. Such a disproportion in length is normal for these horses.

The straightener was put to work. It was a long and laborious struggle, but in the end I managed to get it right.

The next step was to recreate her accessories. Chloe, like all her friends in the series, did not have the equipment typical for horses - no bridles, saddles or saddle cloths - Chloe is not an ordinary horse - she is a catwalk star - a model. She had four hair ornaments - something between a hairband and a barrette, a crown, a sequined tail wrap, a dress with a monogram and a cape with soft fur.

The first thing I recreated were the "barrettes" - in the original they consisted of a medallion in the form of a button - with holes in the back - in the cameo type - with the horse's head surrounded by a plant motif, a rubber band was threaded through the back, on which there were two beads at the bottom and a knot at the top. These ornaments were two in each color - pink and purple.

Original Chloe "clips". On the left - pearl - belonging to Chloe from the first series, on the right - without pearl effect - belonging to Chloe from the second series - Feelin' Fun. (photo sc. FashionStar Fillies)

Of course, I didn't have exactly the same elements. I decided to use roses instead of cameo medallions, and I had opal beads that matched the rubber bands.

"Barrettes" made by me

I had to do some tinkering, because my rubber bands, as you can see, are quite massive. It was hard to tie them and keep them on the roses. It was also not easy to thread the braids through such small rubber bands. Unfortunately, I was limited by the length of the available rubber bands, which is why they are so small.

Chloe looked beautiful with her hair done up and roses on her braids.

But that wasn't the end of the work. The next element was a sequin tail wrap. As luck would have it, I had some sequins in my collection, to make it more interesting - in pink, of course! Ok, but first the original:

original tail wrap. (sc. FashionStar Fillies)

And mine:

I added a soft part of the velcro so as not to damage the soft material. What I used was probably fleece.

Of course, that's not the end! Next, it's time for the dress and a cape. First, I made a pattern using a regular piece of paper, then cut out the parts of appropriate materials - for the dress I chose a satin lining material, for the cape a very soft - light pink velour.

I threw myself into the deep end! I decided that my versions of "clothes" would have two layers and that I would sew them on a machine. And since I don't have much skill when it comes to precise use of the machine and working on materials that escape from under the foot, it turned out - as a classic would say - average... But bearable!

Ok, first the originals:

The dress is originally sewn together at the back, and I've only just noticed that the frill is cut in a circle. I thought the monogram was embroidered, but I think it was some kind of print.

I perceived the cape a bit differently than in reality - apart from the photos on the FashionStar Fillies website, I didn't look for any others, apart from this - I drew and designed it differently. I also gave up on the clasp. The original cape is made of a velvet material in a rather dark shade of pink - compared to the dress, for example. This material is thinner than the one I used. The fur in the original is smaller and has shiny fibers in it.

Time for my versions:

My version is two-layered - as I mentioned - I went myself at the sewing machine and had problems with taming the materials with such small cutouts, and the belly straps were too short - hence the piece of ribbon. My frill is sewn from the top and I didn't cut it. I made the inscription with a fabric marker - I bought them for something a while ago, but I've never used them before - I decided to try. I think that maybe one day - when I feel like it and have a moment - I'll grab a needle and try to embroider it.

For the bottom of both garments, I used a material that you may remember from my Allegra aka Lagusia's saddle cloth.

I didn't have white fur - I admit it. So where did it come from? I knitted it from fur yarn - yes, these are three knitted rows. The fur came out thick, it composed nicely with this soft material. I sewed it by hand from the top and that was the plan, so that it wouldn't reach the ribbon.

But that's not all! Chloe is a Lipizzaner horse, so a royal one, and what is an attribute of old rulers? - a crown! Here is the original:

What do we have here - elastic, some golden leather - imitation material. Something shiny in pink sewn in the middle and cutouts in the shape of circles and rhombuses.

To make such small cutouts so evenly with my hands - there was no way! I came up with something else. This pink patch didn't appeal to me at all, so I came up with something of my own instead. Of course - I didn't look closely enough that the crown connects at the back - it just has such long arms - I cut out what you can see in the foreground - at the back I used elastic to give it shape.

The original crown lacked some extra flair, some kind of jewel - my version left a lot of space in the middle - so I used it for the crystal heart:

Ok, so following the outline - first Chloe in the original:

Feelin' Fancy

First series

Here the cape is at the wrong side, but you can clearly see the difference with the one that I've made

Time for Chloe in made by me outfit

My cape looks like a saddle or something. Ok, time for a dress.

Oh, her eyes! Just like Barbie's from back then!

She is so majestic!

I definitely prefer her in a cape. She's magical! I'm very glad she got to me! And in such good condition - no damage, discoloration, with minimal paint loss. The hair was a real struggle here, the ends are still not perfectly straight - that's why I decided not to curl her hair. I think she has enough of it. She can enjoy straight hair in retirement.

This is another session in pink clouds. I'm really impressed!