By Fern Gillespie
Whether it’s her day job as an acclaimed hair stylist and wigmaker for television, film and theatre or her passion project as a renowned doll artist, Brooklyn resident Valerie Gladstone creates memorable images with style.

As the founder of Brooklyn Dollworks, her one-of-a-kind (OOAK) artistic Black dolls are sought after by collectors. Launched in 2012, her unique Black dolls range from magical and whimsical to dramatic and historic. Her eclectic doll collections of span ballet, circus, voter dolls and more. Gladstone’s dolls have faces and limbs that she sculpts using polymer clay.

The dolls are costumed individually in fashions depicting their individual personalities. The fabrics used encompasses a range of textiles and accessories including vintage lace, trims, buttons, silks and linens with embroidery, sequins and beading. She even drapes dolls in outfits using velvet from curtains, yarn from sweaters, and leather salvaged from old boots and handbags.

“I wanted to put all my craft skills in one place,” she told Our Time Press. “My sisters, and I all knew how to sew and make quilts. We all knew all the handicrafts that were passed down by our mother, grandmothers and aunts.”

Gladstone grew up in Manhattan, the youngest of seven children. She was trained in costume design, sculpture, wigs and dance. “I tried to be a dancer, but I could never make a living at it,” she said. “What I could do was sew. I worked with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. I was a wardrobe person and did some millinery work for almost 10 years.”

Her love of ballet is reflected in her whimsical, languid line of unique dancing dolls. This series of male and female ballet dolls range in stages from graceful poses to spectacular leaping. “I was around ballet dancers for a long time and watching them flex and see how they move,” she explained.

The Brooklyn Dollworks Vote Doll collection ranges from tiny dolls draped with VOTE banners to larger scale Black Victorian Suffragette dolls. “I had to get people out to vote. The dolls started before Trump’s first time in 2016,” she said. “There were Black women in the Suffragette movement. You don’t see them, but yes they were there.”

The Brooklyn Dollworks’ Circus Dolls are a tribute to women circus performers from the 19th century. “I didn’t know that woman circuses started in New York in the 1800s,” said Gladstone. These dare devil independent circus women were entrepreneurs. In their honor, she created a collection Black female circus performers wearing embellished period corsets, skirts, shorts and jewelry.

Gladstone majored in photography at the International Center of Photography and did her undergraduate work at SUNY New Paltz and Brooklyn College, where she studied costume design. She’s a member of the Board of Trustees for Local 798 of IATSE, makeup artist and hair stylist union.

Working as a hair and wig stylist has earned her accolades. She’s an Emmy nominee as key hairstylist for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and an Emmy nominee for hairstylist for HBO’s movie The Normal Heart. Gladstone has over 45 television and film credits as a hair stylist. “My day job is hair and make up for film and television,” she said. “I did The Night Agent for two seasons. I did the hair for the principal stars. A new season just started on Netflix.”

Recently, she worked on the Meryl Streep film The Devil Wears Prada 2. “I just did hair for the background actors on The Devil Wears Prada 2 and not the principles,” she said. “I’m about to start working on background actors with The Gilded Age. The Gilded Age is a big machine. It’s fun. It’s a big job.” Other TV and film high profile credits as hair stylist include: Gossip Girl, Dickinson, For Colored Girls, Sherri, Sex and the City, Black Swan, The Wolf of Wall Street and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins.

One of her favorite film experiences was working as a first assistant hair stylist on the 2007 film The Great Debaters, directed by and starring Denzel Washington. It was based on the 1935 true story about a professor at HBCU Wiley College in Texas who inspired his students to challenge Harvard in the national debate championship.

It co-starred Forest Whitaker and Jurnee Smollett. “It was great working on The Great Debaters,” Gladstone said. “It told a different story. It’s not just a Hollywood version of the period and what people were doing. It was about how normal people looked.”

Gladstone has an amazing creative life that balances designing both unique dolls and theatrical hair styles. Her motto is: “My work is not political. It is humanistic and bears witness to the timeless social echos that are heard, seen, and felt as tremors in our souls – causing us to act.” To visit the showroom for Brooklyn Dollworks, visit www.brooklyndollworks.com