Come Meet Kohanna

My favorite doll related Christmas gift this year was from my best friend! We have a habit of giving each other dolls and doll related items and this year was no different.  Among my gifts there was a tall, skinny package and when I pulled off the paper I saw:

This pretty blue box!


I honestly really like Carpatina's boxes. They are sturdy, my favorite blue and decorated with pretty flowers.

The mountains!

I have been considering a Carpatina doll for some time.  Especially after I saw the pictures of my friend's Ana Ming doll. Of all the Carpatina dolls Ana Ming and Kohanna are my favorites. They are basically the only ones that don't weird me out. There is something about the rest of them that I don't find very appealing. Their eyes are way too big or something!

I was pretty sure I'd find a Kohanna in here but I took my time. First was a layer of tissue paper.

Hello shadow self

Then bubble wrap!

And then there she was!

She was tied to the box with white ribbons at her neck and ankles.

Under the ribbon was a soft plastic strap that I had to carefully cut away.

It was a bit scary cutting the plastic off of her neck but we got through it unscathed.

First glimpse at her pretty face!

Taped to the inside of her box was a plastic bag holding her black school bag.

And here she is out of the box but still with her hair net on.

Closer look at the pamphlet attached to her wrist

I oohed and ahhed over her and took some pictures, but the day I got her was a bit overcast so I didn't have any good light. Most of the rest of these pictures come from the last few days when I had a little sun to work with!

Here she is out of the box with no hair net and her bag!

I always thought that while very pretty, Kohanna looked a little mad in the pictures on the Carpatina website. Like this one:

She kind of looks ready to kick some butt to me!

But it must just be the light they use or the angle because my Kohanna has an incredibly sweet little face!

No anger! Just sweetness!

She also has waist length, layered brown hair. Carpatina says that her hair is auburn but I don't see any red and I've even had her in the sun. I would call this a light brown.

I really can't say enough how much I love her hair. It's a bit coarse but it's got a lovely shine and it's silky, smooth. I also love the layers, they add body and frame her face beautifully.

She's got enough hair that you can't see her wig cap at all! I would say her wig is right up there with A Girl for all Time and AG.

Carpatina says her eyes are hazel and I would agree with that. They are very pretty! She has both painted and applied lashes and very delicately painted eyebrows.

Her lips are a light pink lined in a darker pink. It reminds me of the lip liner trends when I was a teenager. I'm sorry that never looks good on a person but it helps define her lip shape and is invisible unless you are up-close.

She comes dressed in her private school uniform.  In her hair is a yellow ribbon with a bow.

It doesn't tie, but instead it snaps! And it looks very pretty in her hair:

Very Snow White!

Her top is actually two pieces. The first is a shiny purple vest with a yellow bow.

It's fully lined and closes with snaps at the front.

The second piece is a blouse with a sailor style collar.

It is trimmed in purple ribbons.

And snaps down the back.

The skirt is pleated and also trimmed in purple ribbons.

It too snaps closed in the back like the blouse.

 

While the blouse and the skirt are not lined all seams are finished and all three pieces are neat with no loose threads.

Under her skirt is a simple pair of white underwear trimmed with lace at the legs.

And a pair of white, knee-high socks.

The seams of the socks run down the back and continue down her foot. They are very nice quality socks. The tops are hemmed and they are made of a nice thick fabric. Unfortunately because of the seams they can be very hard to keep smooth at her ankles. But I still like the way they look.

Lastly she wears a pair of black Mary Janes. At first I thought that the white showing through he design on the toe was her socks, but there is actually a bit of stiff white fabric there.

The soles are foam with a small heel and the straps actually unbuckle.

Though I try to slip them on and off  because I'm afraid of damaging the strap. It seems to be holding up okay.

Kohanna comes with an accessory and that is her school bag. It's a black fake leather bag trimmed in brown fake leather.

It has two decorative metal loops on the front and a long strap so that she can wear it across her chest.

While I didn't get pictures of it, the flap of the bag is held closed with two snaps and it does open and you can put things inside it. I'm very impressed with this bag. Right here was an opportunity to cut corners but instead they included a functional bag and added just that much more play value to Kohanna!

Kohanna is 18 inches tall and is completely vinyl with a slim body. She has five points of articulation.

No belly button!

They are her head, hips and shoulders.  She is strung with elastic and so has a nice range of motion.

cute little bum!

Across the top of her back is Carpatina's mark.

It says 2008 ©Carpatina Dolls.

Her fingers aren't quite as elegant as Matilda's but they are adorably pudgy with very nice detail! I love those little round nails.

Her feet are just as detailed as her hands. They are not flat and the toes curve down a bit so getting her to stand on her own is difficult but it can be done! She stands perfectly fine in shoes.

I wanted to compare her to the other two types of large doll I have. Ivy (American Girl) and Matilda (A Girl for all Time) volunteered!

Kohanna seems to be a happy medium between the two.  Her limbs are like Ivy's with no extra joints. Her body is similar to Matilda's but I think it's more realistic. Matilda has pretty wide shoulders!

Kohanna didn't even come close to fitting in Matilda's clothes. Her skirts wouldn't close and neither would her top but she could wear Matilda's shoes! Kohanna's clothing fit Matilda fairly well.

The skirt was a little too big but the top fit nicely! This gives me hope for the Carpatina Tudor costume I'm going to order here soon!

Ivy had no chance of fitting in any of Kohanna's clothing and her pants were way too big! But Ivy's shirt fit well enough that I decided to try a few more of my AG sized outfits on Kohanna.

I found that if the pants/leggings had elastic they fit okay, a little baggy around the rear but okay. Tops and dresses were large but looked alright and if they had a sash they actually looked pretty good!

Shoes were a no go! Kohanna's feet are much too small for AG size shoes. I'm wondering if her feet would fit in Journey Girl shoes. The reason I didn't review that brand when I was reviewing the others is that AG feet don't fit in Journey Girl shoes and we all know how picky I am about shoes. But I may try them if Kohanna's feet fit! We will see.

Kohanna has a nice range of motion in her neck. Like Matilda she can look down.

Up and tilt her head to both sides.

If her head tilts too far to the side her neck joint shows and that can look a little weird but that's my only complaint. I love how a nice range of motion in the neck can make a doll so much more expressive!

And now here comes the part where I just pic spam the rest of this post! Kohanna is such a beautiful doll and she photographs so nicely that I took a TON of pictures. These are my favorites:

Kohanna and the sunset.

Showing off her bag and all her pretty hair!

She has such a cute profile

Climbing on the trellis

And in the tree!

Looking pretty in front of the door

With the leaves

Bottom line? Kohanna is a gorgeous addition to my collection! I'm head over heels in love and I would recommend Carpatina dolls (at least the girls) to anyone! The quality of the dolls is fantastic, the clothing and accessories are meticulously detailed and finished and they are even a bit cheaper than AG.  I'll be getting her a few new outfits here soon and I will of course review those when they come in. Thank you for wading through all the pictures this time. I hope you all have enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it and I'll see you soon with another doll review! Till then!