This North Philly artist makes custom dolls to reflect the Philly she knows

Meet Tiffani Dean, an artist, writer, and doll maker who’s been making her customizable La Diva Dolls for 26 years.

Tiffani Dean was a married mother of three with her fourth child on the way when she sat down and had a conversation with God 26 years ago.

“We were really, really struggling, and I said, ‘There’s got to be something, Lord. What can I do? I need to be able to help my family,’” she said.

When Dean woke up the next morning, she knew she needed to make a doll and even more than that, she knew she could, despite never having done so before. She wasn’t inspired by a dream or vision, but Dean was as certain about making that doll as she was about knowing her own name.

“It was like a gift he just dropped in my lap. I cleared out my sister’s sewing cabinet, got a black-and-white composition book, drew patterns, and made my first doll,” she said.

It took her a week to create, and within a week, it sold.

“And I was able to buy groceries,” she said. “From then on, every time we needed something, I sold a doll.”

Dean, a property manager from North Philly who also creates mixed-media paintings, performs spoken-word poetry and writes plays, isn’t a full-time artist yet, but at 51 she now knows she will be, just as certainly as she knew she had to make that first doll.

“I’ve always just wanted to tell beautiful stories in some way, shape, or form, whether it was on a canvas, on a doll, or on a stage,” she said. “It took me until I was 40 to realize that is all I ever wanted to do.”

Growing up the youngest of six in West Oak Lane, Dean was always an artistic kid but her father dissuaded her from pursuing art as a career. Dean never stopped creating, though, and she never stopped exploring her own ways into art.

“I didn’t believe that anyone would accept me for the things I learned how to do on my own,” she said. “I don’t believe that anymore.”

Dean creates each of her La Diva Dolls herself, from the tailored outfits to the hand-painted faces (the only thing she buys are the shoes). She makes only dolls of color and uses braiding hair to create their Afro puffs, twists, and dreadlocks.

“There are enough people out there making white dolls. It’s important for me to create something that is an extension of me,” she said. “I want to create that representation for people who look like me or who look like my daughter when she was little.”

Dean’s favorite dolls are her “tailored divas,” which she customizes to look like people, or to be someone’s perfect “best friend.” She requests a photograph and sends her clients questionnaires to fill out about complexion, hairstyle, fashion, and hobbies.

“I haven’t gotten it wrong yet,” she said.

Dean has even incorporated her clients’ hair into her work. A grandmother once gave Dean her daughter’s freshly-cut locks to be used in a doll for her granddaughter, and another client requested her own hair and the hair of her loved one be used together for a doll.

“These are walking stories — they literally tell the story of the person that they’re for,” Dean said.

The dolls, which range from 13 to 26 inches, take about a week to make and start at $120 for the tailored divas. The shoulders and arms move via button hinges, and Dean inserts heavy-duty wires into each of the limbs to make them fully bendable.

Initially, Dean got word out about her dolls by attending craft shows and art festivals, but lately, most of her business has come through social media. Her clients are often adults who buy the dolls for themselves.

“Nobody said you have to be 4 to have a doll,” she said.

Dean also uses mixed media to create paintings of Black women, often using sheet music as a base for their faces (“There is just something so musical about us.”), and she writes and performs spoken-word poetry in Philly under her stage name, La Diva Noire. She’s also penned several plays, like Between the Colored Lines and Other Black Girl Tales, which have been produced here and in cities across the United States.

“Storytelling is one of those ways of letting people know they’re not alone,” she said.

Dean’s own story came full circle earlier this year, when she went to the Colored Girls Museum in Germantown for the first time, walked into one of the rooms, and spotted a familiar face.

It was one of her La Diva dolls on display.

“I cried. I just didn’t know how to take it or what to do,” Dean said. “It was amazing to think how many people, how many women, and how many children, are walking through and see my doll at the museum.”

For more information about La Diva Dolls, visit ladivanoirdesigns.com.