About Us

We are two sisters who love Gene Marshall and her friends. Lee has been collecting dolls for over 20 years. She first encountered Gene while shopping for a new outfit for a certain teen fashion model. After a few days of deliberation, she chose Red Venus as her one and only Gene. But a few weeks later she went back for Priceless and then she won a Simply Blonde at a store event. This led to years of buying more dolls, repaints, reroots and as many outfits as possible, all supported by a job in corporate America. The sisters' mother, Miriam, never showed any interest in the aforementioned teen model but she was born in 1923, the same year as Gene, and she felt an instant connection with her. Lee and Miriam shared their love of Gene and attended conventions and events together and learned all sorts of fun crafts at the convention classes. One of Miriam's favorites was hat making. She made some great hats and could tilt a hat so that it went from good to wow every time. Lee made some clothes for her dolls when time permitted but it wasn't until she retired that she really had time to do some serious sewing. Most of the Madame M clothing and all of the jewelry is made by Lee.

Lynne took early retirement from her job as a corporate attorney and a month later Miriam had a serious health issue. Lynne became the primary caregiver for their mother which was a full-time job in itself. Part of Lynne's caregiving duties included dressing and styling the Gene dolls and she gradually became a fan. When her mother passed at the age of 92, Lynne inherited a few of the dolls. With no prior experience, Lynne taught herself millinery and joined forces with her sister to honor their mother with Madame M Designs. In no time she branched out to bags and totes, shopping bags, garment bags and prop acquisition. Lynne does a lot of the fabric shopping and always has suggestions for the designs. She's even made a few of the clothing pieces. She is adept at creating dioramas for the Ebay auctions and does all of the photography for the auctions.

Please visit our gallery pages for examples of our work which we sell on Ebay.