100 Most Influential People in Fashion

Fashion Influential #38: Barbie

By Alicia on

BARBIE Born: March 9, 1959, New York, New York
Net Worth: Several billion
Relationships: Ken Carson
Favorite Vehicles: Barbie Corvette, Jeep, Commerical Airliner
Occupation: Astronaut, Doctor, NASCAR driver
Beginnings.
Before Barbie, children played with dolls that more resembled infants. When Mattel launched the doll in March 1959, it had an idea that the new product would be popular, though no one could have predicted Barbie’s success. Barbie was marketed as a "Teen-age Fashion Model," and her clothes were by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson, who, for the doll’s debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959, outfitted her in a tasteful black and white zebra striped swimsuit that would completely hold its own poolside at the Bel-Air hotel today.

Career Highs.
Today, Barbie is as American as Diet Coke and rhinoplasty. Barbie was the first toy to have a television-based marketing and advertising campaign strategy. Ruth Handler, wife of Mattel co-founder Jack Handler, is widely credited with creating Barbie (whose name comes from Handler’s daughter Barbara). Handler thought it was very important that Barbie have adult features and be marketed as such. The result is an estimated billion-plus Barbie dolls sold in over 150 countries. Mattel claims 3 Barbies are sold every second. Not only is there a thriving collector’s market for the dolls, but designers have taken to manufacturing hand-made clothes for the dolls.
“Math is hard.”
-Barbie

Classic Barbie
Career Lows.
1965’s Slumber Party Barbie came with a book titled How to Lose Weight. Among it’s advice: “Don’t eat.” It also came with a scale that read 110lbs, which would make a real life Barbie (who’s 5-foot, 9-inches tall) 35lbs underweight. Apropos weight, Barbie’s waistline was widened in 1997, after it was pointed out that the doll lacked the body fat needed to menstruate. That same year, Mattel released Share a Smile Becky, a doll in a wheelchair, only to discover that the Barbie Dream House was not handicap-ready. And again in 1997, Mattel announced a cross-promotion with Nabisco and launched Oreo Fun Barbie, an African-American doll, which, needless to say, did not go over well. Apparently someone in Mattel’s production department neglected to mention that calling a black person “Oreo” is a derogatory term used to describe someone who’s black on the outside but white on the inside. Just like the cookie.

Legacy.
The best selling doll in history is not only a living “icon” but immortal, and her ability to keep up with the times relies only on the multi-million dollar Mattel marketing team. Barbie was banned in Saudi Arabia in 2003 by the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to said, “Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful.” Even still, Ruth Handler nailed it on the head when she speculated that adolescent children emulate adults and, given the chance, would love to start their experimentation with fashion early.

Barbie Dream House (Not handicap accessible).
Get the Look.
In 2009, Barbie will celebrate her 50th birthday. To mark the occasion, Mattel is teaming up with designers Jeremy Scott and Vera Wang, who will each contribute to a line inspired by the famous doll. Wang is supposedly doing a wedding gown (one for real life women and one for the doll) and Scott has done a “high-end capsule wardrobe,” according to Guardian UK. Short of that, the Barbie look is simple: Go bubble gum pink everything (including your car, house and trailer), lose 30lbs and bleach your hair the craziest blond color legal chemicals will achieve.
- John

High-end jewelers dress Barbie for charity: