Silken Flame

Vintage Barbie illustrations, built environment, clones and more

Sidebar: Color Magic Illustrations

Eight color fashion sketches from a 1960s Mattel fashion booklet showing four Color Magic fashions, each in two colorations. The fashions are (L-R): Stripes Away, Smart Switch, Pretty Wild!, and Bloom Bursts.
Color Magic ensembles illustrated in a Mattel Barbie booklet. from the author’s collection.

The Color Magic line was a juggernaut for Barbie circa 1966, and with it came a raft of illustrations used for advertising and instructions. The image above is a run-of-the-mill fashion booklet spread like all ensembles merited in those days, but do a little more digging–from the dolls themselves, to the fashions, to the Sew-Free Fashion Designer set, to the Color ‘n’ Curl wig-styling set–and a treasure trove of Barbie fashion and hair illustration emerges. See what we unearthed below:

Clockwise from top left: Fashion sketch of Color Magic Barbie in her original swimsuit from a Mattel fashion booklet; eight fashion sketches of four outfits, each in two colorations, from the Fashion Designer set packaging; eight sketches of Barbie's head and hair demonstrating the color changes: text from top to bottom reads "Gold changes to lilac, and back again"; "Redhead and brownie, and back again"; "Topaz to brunette, and back again"; "Flame to carrot-top, and back again." The sketches show various hairstyles with colors matching the text, except the top frame, where "Gold changes to lilac" is depicted with, for unknown reasons, two orange-ish shades. Next image shows 18 hairstyle illustrations from the wig styling set; hairstyle names include "Double Glamour," "Flirt Curls," "Holiday Hairdo," "Ponytail Princess," and "Teen Queen."
Sources (clockwise from top left): The author’s collection; vintagedollstoys on eBay; WishBookWeb; SwellMerchandise on eBay.
Clockwise from top left: cover of Barbie's Color 'n Curl instructions. Two Barbies are illustrated from the next up with American Girl and flip hairdos in reddish tones; at center in another Barbie with curls and her hair inside a stand dryer. Text reads, "color - curl - dry - style - change color over and over again!" Next, detail from a vintage boxed doll showing packaging illustrations of Barbie with two hair colors and two suit colorations. Text reads, "Color change her costume!" "Color change her hair!" "Color change over & over again!" Next, four hairstyles illustrated in a flat colorized style. On the top row, the text "FLAME changes to CARROT-TOP" is illustrated with two reddish-colored 'dos. The figures overlap, and in the overlap the hair is colored magenta. On the bottom, "TOPAZ changes to BRUNETTE" is illustrated with brownish shades. In the overlap, a lighter, blond shade appears. Finally, a subset of 10 illustrated, named hairstyles as in the previous image. In the previous image and most of this one, the many depicted hair colors look natural, the exception being "Modern Flip," which appears to be lilac!
Sources (clockwise from top left): itsgreat on eBay; Theriault’s; C&B EMPORIUM on eBay; cdflp on eBay.
Front of a "Color Magic Doll & Costume Set." Three figures are drawn: those at left and right wear "color-changeable skirt, blouse, slacks" while the center wears the original swimsuit. The center figure appears barefoot while the left and right figures appear to wear petal pink flats. Each outfit is colored half-and-half in the two possible color schemes; left figure is blonde, right is red-haired and center figure has half blonde and half red hair. All wear their hair long and straight without bangs: the center with headband and the other two with a turquoise barrette.
Source: Joe’s List.
More illustrated hairstyles ("Playtime Ponytails," "Flirt Curls," "Modern Flip") in a simplified color scheme of black line on a solid background, with only the hair and text left white. The original background was "Barbie Pink"--an early example of such!--but one has been hue-shifted to purple and one to red.
Source: itsgreat on eBay (recolored by the author).
One additional hairdo sketch, as above: "Double Date." At right, illustration form an order form for additional Color Magic wigs shows four wigs of long, straight hair displayed on wig stands in a simple line drawing of pink on white.
Sources (eBay): C&B EMPORIUM, itsgreat
More packaging showing the Fashion Designer fashions; apparently the same sketches and poses as above, but in a tighter line style with flat color fills instead of the inked look of the first such image.
Source: Theriault’s.

Further reading: the website My Vintage Barbies has a fashion booklet sketch showing an unproduced floral swimsuit, as well as more details about the dolls and other products.

Where to next? This post is an illustration “sidebar,” meaning short and sweet. Our most popular sidebar is on the Busy Gal Fashion Sketches, while the most recent covers Barbie and friends illustrations on mod house exteriors. The top post on the entire site concerns Mattel’s fashion booklets; or just head up to the Table of Contents to see more options.

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2 responses to “Sidebar: Color Magic Illustrations”

  1. Hello world! – Silken Flame

    […] Color Magic, 1966 […]

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  2. Beauty Parlors (1964-1977) – Silken Flame

    […] aspect was very real, as the wigs were meant to be both colored and cut, and the set included extensive styling instructions; it even came with a little battery-operated dryer–a first in functionality–but still, […]

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