Silken Flame

Vintage Barbie illustrations, built environment, clones and more

Sidebar: All the Barbie and friends illustrations on mod house exteriors

One side of the case exterior is colorfully illustrated to show a blonde American Girl Barbie exiting the building through glass double doors, carrying a tray of lemonade and wearing Lunch on the Terrace (sans hat); Francie, in it's a date, seated at a cafe-style table; and Skipper and Tutti frolicking along the bricked walkway to a bright red louvered door. The bulk of the "building" is yellow brick.
Tutti, Skipper, Barbie and Francie cavort on the exterior of the Barbie Family Deluxe House, available in 1966. Source: jll1966 on eBay.
Francie is illustrated standing at a screen door wearing Party Date. Her form occupies the full height of the doorway. The bottom part of the door is a solid panel that says "francie house" in yellow on brown. In arched windows there is one blind with vertical red, orange and pink stripes, and one stained glass panel with stylized bird in birdcage beneath.
1966 “francie house.” Source: Fallsavevintage on Etsy.
Front and back of two House-Mates. On the fronts, Barbie and Casey stand on the sidewalk, with windows, doors, and well-groomed plants around them. The tops are pink shingled roofs. On the backs, Barbie sits reading next to a caged bird, with magazines strewn about, while Francie stands next to a record player, both in their gardens.
Barbie and Francie+Casey 1967 House-Mates exteriors, front (top) and back. Source: misscarol on eBay.
Brunette Casey in Iced Blue and blonde Francie in Tweed Somes stand on a red-and-orange tiled surface before a sparsely rendered, somewhat abstracted building with art-nouveau-style fleurs-de-lis and other flourishes with a stained glass appearance.
Francie & Casey on their circa-1967 Studio House. Source: purplejojo on eBay.
Front and back of yellow house structure. On what we're calling the front, Barbie, Francie and Casey in their swimsuits are shown approaching an in-ground pool. The house from this direction sports a pink-and-orange awning. On the back, Skipper stands on a magenta walkway, while Tutti, seated at a child-size piano, and Chris look out from a picture window with ruffled white curtains.
A new yellow house. This one includes a brick flower bed in front and a pink and orange door with colorful stained glass window in front, where Barbie, Stacey and Francie pose. Both sides have red-and-blue or pink-and-blue awnings over windows. In the back yard, Skipper, Tutti and Chris figures pose before a window with pink-and-orange shutters and an arched doorway with stained glass pendant lamp within.
Front (L) and back of the World of Barbie Family House, 1967 (above) showing Barbie, Francie, Casey, Skipper, Tutti, and Chris, and 1968, showing Barbie, Stacey, Francie, Tutti, and Chris. Sources: debonbay on eBay, moxie213 on eBay.

Note: the character illustrations on the ’67 World of Barbie house above also appear in “World of Barbie Fashions” booklets from 1966-67, and the same illustrations and positioning are used on the exterior of the (otherwise differently designed) elusive German case home, Villa Barbie.

Five views of Barbie and Francie illustrations. On three sides a figure stands below a stained glass Tiffany-esque lamp, and on the remaining two sides are pink-and-orange striped siding, maybe, surrounding rounded windows in which the characters are seen posing with closing or seated at the vanity. One of these views shows Francie in a Bloom Bursts Color Magic ensemble, which didn't really fit her--but that's what the dressing room is for!
Exterior of the five-sided 1968 Dressing Room case. Source: the_old_vineyard on eBay.

For more habitable case illustrations, see the Sleep-n-Keep section in our entry on carrying cases. Elsewhere in the mod section of that article you’ll also find examples of repeated character imagery from the ’68 World of Barbie house and the Francie & Casey Studio House,

An orange building with black-and-white tile on the lower half, pink-and-orange shutters, and yellow windows. Barbie and family are illustrated in a new stylized fashion, with dark inked details, angularity, and lots of texture in their hair. Although not similar to the early Barbie illustrations, this style represents a regression from the photorealism that Barbie illustrations had earlier tended toward.
In the lefthand panel an arched double door is shown. To one side a placard reads "Barbie Family House (Mattel)" and to the other side Barbie and Ken pose facing the viewer. This scene resembles a couple before their new home, along with the word "family," suggesting certain things about Barbie and Ken's relationship at this point in time. In the second panel, as above, is a scene of an orange wall with black-and-white tile on the lower half, a single window, and a figure standing before the window. The figure is likely Stacey, with her blonde side ponytail. She appears to be wearing the Fancy Dancy ensemble.
Four views of the 1969 Barbie Family House, showing Barbie, Ken, Stacey and Skipper, and in which Barbie and Ken are implied to be cohabitating. Source: pickerscornerllc on eBay.

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