Silken Flame

Vintage Barbie illustrations, built environment, clones and more

Japan-exclusive furniture (1967)

Grainy color photograph of blonde TnT Barbie in a skirt-suit of red fabric lined with white trim and white shell, sitting on a sofa printed with fauvist blue-and-red abstracted flower shapes. The arms of the sofa are almost like wheels with flat bottoms, made with white plastic outlined in red. Next to her are two chairs in the same style, and in front is a rectangular coffee table with the same fauvist print atop, and legs that look like hairpin legs from one angle but span the width of the table. Rounding out the scene is a floor lamp, also in white, with drum-shaped red shade. Midway up the side is what looks like a little table supporting a round clock.

“There’s lots of fun furniture, too!” enthuses a 1967 Barbie booklet produced for the Japanese market. “Desks, chairs, reception sets, and other colorful furniture with a twist. Have even more fun with Barbie! Yellow dress with red chair… your dreams will fill your heart.” (Translation is very approximate.)

And there are pictures, too. Two versions of the booklet, shown above and below, advertise two versions of the “reception set,” both with brightly-printed upholstery and coffee table to match; curious circular armrests; and a funky clock embedded in a floor lamp.

As for the rest of the furniture, we don’t get to see the desks, nor do we see the “other colorful furniture.” What we do see is a startling assortment of chairs, again with variations between the booklets.

Left: four almost indescribable chairs in curving white plastic, some almost look like paper, with seats and backs decorated in red, blue, pink (one color per chair) and gold trim. One looks like a dining table with no arms; one like a barrel chair with curving back that becomes arms; one with a straight back and two arms that come up from flat sheets that serve as legs, then curving under and away. The fourth might be suitable for a cafe or breakfast table with four curving legs, a lace-edged cushion on the round seat, and a pink circle embedded in a bent cane style back. Second image shows three more chairs, in the same general style as the first but with colors and other decorative elements all swapped around. In an inset, the reception set appears again, but now the upholstery is red with some patterning, the lampshade is blue an conical, there is no clock, and brunette TnT Barbie wearing Tropicana sits on the sofa.
Left, chairs advertised in the first 1967 booklet. Right, page from the second 1967 booklet shows different chairs and reception set.

Did all of these variations exist? Did any of them? What about the desks? Keiko Kimura Shibano, in her very thorough book on Barbie in Japan, reproduces the booklets and mentions that the furniture is “very scarce.” The many, varied, and detailed scenes used for the book’s excellent photography do not appear to feature any of this exclusive furniture. Is it out there somewhere?

The book does include one photograph of another Japanese market exclusive: “Twist ‘N Turn Barbie’s Golden Chair Set,” another rough translation, or what Kimura Shibano refers to as the “Twist ‘N Turn Barbie house.” The “house” in question is little more than packaging to hold a doll, chair, and mini TV (the last was also sold in the US in some accessory paks). An advertisement for the set, unearthed on Pinterest and attributed to one ggsdolls, is undated. The doll and fashions shown both in the advertisement and in Kimura Shibano’s photograph of a real set all appear in the ’67 pamphlets, so we can approximately date this set to 1967–but this whole post is approximate.

Advertisement showing photographs of Barbie with text in Japanese. In a large image at top, T'n'T Barbie with light brown hair, wearing a pink-and black (maybe navy) striped turtleneck sweater, white belt, and matching dark skirt, sits in a chrome chair with light brown or white flecked cushions. A second, matching chair sits next to her on which sits a small portable television set showing a picture of a character with brunette flip hairdo. Further down are two more pictures of TnT dolls in the same chair. One has darker hair and sits inside a box with cellophane front that is somewhat house-shaped, although Barbie could hardly stand in it. The TV is next to her on a shelf that punches out from the box wall, and a mirror and some shelves are illustrated inside along with striped wallpaper. This doll wears a red skirt-suit with white trim (another doll wore this ensemble in the booklet imagery above). The third doll is more blonde. She sits in the chair in front of the house box, while the box interior of wall, chair, TV, and we can now see tiled floor, has been pulled out to sit next to her. She wears a hot pink coar and white closed-toe shoes. A large lemon-shaped red spot mid-page says 1,200 yen and small text at lower right indicates the KB company (who manufactured Barbie in Japan for Mattel's worldwide distribution).
I think this vintage ad was scanned by ggsdolls.

As the advertisement’s images show, in quality the chair was beyond anything available stateside, with convincing chrome look (actually plastic) and real upholstery. The silhouette is contemporary, the color palette restrained. Rarely has Barbie reposed in such refinement.

There’s one last Japanese-exclusive furniture item that definitely did exist, though it too is rare. This one could seat two!

Blonde, blue-eyed T'n'T Barbie stands in a simple red shift dress and closed-toed heels. Next to her is a swing with awning that comes up a little above her shoulder. The frame is white metal and the seat and awning are striped red and blue on white. It looks wide enough to seat two, although it also looks low for Barbie, with the edge of the seat hitting at about her upper-mid calf..
See it at Theriault’s.

It looks similar to the earlier Go-Together/Miss Barbie lawn swing that was available in the U.S., but while those were plastic with cloth awning and seat, Theriault’s describes this one as a metal frame with vinyl elements. They indicate its year as 1967.

An aside: This piece, once part of Barbie designer and utter legend Bill Greening’s collection, was auctioned off along with many of his treasures. It’s beyond sad that Mattel booted Bill, and I don’t wish to make light of it here. To browse the many rarities included in his Theriault’s auction is simultaneously fascinating and heartbreaking.

But back to the topic at hand. In 1967, Barbie had many places to sit in Japan. We don’t know for sure if she had a desk, as the booklets claimed, but if she did it’s likely she could sit there as well. I’d also like to mention in closing that the T’n’T Barbie who modeled fashions for those ’67 pamphlets was frequently shown sitting on her x-stand. By no means a Japan-exclusive piece, this may have been an exclusive utilization thereof.

Four color photographs of TnT Barbies modeling mostly Japan-exclusive fashions. In each image one doll stands and one sits on the clear x-stand. In the first, seated Barbie wears Print Aplenty while standing Barbie, hair in pigtails, wears Francie's swimsuit; the background is a beach scene. In the others, Dolls wear shift-style dresses, sometimes with patterns and lace or feather details, and most have hats. They pose before European cities and landmarks. One doll seated before a street scene has a phone next to her on the ground.

Where to next? This post is about Barbie’s early built environment. The most recent post in this category is part three of the Barbie’s Seventies Travelogue series, and the most popular are those on Mattel Modern and Susy Goose furniture and on penthouse apartments. Otherwise, the overall most popular posts on this site are about Barbie shoes, 1959-67, and about Mattel fashion booklets. Or just head up to the Table of Contents to see more options.

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