Silken Flame

Vintage Barbie illustrations, built environment, clones and more

Illustrated fashion packaging

Three overlapped photographs of mostly black-and white packaging for early-60s Barbie ensembles. Each has a large size illustration of Barbie in black and white down the lefthand side with text in mostly pink at right (only visible in one of the three photos because it's duplicated on all the packages and didn't need to be shown three times). The Barbie figures wear, L-R: a full-skirted sundress with tie back, wide-brimmed hat, and closed-toe shoes; a two-piece swimsuit covered by a loose-fitting jacket plus open-toed shoes; a babydoll-shaped nightie and heels with pompons on the toes. Each Barbie has her signature ponytail, the middle brunette and the others blonde. The text reads: Another beautiful Barbie teen age fashion; Barbie is the bus Teen Age Fashion model who has a complete wardrobe of lovely new fashions to wear! You can dress Barbie in the latest Paris fashions... in glamourous [sic] party dresses... in school sportswear... swimsuits... accessories from the Barbie Teen Age Fashion collection styled exclusively for your Barbie doll to wear..." The text is interspersed with little pictograms, for example, a drawing of a wardrobe--like her "chifferobe" from Suzy Goose--before the word "wardrobe," an Eiffel tower after "Paris," a full-skirted frilly dress before the verb "dress" in "you can dress Barbie," etc.
Barbie illustrations on the backs of boxed early ensembles: 916 via yolla; 986 via marysnn814b; 976 via kekaionekea, all on eBay. Colored outlines are just to further distinguish different packages. All had the same text as shown at right.

Barbie’s early ensembles were sold in boxes with cellophane fronts that neatly displayed the contents, along with black-and-white illustrated backs featuring a bit of snappy text.

Only for a short while did Barbie appear alone on any packages; once Midge was introduced, even the earlier fashions still in production came in updated packaging that included her.

Two similarly mostly-black-and-white pictures of packaging with pink accents. At left, Barbie in Garden Party and Midge in Red Flare complete with purse, both wearing open-toed shoes and gloves, both blonde, appear to walk side by side. Text reads "Another beautiful teen-age fashion for Barbie and Midge; Barbie, the "Teen-Age Fashion Model," and Midge, her best friend, are modern young sophisticates with complete wardrobes of lovely new fashions. You can dress both Barbie and Midge for every wonderful occasion in the latest Paris fashions; in glamorous party dresses; in school sportswear; in swimsuits; and in accessories fromt he exclusibe Barbie and Midge Fashion Collection by Mattel." Interspersed are the same pictograms. At right, Barbie now has a blonde bubble cut and her Garden Party dress is filled in with warm pink. Midge is brunette and wears Crisp n Cool. In the background, Ken and Allan look on. The text is slightly updated and no longer includes pictograms: "Another Teen-Age Fashion for all Barbie and Midge Dolls; Barbie & Midge [in pink scrawled text]; Barbie and Midge are modern young sophisticates with complete wardrobes of lovely new fashions. You can dress all Barbie and Midge dolls for every wonderful occasion! Glamorous party dresses, school sportswear or new style swimsuits... with accessories from the exclusive Fashion Frosting(TM) Collection by Mattel." A new caption reads, "These fashions are designed exclusively by Mattel and are tailored only of the finest quality fabrics, fashioned for perfect fit and finished with zippers, buttons and dressmaker details."
In 1962 Midge joined the fray, and by ’64 the design had evolved to feature Barbie’s bubble hairstyle. Both via brendassouthpacificplace on eBay.

The design above right would continue to be used through ’66, sometimes with Fashion Queen and Miss Barbie listed below Barbie & Midge.

Some ’60s pak fashions also had illustrations on the back, but not too many and not too elaborately.

Trio of images of the backs of pak fashions. They are black and white, except the center one is printed on salmon pink cardboard so it is black and pink. Left one shows pontyail Barbie in profile and is labeled Barbie. The other two are labeled Barbie and Midge and feature both characters (from the neck up). Barbie looks essentialls the same in all, facing right like on the front of the ponytail fashion booklets. Midge is turned to face Barbie. She gets a little cuter between the second and third images as her drawing gets a little more detailed. Each pak also has a booklet affixed in back: pink-backgrounded Barbie and Ken, blue-backgrounded Barbie Ken Midge, and a five-head World of Barbie Fashions with Barbie, Francie, Casey, Skipper and Tutti.
Evolution in pak-aging. Via eBayers Shapem and adayinthepast.

The rightmost pak’s Barbie-and-Midge-themed cardboard backing, for 1966’s Tailored Tops, has a (c) date of ’63 but includes a booklet with a (c) date of ’66 on which Midge does not appear. Her days were numbered.

Square package with mostly black-and-white imagery, except a pink border and bold pink text reading "New Twist 'N Turn Waist Lets You Pose Her Any Way You Want!" To the left is a large-size drawing of Barbie in her TnT two-piece swimsuit with coverup. She is twisting and turning. To the right are six smaller images of TnT Barbie, mostly blonde, one brunette, taking on all manner of poses including with arms bent as she certainly could not do. The six fashions are listed in the text. Like the rest of the graphics, they are not in color. Black text at bottom reads: The Barbie Look - smart new teen age fashions more exciting than ever! Exclusive designs featuring quality fabrics and dressmaker detailing - by Mattel"
Another from brendassouthpacificplace. Her store’s stock must be seen to be believed.

In ’67, ensemble packages advertised the T’n’T Barbie doll. The one shown above is special: its dressed characters look similar to booklet fashion sketches, but they aren’t from the booklets. In fact, three of the depicted ensembles (#1805 Bouncy Flouncy, #1806 Pajama Pow, and #1807 Disco Dater) were never illustrated in any Mattel Barbie fashion booklet. (This package itself contains a fourth ensemble that was never illustrated in a booklet, #1810 Bermuda Holidays.) Like the majority of 1967’s fashions, the rest of the ensembles represented here–#1683 Sunflower, #1686 Print Aplenty, and #1687 Caribbean Cruise–were drawn on American Girl Barbie for the booklets.

The following year, a comparative calm descended. The packaging for Twinkle Togs shows exactly the sketches that appear in 1968’s booklets:

Black and white packaging except for curlicued decorative border in red or deep pink. Barbie and Stacey pose in their swimsuits in large illustrations. Between them and about knee-high to them stand TnT Barbie, mostly blonde, one brunette, in Underliners, Jump Into Lace, Trailblazers, Togetherness, and Knit Hit. Large text reads, "Twist 'n' Turn Wast! Pose them any way you want!" subtitled "The Barbie (R) Look." Smaller text reads, "Exciting new teen-age fashions--the best of two fashio worlds from Fifth Avenue to Carnaby Street--just for Barbie and her New Friend, Stacey! Stacey is just Barbie's size--they love wearing each other's clothes! See allt he Barbie looks--exclusive designs featuring quality fabrics and dressmaker detailed, by Mattel."
Barbie and Stacey enjoy “the best of two fashion worlds from Fifth Avenue to Carnaby Street,” via Deal Hunters Florida.

The year after Stacey’s introduction, P.J. was added to the composition (seen below on the box for #1880 Winter Wedding). Where is Christie?

This packaging has red background with white areas in which text and figures are placed in black, purple and red. The drawings are essentially still black-and-white but with large solid-colored washes of red over the clothing. On the left is text reading, "The Barbie Look! Swinging! On-the-go! Groovy fashions ready for any kind of fun--made for Barbie, Stacey, and Barbie's new friend, P.J.--a gal who's tuned in to the new scene. They can wear each other's clothes, 'cause they're all the same size! All Barbie's fashions feature designer styling with quality fabrics." Crossing the rest of the box, Barbie is shown in a wolly-looking coat and hat with knee-high boots, captioned "For new "Living" Barbie, now as poseable as you are! Pose her all over from head to toe!"; P.J. with two ponytails wreathed in beads and a belted, buttoned mini with long sleeves, scarf and ankle boots captions "For new 'n groove P.J."; and Stacey with side ponytail in a bell-sleeved babydoll top and bell-bottomed pants, captions "For Stacey, Barbie's British friend!"
Another brendassouthpacificplace wonder.

Barbie’s differently-sized colleagues (Ken, Skipper, Ricky, Francie, Tutti) had fashion packaging we won’t explore here, except to note that the Francie ensemble box art in this last style includes a unicorn:

Same style of packaging as previous but with green background and accents in black and white. Francie has a very bouffant flip with hairband and wears a long coat, top and leggings in herringbone, miniskirt, belt and knee-high boots. Becky wears a hood, patterned fur mini-length coat, minidress, and knee-high boots. Captions say "for Francie, Barbie's MODern Cousin" and "for Backy, Francie's Favorite Friend." (Sorry Casey!) Main text reads: "The Francie Look; The latest, most lively, smashin' fashions--made specially for Francie and her favorite friend Becky--a girl who's on the go! They can wear each others clothes cause they're just the same size! All Francie fashions feature designer styling in the very best fabric for fun!"
Becky! #3444 Midi Plaid packaging from fashiondollmarket on eBay.

Where to next? This post is about vintage Barbieillustrations. Our most popular post in the category is on Mattel fashion booklets. The most recent post in the category is on the World of Fashion board game. Other popular posts on this site include the Many Abodes of Barbie series (currently covering 1962-1970) and our Chronicle of Barbie shoes, 1959-67. Or just head up to the Table of Contents to see more options.

sheathsensation

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