Silken Flame

Vintage Barbie illustrations, built environment, clones and more

  • Welcome!

    Thanks for swinging by my vintage Barbie fan site, where you’ll find articles on Barbie’s built environment, Barbie illustrations, vintage rival and clone dolls and playsets, and miscellaneous musings/deep dives. What are you looking for?

    Color illustrations of Barbie and Midge from little Mattel fashion booklets that came with the dolls. Shown are: Sheath Sensation, Red Flare, Dinner at Eight, Sweater Girl, Career Girl, Movie Date, and Senior Prom.

    Vintage Barbie Illustrations

    Plus the illustration “sidebars,” short entries on niche topics:

    Barbie Family Deluxe House exterior bearing illustration showing a yellow brick house with two pairs of doors: arched, louvered red doors with rectangular shutters to either side, and arched glass doors. Skipper, Tutti and cat cavort on a brick path leading to the red doors. Through the glass doors walks Barbie, holding a tray of drinks, onto a fieldstone pation on which Francie sits at a white circular table with umbrella and two wrought iron chairs. Greenery surrounds them. A dog sits close to Francie in the extreme foreground.

    Barbie’s Built Environment

    3 shots of doll penthouses. L: color catalog image with caption reading "Here's Tressy's modern penthouse apartment." C: Jamie stands inside her "Party Penthouse" case. R: Photograph from the front of Tuesday Taylor's pentouse packaging shows Tuesday seated inside her structure.

    Articles relating to clones, rivals, and off-brand Barbie-style products

    Four images of Sixties Sparkles nostalgic Black Barbie wearing: her original swimsuit; reproduction of the red swimsuit worn by vintage bubble cut and swirl ponytail Barbies; white pak playsuit; and the 12 Days of Christmas (2022) Belle dress).

    Miscellaneous Musings and Deep Dives

    There’s still more to come, but before you scroll away, here’s the first image ever posted to this blog back in 2022: some of my dolls, dressed in vintage or vintage reproduction, in front of backgrounds belonging to Bill Cotter:

    Four vintage or reproduction dolls in front of 1950s-1960s photographs of Disneyland. Counterclockwise from top left, vintage Walking Jamie in Studio Tour crosses in front of Tomorrowland, with the Clock of the World, Monsanto Hall of Chemistry, and Douglas rocket visible. Next, reproduction My Favorite 1981 Black Barbie in vintage Red Flare in front of Fantasyland, with the Matterhorn, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and the Sky Buckets visible. Third, vintage bubble cut Barbie in Crisp 'n' Cool stands in front of the Monorail and Autopia sign in Tomorrowland. Finally, reproduction blonde Stacey from the Nite Lightning set, wearing the Matinee Fashion dress from the reproduction 1965 My Favorite American Girl set, along with short white gloves and gold dimpled clutch.
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  • More crafts and hobbies (1963-1971)
    Page from a 1971 Barbie sticker activity book depicts Barbie and Francie sitting over a paper pattern laid out on fabrid. Barbie holds instructions and a pair of scissors. Most of the page is a line drawing in purple and green, but the characters' heads are fully colored, most of the pattern pieces are yellow, Francie's skirt is yellow with blue stripes and white flowers, and one of Barbie's pant legs is orange with blue and purple flowers. The pattern envelope, partly under Francie's hand, is also in color showing two figures in red and green minidresses on a blue background,
    Crafts and hobbies via oniq_146 on eBay.

    In past entries we’ve seen how Whitman broadened the early Barbie illustration space through their paper doll sets and coloring books, but those are just the tip of the iceberg; here are some other Whitman products that helped define Barbie visually during the first dozen-ish years.

    “Barbie and Ken” jigsaw puzzles were produced starting in 1963. One featured a storybook scene of Ken and Barbie before a wishing well, a castle looming in the distance; a second depicted a much more contemporary romantic setting:

    100-piece jigsaw puzzle, completed, bearing an illustration of blonde bubble cut Barbie in a pink dress sitting on a sporty yellow convertible. She is touching up her makeup. Behind her, Ken stands in a red sweater holding aloft two ice cream cones. The space behind him is filled with a hamburger stand with signs in the window like "Malts 19 c," "Burgers 20c." Chili dogs are also 19 cents. Barbie head looks too big for her body and is drawn with thicker lines.
    Barbie and Ken jigsaw puzzle via toy88 on eBay.

    The characters were drawn in the style of early Whitman Barbie paper dolls and look like multiple artists may have contributed to them; Barbie’s head and body particularly don’t quite match.

    The next round of puzzle offerings, which tied in the recent Little Theater and Fashion Shop playsets, adopted a more thoughtful artistic technique. (Is it weird that the figures in the catalog listing atop that Fashion Shop link are all dressed identically to those in the puzzle illustration below?)

    Another assembled 100-piece puzzle, this one shows Barbie's Fashion Shop. On the left side is a window with a mannequin wearing a blue jacket and slacks. Next to that are some shelves holding bags, a stuffed dog, and other accessories; a glass case holding hats with two pairs of white sunglesses on top; and a clothing rack filled with colorful dresses and maybe a red flare coat. Midge stands in the foreground with red hair, wearing a black fit-and-flare dress with wide white collar, a wide-brimmed white hat with black ribbon, and black open-toed shoes. Barbie, another blonde bubble, stands on a low stage before a white curtain, wearing a full-skirted ballgown in blue and green and holding a powder blue clutch. The scene is completed by a circular table and red armchair. There is a pleasant softness to the drawing style, while overall it's a highly accurate depiction of the real Fashion Shop.
    The best Whitman Barbie jigsaw puzzle, via emily1398 on eBay.

    This refined art style would be also be used for handful of Skipper-centric puzzles through the mid-Sixties.

    The fun does not stop at puzzles. There were color-by-number books and paint-with-water sets (called “Magic Window” in 1964). The lines are very faint on the color-by number pages, but I tried to dial up the definition on a couple sample images for us:

    Two grainy-looking black line drawings on offwhite paper. At left, bubble cut Barbie in a fit-and-flare dress with wide v-neck collar and frilly hat walks with Ken, in suit and tie, down a sidewalk. At right, Barbie in a bathrobe, towell, and wedge shoes stands in a tiled room in front of a drawing, mosaic, or stained glass of a flamingo standing in shallow water.
    Doctored pages from a Whitman Barbie color-by-number book. Originals via sara3883 on eBay.

    The lefthand image marks the second appearance in this post of the ever-popular and oft-illustrated After Five ensemble.

    Though far rarer, the 1964 Magic Window set is pretty cool, surveying assorted modes of transit.

    Two black line drawings on off-white paper show bubble cut Barbie in a Chanel-style suit with wide collar and '60s-style toque hat, with Midge in a fit-and-flare dress with 3/4 sleeves, square neckline, and pillbox hat. Both wear open-toed shoes. In the first image They sit next to the window on a train, looking out at clock tower and bridge that is rising and folding back to allow a ship through. In the second they walk next to a chain link fence as an airplane flies low in the background, A sign hanging from the fence is arrow-shaped and says, "Claim luggage at customs shed." The first picture, on a train, is inset in the product box, which is yellow and says "Barbie Magic Window" along with a color illustration of ponytail Barbie with reddish brown hair, a pearl necklace, and pearl earrings. (She is just a head and neck with no body.)
    In the Magic Window, Barbie and Midge enjoy railway views before toting their toolboxes (?) outside the airport. Source: angel-ashes1 on eBay.

    Versions of these activities would recur in later decades, as well.

    The sticker book was yet another enduring activity. One from 1971 spins the tale of Barbie and friends as they enter a fashion design and modeling competition. Once again, the characters are a match for the same year’s paper dolls:

    Cover of World of Barbie Sticker Book shows six characters walking arm in arm. They are: a blonde with flip hairstyle wearing a red and blue sailor-style dress; a blonde with short flip and sideswept bangs wearing purple button-up shirt and orange/purple/blue floral flared slacks; a blonde with two low ponytails wearing a red turtleneck and yellow skirl with red trim; a brunette with short flip wearing a sleeveless dress with yellow bodice and green/pink/blue layered skirt; a Black woman with short, curly hair wearing a sleeveless purple shift and purple tights; and a blonde with short hair and sideswept bangs wearing a green shift with blue and white stripes, a blue scarf at the neck, and green hoop earrings. All wear closed-toed shoes that mach the colors of their outfit.

    In this style, a lot of the girls looked similar. If you’re curious, the characters are, from left to right: Barbie, Stacey, P.J., Francie, Christie, and Casey.

    Before stickers are incorporated, the narrative is populated by ghostly forms:

    Three offwhite pages with line drawings in green, blue, and red. In the first, five characters are lined up next to a sign announcing a "Fashion Fair Style Show. All girls will design and model their own clot[the rest of this word is blocked by a figure]. Enter now." In the middle, a character holding scissors cutous out pattern pieces on a table while another looks at a fashion on a dressform. In the third, four characters stand around three dressforms displaying garments. All of the characters' heads are blank, just surrounded by a dotted outline, as are various other elements in the images such as skirts and some tops and accessories. These are waiting to be filled with included stickers (not shown).
    This and previous: MVLVR2007 on eBay.

    Spooky, right? But I kinda think they’re perfect as they are.

    It turns out adding the detailed sticker heads to the composition can make them more creepy, instead of less, as Barbie’s knife-wielding mom so ably demonstrates in this played-with sticker book from 1963:

    Two page spread of line drawings like in the previous image, but different scenes with some stickers applied. On the lefthand page, bubblecut Barbie, whose hair and head are a line drawing that is not blank/awaiting a sticker, has a sticker blue top, line-drawn full skirt, and sticker lergs in blue pumps. She leans over her mother, who sits peeling potatoes in her lap. Mother's body is a line-drawn apron, bowl of potatoes, knife, etc. Liek Barbie, her legs are fleshtoned with fully illustrated (white) shoes, and her head and neck are also fully illustrated in color. The fleshed-out head and neck above the line-drawn body looks disconcerting. It almost just looks like a hovering head, and to add to that she has a sort of sinister, knowing smile. On the right side, bubble cut Barbie's head and neck are now a fleshed-out sticker on a line-drawn figure holding up a dress on a hanger. the dress has a green sticker top and line drawn full skirt. Behind her hang two more dresses, one a yellow sheath with brown belt and button accents that the shoulders, and one a line drawn full skirt with buttons on the bodice. This is colored pink with crayon.
    via jacquabb_75 on eBay.

    The used 1971 sticker page that kicked off this post looks slightly less eerie.

    This wraps up our investigation into early Whitman Barbie illustrations. There were other miscellaneous offerings both Whitman and non-, but from an artwork perspective we feel we’ve covered the major styles and themes.

    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.

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  • Barbie’s ’70s Travelogue, Part I: The Mountains are Calling
    Two color photographs. Left is an illustration on the exterior of a vinyl case, showing Barbie in a floor-length red dress, white hat, and red scarf with white stripes, standing in a cabin. Its details are mainly described in the text, but to one side is a fireplace with wooden clock on the mantel, and to the other is a set of bunkbeds with a short ladder, a large window looking out on a snowscape, and a table that extends from the beds, set with teacups, teapot, and case of flowers. Right is a photograph of a blonde doll with Steffie face and two ponytails, wearing red pants and a red and white top, seated before two sides of a small room, with a balcony surrounding her, and a snow scene in the background, Ken stands outside in a blue coat, holding a yellow plastic toboggan.
    Alpine adventures, via sigourneyrose and High Tech Crafts on eBay.

    At the conclusion of our Many Abodes of Barbie series, we noted that the Seventies would bring a new focus to Barbie’s built environment, this time outside the domicile. Today we reveal that that focus is travel, and during this decade Barbie exhibited a strong preference for mountain getaways.

    Photo of interior of the Mountain Ski Cabin, essentially as described. On the mantel alongside the clock (these are all illustrations on the vinyl wall) are a vase of flowers, a bowl of fruit, and a couple little pictures of fruit. Along the top are little cabinet doors in the vinyl that really open and close. To the left of the fireplace, spanning from floor to ceiling, is an inset closet with skis, skates and mittens illustrated. On the wall to our right, to either side of the window are a little wooden organizer of something, and a couple posters, one saying ASPEN with a rainbow and one showing a sailboat in the sunset. The rest of the room folds down from this wall, consisting of the bunked with small ladder, the table that extends from them, and a wood-look floor with a pink and yellow throw rug.
    Exhibit A, interior. Via thriftmama on eBay.

    Consider Exhibit A: Barbie’s 1972 Mountain Ski Cabin. The exterior of this case house, shown at the top of this post, features an illustration of Barbie, bundled up against the cold, posing in a wood-forward room with bunk beds, folksy woven textiles, a table with tea set, a view of snowy slopes, and a crackling fire; and that’s pretty much what you’ll find inside the case, too. There is storage along the wall with the fireplace, with skis and other articles depicted in the closet. The set is made from durable vinyl and many examples can be found in good condition today, although plastic accessories, which varied across catalog descriptions (tea set? camp chairs?), are more often than not missing.

    Color catalog image that matches the Mountain Ski Cabin in most respects, except the interior is a very light wood color where the produced version is medium to dark brown. A different angle into the closet is show, with a sled and snow boots depicted on the third wall. Also visible in this shot are two plastic stools that look like the would fold up, with x-shaped legs and cloth seats suspended across. I think the real version did not fold, but as the text mentions, these are rare. Two Barbies with long blonde hair sit at the table, using the stools. Text reads: "Barbie's Mountain Ski Cabin, $7.49, dolls not included, Open up this super carry case and . . PRESTO . . it's a cozy mountain cabin. There are bunk beds, a pretend fireplace, sleeping bads, table, chairs, bar-b-que and utensils. Sturdy vinyl case is 27x16x13 in. high, folds up for storage or travel. Stores 1 doll (not included). For ages 5 to 12. So easy to buy when you just use the phone. 49 N 31239--Shipping weight 1 pound 8 ounces... $7.49.
    Barbie and… Barbie, I think, test out a prototype of the Mountain Ski Cabin. Source: wishbookweb.com.

    Sears’ 1972 catalog shows this set looking airier, with a lighter wood finish. The image was corrected in subsequent catalogs.

    By the middle of the decade, Barbie had decided to camp and nothing was going to prevent her from camping. Check out this spread of play sets from a single 1973 World of Barbie booklet:

    Spread of three playsets from the little Mattel pamphlet. These are: "Barbie;s Country Camper. Features a slide-out door, steering wheel, front window that opens, too. Includes camping gear. Dolls not included." The item looks like a yellow van with removable orange roof. One of the side panels slides to the side. A blonde doll is seated outside on a camp chair similar to the ski cabin one with two sleeping bags at her feet. "Barbie's Camp-out tent. Barbie and friends camp in style. Includes camping gear. Dolls not included." A blue and white tent is shown with Ken, maybe skipper, the camp stools, a sleeping bag, a table that looks like it might fold, and a cooking set. "Barbie's Goin' Camping Set. Barbie & friends are ready for a weekend in the mountains, desert or at the beach! Breezy Buggy really rolls! Tent-Trailer closes up for towing! Complete camping gear included. Dolls sold separately." The same table, one chair, and cookware as the previous, with a wider, pink-and-yellow tent and a little two-seat vehicle with a tall flag on the back.

    This trio would continue to be offered at least through ’77.

    Of course, camping is not mountain-exclusive, and some of those scenes are downright beachy. But by 1975 Barbie had unambiguously ascended the peaks again, this time to the Olympic Ski Village.

    The box front from the Olympic Ski Village is a color photo of the set in front of a mountain scene. A detail of the box showing (probably) PJ in the house and Ken nearby was included at the top of the post. The rest of the scene is a skiing incline that starts on the roof of the living structure and is over 6 feet long, according ot an inset. Barbie herself is shown on a pair of plastic skis with supports running between them, wearing red with a number 9 on her chest. Text said "Barbie's Olympic Ski Village. A winning run down the ski slope... Then relax with friends by the "fire"!"
    Olympic Ski Village box art, via Prime Time Auction.

    The Ski Village consists of a long ski run with equipment to ski or toboggan down, plus a modestly-sized domestic scene with cozy fireplace, glimpsed bed, and satisfyingly Seventies green table/stool with swivel chair, all tucked into a wraparound patio. On the lower level firewood is stacked.

    Two color photographs. One shows two walls of a "room." One wall has an illustrated fireplace with cat and mouse figures and vase of flowers atop, plus a poster with Barbie in profile that says Barbie's Olympic Ski Village. Second wall shows a double bed with pink and yellow pillows, wood foot and headboard with little blue flower decorations, a spherical pendulum light, and potted plant hanging from the ceiling. Both have wooden beams along the top, and the ski slope can be seen starting to one side. In front of the walls is an angular green chair with armrests and matching stool or footrest. All are on a wood-planked-style floor that extends past the structure as a patio and has low yellow railing along the edges. Second picture shows what's below the living area: more wood beamwork illustrated on the walls, plus fieldstone on the fireplace side. A stack of firewood is illustrated on one panel and a plain bench or seat is molded in plastic to the other side. The floor and supports are of blue plastic.
    Perspectives on the living space, upstairs and down. Via metaltree and noni0616 on eBay.

    We found one extra wall in an eBay listing, this one showing a television camera upstairs, pointed out a window toward skiers on a snow-covered slope, and a weight room below. It’s not clear if this piece originated with the Olympic Ski Village: there seems to be no place for it, it’s neither listed in the instructions nor depicted on the box or advertisements, and its proportions aren’t quite right, but it’s certainly on theme. Maybe there was a later version, or something.

    Two two walls described in the previous image are shown here removed form the structure. The living area and below deck area are made of two continuous pieces. A third, similar piece shows a TV camera pointed toward a skier on a slope outside a window. There's a set of headphones hanging from the camera, plus a monitor, implying a production booth. Downstairs is a clock and some weights on a yellow wall. One problem with this wall as part of the described structure is that the proportions of the upper and lower rooms are reversed: the living area of the actual play set has higher ceilings than the below stairs area, but in the third mysterious piece the production booth is shorter than the weight room below.
    Two walls we understand and one we don’t. Via thethriftkeeper and ctinetoys_1 on eBay.

    An aside: department store catalog years are used herein wherever possible as these represent when offerings became available to the public, rather than the copyright date. The Olympic Ski Village is a perfect example: everywhere, you’ll see this set dated 1974. But the ’70s Winter Olympics took place in 1972 and 1976; In ’74 this set was irrelevant. In truth, the Ski Village first appeared in the ’75 Christmas catalogs for kids looking forward to the ’76 Olympics, which kicked off just six weeks after that Christmas.

    Now… where will Barbie’s Seventies wanderlust take her next?

    Stacy doll in the United Airlines stewardess uniform (the pieces with striped sleeves and slacks) stands surrounded by luggage in front of the open Friend Ship, which shows an illustration of suitcases stacked below handing coats. Next to these is a physical closet containing more doll luggage and some doll skis. The specifics of the luggage items will be elaborated in a future post.

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  • The Two Abodes of Tammy

    In the early ’60s, the glory days of chipboard living, Barbie’s rivals enjoyed rooms and apartments of their own. Tammy, an early competitor from Ideal, came out with a pair of domestic play sets in 1963, hot on the heels of Barbie’s first Dream House.

    The first of these houses was not marketed specifically for Tammy but advertised as a home for Tammy OR Barbie, and is known simply as the 1963 Ideal House. While Barbie’s starter home was studio-style, the Ideal House boasted three rooms with furniture to match. A listing in that year’s Sears Wish Book outlines the premise, showcasing Barbie and Midge as occupants of the home alongside Tammy:

    Color listing for the Ideal House, which looks like photographs enhanced with illustrated or at least hand-colored furnishings. Brunette Midge, wearing the pink gown from Sophisticated Lady, reclines in the living room. Bubblecut Barbie, in a negligee, sits before a heart-shaped vanity. Tammy raids a pink fridge. Text reads: "Sears puts at your fingertips more of what America's children want most; THIS DOLL HOUSE; Three completely furnished rooms and a patio, all of corrugated board, scaled to fit Tammy and her family, or Barbie and her friends. Modern, colorful house opens to almost 4 1/2 feet long."
    Sears devoted a full page to the Ideal house (which, despite the copy, is not corrugated).

    The bedroom, clearly intended for a teenaged girl, is more youthful than any Mattel ever designed for Barbie–it’s closer in style to Skipper’s bedroom. The kitchen looks comfortable, if a bit pink, while the patio is merely alluded to in furnishings–not a well-defined space.

    Thee small images of chipboard rooms and furniture. At left, a kid's room with pink furniture and blue walls. Pennants and "photographs"hang on the wall. The vanity mirror is heart-shaped. White curtains with pink ribbons cover the windows, and a pink area rug covers much of the floor. At center, blue-and=yellow striped patio furniture, including a picnic table with one bench and an umbrella, sit in front of the house. At right, a kitchen with pink tiles walls, pink cabinets and appliances, and pink stools cdawn up to a pink counter.
    Bedroom, patio and kitchen. Sources (all eBay): dawnpippadollfashionfurniture, toystuffs, 608samolly.

    The piece de resistance of this home is its large, luxurious living room, boasting a range of seating options, electronics, shelving/storage, and other little flourishes like a fireplace and fish tank. Rounding out the scene, the warm color scheme and wall decor give the room a welcoming feel.

    A large (for Barbie or Tammy) room interior. Furnishings are folded chipboard. Furnishings are described in this post. The wallpaper is a brown/orange check pattern on white; the sofa and chair are orange with brown and "wood" accents. Blue and yellow storage units occupy the back corners, one with a rod for hanging clothing and one with various shelves and cabinets, some occupied by the "electronics." in front of the fireplace, at center rear, sits a blue and "wicker" rocking chair. Some indistinct paintings hang on the walls, and the floor is wall-to-wall carpet texture in beige.
    A well-appointed living room. Source: dollwhisperertx on eBay.

    Barbie’s first home had a television and turntable built into a single console. Ideal countered with a television, film projector, radio, and record player as separate units that had space on the built-in shelves. In contrast to Barbie, however, there are no books in the Ideal house.

    Close up on four pieces of chipboard "electronics." All have wood look and gold-ish plating. A radio is signified by knobs, a dial, and a couple of input/output jacks. A film projector has two reels sticking up. A record player has three knows and what appears to be a speaker on the front. A black-white television has two knobs in the bottom corners and smiling woman illustrated on the screen.
    Chipboard electronics. Via thegreatwarinbrickslegoandtoys on eBay.

    The exterior makes clear that this home is, like Barbie’s, a suburban haven.

    Color photo of a chipboard playset "house" in brown and blue. House exterior is lines with shrubbery, and a house number (2635) extends from a lamp post next to the windowpaned front door.
    ’63 Ideal House exterior. Source: Red Rover Virginia on eBay.

    But what’s more suburban than a ranch-style home with carefully manicured lawn? A ranch-style home with carefully manicured lawn and a separate structure for the teenaged family members to entertain their friends, complete with ping-pong, a soda fountain, and color TV. Enter Tammy’s Playhouse.

    Color listing for Tammy's Play House, or as its caption says, "Tammy's Dream House." Text reads: "Tammy entertains in her Playroom or Patio. $4.40. Has soda fountain, juke box, TV set, table tennis table, shuffleboard, built-in desk, closet. Pictures, dark board game on wall. Patio has chaise lounge, side table, barbecue pit. Chipboard. Folds, with handle. 26x33x14 1/2 inches high. 79 N 9361L. Shipping weight 8 pounds." Room is mainly as described there and in the post, The entire back wall consists of built-in furniture. In addition to the desk is a day bed with colorful pillows and various storage. Above some hanging clothing is a shelf with two hats, one of which appears to be Barbie's from After Five. The desk has a chair with heart-shaped back in red and pink. A Tammy doll stands behind the counter of the soda fountain.
    Tammy’s Playhouse in the 1963 Sears Wishbook (via christmas.musetechnical.com)

    While Barbie is welcome to use the main house, above, this accessory dwelling unit is pretty Tammy-specific: An awning over the soda fountain reads, “Tammy’s Soda Shoppe,” and a small yard sign is there to ward Barbie off when she starts getting ideas.

    Two photographs of the set. One an interior shows a counter with a white top and blue side. Illustrated on the wall behind it are shelves holding glassware and jars of candy. A little faucet mechanism is freestanding on the counter. Stools with yellow seats sit close by, and a jukebox is just visible in the foreground corner. Along the white brick wall next to the counter a pair of skis are illustrated leaning. Other image shows the outside of a red house with flower bushes and a small tree. A little emblem--not really a yard sign, just floating there, reads "tammy's IDEAL HOUSE." There may be an (R) or TM next to the name Tammy, but it's indistinct.
    “Soda Shoppe” with awning (and convenient? place for skis to lean); small sign reading “Tammy’s Ideal House” on the playset exterior. Via eBayers janetnmark2010 and csimages.

    The sharp-eyed reader has noticed that we list among Tammy’s conveniences a color TV, but the catalog image above shows a black-and-white set. Even though the main house settled for watching in monochrome, Tammy’s television was actually produced in color. (We pay attention to the TVs around here).

    Close up of a color "TV" showing a smiling blonde. Plus a wood-look table with white top, two square stools with yellow tops and black bases, and three boxy little "pillows," a square and two triangles in red, orange and mustard color.
    Tammy’s television, along with a side table, two stools, and some throw pillows. Source: csimages on eBay.

    The catalog entry also exposes that Tammy had a physical, built-out patio with its own brick oven or fireplace. Otherwise, this structure’s exterior resembles a separate domicile more so than it does an outbuilding.

    Two frames, one showing the front of a chipboard house and one the side. In the first, illustrated on the box is an entryway with two steps up to a front door surrounded by flower boxes. Off to the side, a large picture window looks in on a lamp sitting on a wooden table or low shelf. In the second, a colorful fieldstone patio extends from the house. On it is a stone fireplace of some sort, as well as an outdoor chair for sunbathing or reclining. A glass-look folding door allows passage into the structure.
    Street (?) view of Tammy’s Playhouse, plus the side patio. Sources: janetnmark2010 and brian1235 on eBay.

    Gracious living for the girl next door!

    Where to next? If you enjoyed this post about the built environments of Barbie clones, you may be interested in the ones on beauty parlors and penthouse apartments. The overall most popular posts on this site are about Barbie shoes, 1959-67, and Mattel fashion booklets. Or just head up to the Table of Contents to see more options.

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  • Sidebar: Mattel Fashions for Julia
    Four black-and-white illustrations of a fashionably-dressed character are overlaid on colorful rectangles. The character has short, dark hair. In three images she wears mini skirts and heels under outerwear (two coats and one cape). With two of these she also wears fuzzy hats. In the final image she wears an ankle-length garment with tiered, oversized ruffles and slippers.

    Among Barbie’s 1960s celebrity pals, Julia must have had the biggest star turn. Witness: the dolls are still plentiful 50+ years later, implying brisk sales; and of the three “personality” dolls, only Julia received both her own line of fashions and a re-release as a Talking doll (Twiggy also had a fashion line, while Truly Scrumptious also came in a Talking version); and only Julia had a further gift set with exclusive fashion.

    With the various Julia-centric releases came some unique fashion sketches. Let’s check em out.

    The side of a fashion doll box shows an illustrated character on a hot pink background. The character wears a matching skirt and jacket in acid green with pink ruffle trim and pink shoes.
    via anic3780

    Star of stage and screen Diahann Carroll, who played Julia on TV, expressed dismay that Mattel had her sit for sketching and studying and then released a doll based on her character using the same face as Barbie’s friend Christie. It’s clear that the illustration above, which appeared on the original doll’s packaging, uses Carroll’s likeness. However, her face looks traced or drawn from a photograph–no live sketching needed. Other images on the package are photographs of Carroll in-character as Julia.

    The doll wore a nurse’s uniform on initial release but wasn’t illustrated in it for the product packaging. The illustrated character instead wore Barbie’s Fancy Dancy ensemble. If Julia in her nurse’s uniform was ever illustrated, for example for a booklet, we haven’t seen it. At least once, the Julia doll who came wearing a nurse’s uniform (product #1127) was advertised in a booklet in photograph form, wearing no known Barbie or Julia fashion and certainly not her uniform:

    Color catalog scan advertising Julia. Text reads: NEW! DIAHANN CARROLL as Julia; Meet America's newest TV star and Barbie's newest entertainment friend; Enchanting personality exactly like the star of the smash-hit situation comedy show; Twist 'n turn waist! Bendable legs, real eyelashes too. Be sure to watch "JULIA," brought to you by Mattel every week on NBC-TV! Juliar wears all Barbie's clothing. #1127. A color photograph shows the Julia doll wearing a pink dress with a bit of fit-and-flare, ending just above the knee, coated in silver glitter or some silver sheen, sleeveless with a scoop neckline trimmed in silver. She wears pink closed-toed shoes.

    The doll’s signature fashions were still to come.

    The black and white illustrations from the first image are featured on the back of doll clothes packaging. Text reads "FASHIONS FOR YOUR JULIA DOLL"; "DIAHANN CARROLL AS JULIA NEW TV STAR"; "YOUR BARBIE, CHRISTIE AND STACEY DOLL CAN WEAR THESE FASHIONS, TOO!" "EXCLUSIVE DESIGNS BY MATTEL! / THE LOOK OF NOW / CUSTOM DESIGNED ESPECIALLY FOR YOU TALKING AND TWIST N TURN WAIST JULIA DOLLS / JULIA FASHIONS FEATURE FINEST QUALITY FABRICS AND DRESSMAKER DETAILING"
    via katcleg-9

    The line of four Julia-inspired fashions were illustrated in black and white on the back of each fashion’s packaging. (These images also appear in a collage at the top of the post.) While the figures modeling these looks are most certainly Julia-based, they are a looser interpretation than the “Fancy Dancy” drawing.

    Two shots of full-color packaging for Talking Julia doll. Illustrated character wears the four fashions as described in the first image, now in color on differently colored rectangles.
    via mattmasoncaptainactionboydrevil

    Talking Julia had all-new packaging with all-new color illustrations of the fashions. The faces in these illustrations again appear to be adapted from photographs of Carroll.

    Detail of the four fashions illustrated on the packaging in in the previous image
    Details of the Talking Julia packaging via *toyscout* and craigstevens

    The art style here is pretty basic, with minimal contouring and little sense of action, in line with other Barbie art of the period as photography became the primary medium to showcase the products.

    Once again, the dressed doll’s fashion–this time, a metallic color block jumpsuit–was not illustrated on the packaging. However, the Simply Wow gift set box featured two fashion illustrations: Talking Julia in her jumpsuit (included in the gift set) and wearing the set’s extra fashion, a teal skirt-suit.

    Two Julia characters are illustrated on a square box lid. A smaller figure wears a bellbottomed, belted jumpsuit that is half gold and half silver; a closeup figure wears a teal Chanel-type suit in teal with gold trim with white shirt. In the background on the packaging is a kaleidoscopic collage of Julia's (Diahann Carroll's) photographed face repeated. Text says "Talking JULIA Simply Wow Set" with smaller text explaining that she says many phrases unpredictably.
    Talking Julia Simply Wow gift set. Source: Barbie Doll Fashion, Vol. II by Sarah Sink Eames.

    Unless and until the elusive illustration of Julia in her original nurse’s uniform comes to light, that’s that: eleven hand-drawn Julias wearing six of the seven Mattel fashion designs for Julia plus Fancy Dancy as a treat.

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  • The built environments of mini vintage Barbies
    Brunette Casey doll in red sailor dress with teal trim, matching hat, and teal shoes (the Land Ho!! ensemble) stands in front of Barbie's original Dream House plaid sofa, blue chair, and wood-look coffee table (all chipboard). On the table sits a miniature chipboard house--mostly just a long wall of a house with a couple pieces jutting out on the far side. It shows a yellow single-story exterior with brick and greenery elements. Near the illustrated front door of the tiny house on the table stands a small figurine in a red suit and hat, carrying a wide black portfolio (representing Barbie in Busy Gal at 1:6 scale)
    Casey gestures toward the mini New Dream House that came with Skipper’s bedroom. Bandai mini Busy Gal stands outside.

    One of the last key topics we have yet to cover in Barbie’s 1960s built environment is this one: miniature environs suited for Barbie-scaled vintage Barbie dolls. Since Barbie is 1:6 scale and 11.5″ tall, we’re talking about dolls that are 1:36 scale relative to a human, standing just a hair under 2″ high. Note that we draw a distinction between mini vintage Barbies and vintage mini Barbies: under the heading of mini vintage Barbies we include mini dolls that were made as recently as this century, but styled like Barbie of 50+ years ago. The Bandai mini Busy Gal, shown above, is but one example.

    In the category of vintage mini Barbies, mini dolls manufactured 50+ years ago, there is only one example: the red-swimsuited, swirl ponytail doll Francie holds at right, below. The doll was sold in several sets for Skipper and Tutti; when purchased as part of the “Me and My Doll” Skipper ensemble she included a tiny, elastic gingham skirt in red or pink, as shown below.

    And in the category of vintage mini Barbie houses there is only the miniature New Dream House, front and back views of which are displayed above and below. This is one of many delightful little chipboard accessories that came with Skipper’s 1965 Dream Room. Although lacking furniture and with simplified structure and screening, this mini house is on the whole a pleasing adaptation.

    The mini new dream house sits on the Dream House coffee table, with sofa and chair still in background. The mini house is flipped around to show its interior, which resembles the full-sized house's with some simplifications. Most of the house is a single long piece of chipboard, but dimensional sections are inserted to represent Barbie's wardrobe and the kitchen counter with pass-through window (pass-through is not operational). In the foreground, two Francies sit on the floor, one holding a mini original ponytail Barbie in her chevron/zebra/debut swimsuit, and one holding a mini swirl ponytail Barbie in her original red swimsuit with a red-and-white cloth gingham kneelength skirt. The Francie at left wears a velvet-textured navy dress with pleated skirt and yellow buttons and trim (Pleat Neat). Francie at right wears a pink dress with white crocheted collar and cuffs, white lace tights, and pink heels (Dance Party, but with Iced Blue stockings). She also wears the white lace hood with pink trim but it's mostly hidden behind her head.
    Francie and Francie brandish the vintage mini Barbie and the 40th anniversary mini Barbie in front of the mini New Dream House.

    Decades would pass before another mini Barbie environment was produced.

    A square wooden table holds a mini case room lying open with its interior displayed. The interior consists of colorful, modern-style molded plastic furniture anchored in place on screened floors and walls. Francie stands behind the table, holding a miniature American Girl Barbie just over the top of the mini house. Casey sits on the sofa, at left, holding a mini blonde ponytail Barbie in Silken Flame in front of a mini case with Red Flare sculpted onto the back as if hung. At right, A second Francie (in Dance Party) sits on a blue chair and holds a mini brunette ponytail Barbie in Enchanted Evening in the mini house's living room. At her feet is a closed mini carrying case illustrated with a bubble cut brunette Barbie in Enchanted Evening--and a smaller one wearing Friday Nite Date in the background, surrounded by a starry trail and the Barbie logo on red background.

    Above, we see the 2007 miniature Barbie Family Deluxe House from Hallmark. This is purportedy an ornament–like, for a Christmas tree–hence the little metal loop poking out of the miniature American Girl doll included in this set, wielded by Francie above center. It’s also an accurately-scaled, strikingly faithful downscaling of the ’66 original case house that only makes us wish Hallmark would venture into the vintage abode game more often. They did produce a pink Dream House in 1999 that reflected Barbie’s lifestyle at that time, but its ceilings are less than 2″ high, slightly cramping mini Barbie’s style. There’s also a series of cases with dolls, molded wardrobes and working accessories drawers, examples of which are seen above and below.

    Six miniature Barbie accessories lined up on and in front of the Dream House sofa. At rear, on the sofa, left to right are a piece of black vinyl luggage in a hatbox shape with colorful Barbie illustrations; a blue carrying case illustrated with Titian bubble cut Barbie in Red Flare, a black vinyl boxy shaped luggage piece with ponytail Barbies illustrated in front of skewed rectangles. Front row, left to right: the Enchanted Evening case from the previous image; the mini Barbie Family Deluxe house exterior, with faithful representation of the full-sized house's front cover; and a small red plastic case with American Girl Barbie's head screened on along with the Barbie signature in white.
    The Hallmark Barbie Family Deluxe House ornament, bottom center, within the case ornament milieu, alongside a couple Barbie-scaled Hallmark luggage ornaments and, at lower right, a vintage mini Barbie case for Tutti (sometimes identified as a lunch box, it’s just a bit too small to hold vintage mini Barbie).

    Next, let’s turn our attention to the World’s Smallest Dreamhouse, which is based on the verging-on-vintage A-frame Dream House.

    A white and yellow two-story house sits on the brown wooden table in the same setting. Casey in Land Ho! sits in front holding a tiny Barbie, just bigger than her hand, with a blonde ponytail and zebra-stripe swimsuit. Blonde Casey in Iced Blue, a blue dress with white lacy ruffles down the front and white lacy tights, stands and hols a second tiny doll near the house' roof. At their feet sits a hot pink miniature case, about the same height as the house, with Superstar Barbie illustrated on the front.
    Casey and Casey demonstrate the World’s Smallest Dreamhouse, along with a World’s Smallest Superstar case and the dolls–ponytail Barbie and Malibu Christie–that came with them. Inside, the Superstar case is divided into 3×3 compartments to hold the little dolls.

    Maybe it comes with the territory of being World’s Smallest, but this house is too small for Barbie-scaled Barbie dolls. Keeping with the Seventies context, the accompanying dolls are more Dawn-scale than Barbie-scale.

    To achieve 1:6 scale, this house needs to roughly double in size:

    Two panels show Francie on a plain white background dtanding next to the Worlds Smallest Dreamhouse. The house has a brown peaked roof and two stories. From this side, the exterior is screened with doors, windows and potted plants in yellow, white, blue, brown and green. In the left panel the top of the house comes about to Francie's hem, while at the right it comes to her waist due to digitally compositing two differently-sized images into one.
    Francie with a back view of the World’s Smallest Dreamhouse, left, and with a digitally resized version, right. If it existed, the version at right would be the correct 1:6 scale.

    It’s also not as faithful a representation as Hallmark’s work: as shown above, the mini version has screened walls on the back and is completely open in front, while the real version’s front and back are fairly similar, with various door and window openings, movable wings, and no screening. The World’s Smallest version does include some furniture in sticker form (not shown).

    The last option for mini vintage Barbie environs that we’ll cover is DIY. The blog Dutch Fashion Doll World is the undisputed ruler of mini chipboard play set DIY; I linked an overview but you can poke around the site to see other articles detailing their approach. Does their mini Skipper’s Dream Room include a mini mini New Dream House? It totally does.

    I’m not so skilled or dedicated, so for my DIY project I decided to make some paper dolls. This method is super easy because you can find PDFs of the vintage paper doll sets (I picked mine up on Etsy for a couple bucks), print them small, and you’re pretty much done! Our piece on paper doll environments contains many tempting candidates for a Barbie-scaled paper doll scene, but I opted for an old favorite: the Friend Ship. Here are Francie and Casey riding on the Friend Ship, playing with 1:6 scale paper dolls from the Whitman paper doll sets Barbie’s FriendShip (’73) and New ‘n’ Groovy P.J. (’70):

    As described in the text. Two dolls sit in a vintage airplane play set interior, on rows of chairs that face each other across a table. Windows showing the sky and ground below like the background. On the table a paper doll "folder" stands with an

    In this instance, the built environment is the Barbie’s FriendShip paper doll folder propped up at the back of the table.

    We’ve previously demonstrated the paper doll sets’ potential as environments for fully dimensional Barbie in addition to her paper doll form, and that applies in miniature, as well: your dolls can use mini paper doll folders as environs for their other dolls, too. Below, Francie helps vintage mini swirl ponytail enter a 1966 Barbie, Skipper and Skooter dressing room folder to try on her lone garment, while Bandai Busy Gal is posed before the fashion designer’s studio from a 1963 Barbie, Ken and Midge set.

    As described. The dressing room folder is wood-look with an illustrated rack of clothes, three-way mirror, and other items. The fashion designer's office includes an angled drafting table, a chest of shallow drawers, rolls of fabric, and sketches of Barbie garments lining the walls. The dolls and "folders" are positioned on top of the Mattel Modern sideboard and a Francie doll stands to either side.

    Setting aside our paper doll sets for the moment, Barbie-scaled vintage Barbies are scattered throughout this post. Before we wrap up, let’s quickly review our dolls’ doll options.

    As described in the text.
    Mini Barbies occupying the World’s Smallest Dreamhouse and checking out the vintage case/lunchbox. In the house, top row: Silken Flame from the Hallmark Red Flare case and vintage swirl ponytail mini Barbie. Bottom row: Lunch on the Terrace from the Hallmark Barbie Family Deluxe House; 40th anniversary mini Barbie in her reproduction box; Bandai mini Busy Gal; a Fairytopia Little Lands doll and Mini Barbie Land (Barbie Movie) mini doll that are smaller than Barbie-scaled Barbie but larger than World’s Smallest Barbies; and World’s Smallest Malibu Christie, the smallest of them all. Next to the vintage case are World’s Smallest Barbie and Ken, who can easily occupy the box as a carrying case, and a second Mini Barbie Land Barbie, who can fit in the case if she bends.

    While there are about a million different Barbie Land mini Barbies, if any sport a vintage look we haven’t spotted them (though actually, there’s an astronaut with rocket ship that might be passable as 1965’s Miss Astronaut). Another non-vintagey line of mini Barbies, that are the correct Barbie-for-Barbie scale, are the Y2K-era Tomy capsule toys. While not mini vintage Barbies by our definition of “vintage,” a couple could be used to fill out crowd scenes for your dolls.

    Francie in Pleat Neat is seated next to the Hallmark case house. In her hand is the mini Hallmark Barbie in Lunch on the Terrace. In and in front of the house are two mini Barbies in generic bare-shouldered evening gowns, one pink and one blue. THeir hair is ashy blonde, similar to Francie's. One wears hers long, down her shoulders, and one in a bun updo. The end of a hot pink box with pink and orange stripes and the Barbie logo is just visible behind the house.
    The American Girl Hallmark doll (in Francie’s hand) invites a couple Y2K Tomy mini Barbies to her case house. One of the Tomy doll boxes, which clearly indicates the dolls’ era, is just visible at back left.

    Though we show just one or two examples, Hallmark and Bandai have produced five or six vintage-style mini dolls apiece, while the two Mattel 1:6 scale Barbies we show are the only two they’ve made at that scale, to our knowledge. Both Hallmark and World’s Smallest also produce larger Barbie figurines, around 3″-5″ tall; we love the nostalgic Hallmark ones but don’t quite see a role for them in full-sized Barbie’s world.

    A slight tangent: while most of the vintage-style mini dolls stand straight, the Bandai minis have more expressive poses that wouldn’t have been possible for the stiff-limbed originals. Inaccurate for actual vintage dolls, these poses are based on the fashion booklet illustrations corresponding to each ensemble!

    Since some non-vintage dolls infiltrated that size comparison, let’s address the elephant in the room: yes, your doll’s dolls can occupy the mini Barbie Land Movie houses, but no, they have no vintage atmosphere. Like the movie, they are pink, opulent, and oversized, and they have slides. Here’s the most restrained one in the series:

    Blonde Casey leans over a two-story house that doesn't quite reach her waist. The structure is made of white plastic with one hot pink roof and wall, tan floors, a yellow slide from the roof to a second-floor pool, and a clear turquoise elevator stuck to one side of the building. To the left, a pink convertible with bluish windshield and a Career Girl mini figure stand. To the right, a "bed" made of plastic plants and flowers and a yellow fairy doll stand.

    Scaled a little small for 1:6 scale Barbie, but with high ceilings and plenty of square footage, we grudgingly note them as a multistory alternative to the too-small World’s Smallest Dreamhouse.

    At left in the above image, Bandai mini Career Girl demonstrates how the Barbie Movie mini convertible might pass for a vintage Austin Healey if you squint.

    Above right, the Fairytopia mini doll dragged her preposterous bed into the shot to try to suggest that Fairytopia Little Lands could serve as a built environment option for your mini vintage dolls. They cannot. Even though the little Fairytopia figures are smaller than Barbie-scaled Barbie, their play sets are absolutely enormous, in addition to falling squarely outside the vintage theme. Unless your dolls are Richie Rich types, they’re not playing with these “little” environments:

    Two dolls are posed with plastic Fairytopia play sets from the early 2000s. One in the foreground is "jewel"-like translucent plastic. The Hallmark mini Enchanted Evening stands at the front door of a structure and is roughly the same height as the doorway. The playset in the background looks like a row of flowers and is even taller than Casey, who stands next to it.
    Francie reaches for the Hallmark mini Enchanted Evening doll in front of Jewelia’s house, while Casey brandishes Jewelia near Peony’s house at back.

    That’s really not the vibe we’re going for here… Let’s dial it back a notch.

    Five mini houses are lined up on a white background. In the foreground L-R are the A-frame, the Hallmark house, and vintage mini house for Skipper. In the back, L-R are the Barbie movie house, this time facing backward with white, pink and purple plastic walls visible with a hot pink frame and yellow slide from the roof; and the Fairytopia Azura's Cottage, which is a cartoonishly-rounded single-story structure with purple roof and arched door, teal stairs winding up, and plenty of height for mini dolls. The movie car is parked at right front, with the 40th anniversary and Bandai Busy Gall dolls prostrate in the two seats. The Hallmark case room doll stand in front of her house, blocking an illustration of the same character screened onto the front. Two other Hallmark mini dolls, Silken Flame and Enchanted Evening, stand before the A-frame and look about head-and-shoulders too tall to fit into the house. In the back, Bandai Career Girl stands in front of the movie house and the vintage swirl ponytail in her red gingham skirt stands on the stairs. Since this doll has no means of standing independently, the back of her skirt is actually trapped in the slightly-ajar door, although not too noticeably in this smallish image.
    Serious and silly mini houses with vintage-styled occupants

    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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  • Millennium Mod

    Barbie’s Swinging Fashions, 1980-2020

    Mattel product images for dolls: Uhura, Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian, Mod Redux, Pop Life Christie, Barbie Loves Buzz, and Blonde Ambition, all discussed within the post.

    The mod era–the Swinging Sixties, the Youthquake, fashion’s Space Age–was a time of major style upheaval. Short skirts with high boots, vibrant patterns and colors, and rejection of tradition reigned. Street fashion led the new trends while couturiers rushed to keep up. For Barbie, the period spanned approximately 1967 to 1973 (or earlier), following her couture-focused early years that some refer to as the vintage period (for this piece we take “vintage” to mean anything made for Barbie through 1973).

    Since those heady days, various aspects of the mod look have come in and out of fashion, and Barbie’s wardrobe has reflected that. In this post we highlight those times since 1980 (and ending in 2020, for symmetry about the millennium) when Barbie’s designers have deliberately referenced Sixties mod fashion. We’ll place the newer looks in the context of their classic counterparts and explore similarities and differences in the design approaches.

    1985 Galaxy a Go Go

    Two dolls pose before an abstract starry-looking background. Left is One Modern Circle Melody, with teal hair, wearing a short, metallic dress of gold, magenta and teal stripes, thigh-high metallic teal boots, and a shiny teal metallic knee-length coat with same-color metallic belt and oversized (for Barbie) "fur" at the collar and hem. Beside her is the pink-haired Frenchy doll wearing a silver-on-white polka-dotted minidress with thick silver belt and neck trim, white fabric boots with silver trim covering the knees, and floorlength silver coat with pink lining and sharp pointed shoulders.

    Barbie’s mod years were still receding in the rearview mirror when the futuristic Astro Fashions were released alongside the controversial Astronaut Barbie. Galaxy a Go Go, in particular, references the Swinging Sixties in both name and design. The short dress paired with long coat and high boots in metallic fabrics, shown at right above, may be an explicit nod to 1970’s Maxi ‘n Mini, left. Just as easily, the two could drink independently from the same space age fountain. Without prior knowledge, is it easy to pick out which of the above is a mod design, and which is Eighties? We think not. The pointed shoulders on Galaxy a Go Go, which occur on both dress and jacket, are one hint, though that oversized fur collar on Maxi ‘n Mini is nothing to sniff at in terms of shoulder fullness. (Note, Carol Spencer credits designer Thierry Mugler as the inspiration for the Astro Fashions line, including its sharp shoulders.)

    It would take a few more years for mod style to become appealingly nostalgic, so this early example, using mod-era futuristic notions for an updated spacey look, is our lone Eighties mod entry. Popular retro looks of this period tended toward the early Sixties (Barbie and the Sensations) and prior.

    1992 Hollywood Premiere

    Carol Spencer's book lies open with sea green paper covering the left side. On the right side is a photograph of Talking Barbie wearing Pink Premiere: minidress with pink bodice, tiered, ruffled white skirt with pink trim, and gold waistline, pink sateen coat with gold trim, pink sheer hose, pink translucent shoes, and hold handbag. Lying on top of the other side is the Hair Fair Barbie reproduction wearing Hollywood Premiere: an oversized, tent-shaped jacket covered in white and silver ruffles with pink lining, silver envelope clutch, white sheer hose with rhinestone accent at the ankle, and white shoes. Her dress is not visible under the coat, but it's a short, metallic silver, ruched, figure hugging piece.

    1992 was still a little early to revisit mod ideals, but we think this Carol Spencer design contains not-so-subtle references to 1969’s Pink Premiere. Hollywood Premiere was part of the collector-targeting Classique series, which was meant to highlight Mattel’s designers for the first time. In her book Dressing Barbie, Carol Spencer states that her concept for the Benefit Ball Classique doll was inspired by the 1966 Benefit Performance fashion, one of her personal favorites–though the designs themselves are dissimilar. She further indicates that the other designs were also informed by past episodes in Barbie’s life: the Classique Uptown Chic fashion referenced Barbie’s earlier experiences shopping on Fifth Avenue–think On the Avenue (1965), and other fashions from that glamour year–and it stands to reason that Hollywood Premiere refers to 1969’s Pink Premiere, a Spencer design highlighted in her book, shown above right. While Hollywood Premiere’s bodycon silver minidress is more Jean Paul Gaultier, the ruffled, trapeze-shaped, mini-length coat alludes both to Pink Premiere and to the ’60s more generally.

    The similarity in color schemes between Hollywood Premiere and Galaxy a Go Go–white, silver, and pink, with the pink jacket linings apparently identical–is an interesting coincidence. Like Galaxy a Go Go, Hollywood Premiere also sported formidable shoulders.

    1996 Star Trek 30th Anniversary

    Right is Mattel product image of Barbie and Ken dressed as crew members on the USS Enterprise: Barbie in red minidress with gold embellishments on the cuffs, black collar, and Star Trek insignia on the chest, sheer black hose, and black boots to mid-calf, plus a black electronic device on a long crossbody strap, with blonde ponytail encircled by a braid; Ken with gold shirt with metallic gold at the cuffs, black collar, start trek insignia on the chest, black pants, and black boots. Right, Francie wears a red minidress with wide cowl-type collar in yellow, blue trim between dress and cowl and running down the center front, red thigh-high hose, red ankle boots, and a yellow hood in the same fabric as the collar. Francie's original swimsuit can be barely seen peeking out behind the doll, which lies in a white box.

    Not a fresh perspective on swinging style, but a fairly accurate interpretation of a 1966 TV costume for 1996 Barbie. Those of us familiar with the original television series may experience burning of the eyes when we see blonde Barbie modeling the Star Trek female crew member’s uniform. Ken resembles Captain Kirk, more or less. Why doesn’t Barbie look like Uhura? Perhaps because this model or a similar one was used time and time again for mid-’90s gift sets and special editions. For what it’s worth, with her tricorder and plaited hair she’s deliberately styled like Yeoman Janice Rand, originally a core, blonde character and Kirk’s love interest, whose role was reduced due to budget constraints and to free up the Captain for romantic (mis)adventures on alien planets. Still, these explanations fall short of satisfying.

    Whatever the case may be, we’re comparing the Star Trek uniform to Francie’s Swingin’ Skimmy (via raisingfour on eBay), another ’66 design that’s clearly influenced by the Cosmocorps and Moon Girl uniforms proposed by Sixties visionaries Cardin and Courreges–notably in the hood/helmet department.

    1996, the 30th anniversary for both Star Trek and Francie, is also the year Mattel started releasing mod Francie reproductions, though Swingin’ Skimmy hasn’t had its moment yet.

    1997 Teen Skipper Fashion Avenue (and Sticker Fun Barbie)

    3 Francie dolls lined up on a light blue background. Left is Hair Happenins Francie wearing a pink shift with silver net overdress, pinkish silver net tights, silver clutch, and pink squishy bow shoes; center is Black Francie repro wearing a pink and orange minidress with yellow belt, pink daisy accent at buckle, yellow net undershirt, sheer pink hose, hard yellow purse, and orange platform shoes; right is Growin Pretty Francie in white shift with sheer, rainbow-striped overdress, short pink gloves, and pink Mary Janes or peep-toe shoes.

    Mod made the mainstream again in 1997 with a couple flower-forward Mattel creations: a Teen Skipper design for Fashion Avenue, modeled by repro Francie, above center, and a highly similar design for Barbie under the name Sticker Fun (not shown). Teen Skipper’s ensemble above is surrounded by vintage Francies in 1968’s Silver Cage and Floating In (repro shown). With platform shoes, day-glow colors and a daisy-shaped belt accent, the only really ’90s thing about the Teen Skipper outfit, to me, is the mesh shirt; but even that has precedent in Silver Cage.

    Fashion Avenue also offered a pink-and-orange baby doll dress for Barbie with very Sixties daisies along the waistline. Its silhouette and accessories are overall regrettable, but for the completionist the ensemble still merits a gander (not shown here).

    1997 Sixties Fun and 1998 Far Out

    Row of 5 dolls. Left is vintage brunette Hair Fair Barbie wearing an A-line minidress with swirly pink, blue and green design, ruffle on lower hem, and pink closed-toe heels; next is Mattel repro product image of blonde Hair Fair in colorful op-art shift with flower design, pink closed-toe heels, pink bangle bracelet, oversized navy circled dangling from pink rectangles at her ears; next is boxed Sixties Fun Barbie wearing schoolboy cap and minidress in matching abstract pattern of colorful blobs with black outlines, metallic hoop earrings, carrying large pink purse, with pink fishnet tights and high white boots; next is vintage redhead Hair Fair Barbie wearing minidress of pink bodice and lime green skirt, lime green jacket with fluffy pink trim, daisy-patterned pink hose, and pink closed-toe heels; finally, boxed Far Out Barbie wearing white schoolboy cap with pink bow, oversized white disc dangling earrings, Green jacket with pink daisy print, white dress barely peeking out beneath the jacket, white fishnets, and white boots.

    The mod parade continues! Above, two more ’90s mod interpretations (via Super Thrift and claudia_attic_17 on eBay) are lined up with vintage designs Swirly Cue (1968, via Mimi Collects It on eBay), Sunflower (1967; 2016 repro product photo shown), and Fancy Dancy (1968, via Theriault’s).

    Somehow, Sixties Fun Barbie’s patterned fabric looks more postmodern: it exists in a world where Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring are known. Otherwise, the white boots the two ’90s dolls wear come straight from Courreges–strange that Barbie seldom wore white ones in her original mod phase–and the big chunky earrings are on point. Far Out Barbie’s big plastic discs a la Paco Rabanne are reminiscent of those included with the Sunflower ensemble, seen above, and Swirly Cue also came with chunky plastic ear hardware.

    1998 Pretty in Plaid and 2000 Hip 2 Be Square

    Row of 12 dolls! First 4 are boxed Pretty in Plaid Barbie, a plaid-and-daisy patterned halter minidress that is shaped through the waist and then has a coordinating drop-waist belt, in 4 color combos on 4 dolls; next 4 are Francie and Casey dolls: Wild bunch repro, vintage bend-leg Francie, brunette and blonde Caseys, wearing Twiggy outfits: orange-and-yellow knit mini with matching scarf and peep-toe shoes, vertically-striped cotton jersey in yellow, green, and blue with yellow boots; knit cotton mini tank dress in yellow with green stripes on skirt, yellow socks and shoes, and long beaded necklaces in white and green; and a metallic tank dress with vertically-stirped bodice of orange, yellow and green, silver skirt, wide silver belt, and silver boots. Last 4 dolls are boxed Hip 2 be Square dolls: two-piece mini dresses with top and bottom united by a ring at the navel, in 4 colors, with sunglasses and chunky earrings.
    Pretty in Plaid, Twiggy, and Hip 2 Be Square fashions. “Millennial” images via eBay sellers: Squid Willy, johannesattic, oosushi, Beetlejuice’s Treasure, JJ Resale and Collectibles.

    Here, at the turn of the millennium, mod has infested the playline. As shown above, both of these outfits came in four color palettes on four dolls, and all featured the micro-minidress. The hemline is true to the Sixties–we compare to the four minidresses Mattel designed for their Twiggy doll in 1968, modeled by Francie and Casey above–as are the bright, bold patterns–but the skintight, bodycon aspect is more Nineties. The double waistline of curve-clinging silhouette and drop-waisted belt on Pretty in Plaid isn’t working for us, but the cutouts on Hip 2 Be Square’s dress are authentic to the original mod time period.

    1999 Fun to Dress Fashions

    Left: colorful illustration of Tressy in one empire-waisted dress with yellow bodice, thin green belt, and red of pink half-sleeves and knee-length skirt, as well as in a teal A-line shift with wide green collar, white-and-yellow floral-printed patch pockets, and the same white-and-yellow pattern in a scarf tied around her hair. Both wear white open-toe shoes and stand in front of a table laden with treats. Text identifies these as "Left: Two for Tea #10921, $1.00, Tressy takes time our for tea and cookies. Dress is pink and yellow. Right: Serendipity #10920, $1.00. Tressy's right in style in her blue and green 'Mod' dress. Comes with gold scarf and sunglasses." Right: photograph of vintage long-haired Stacey and repro short-flip Stacey, both blonde, wearing fun-to-dress fashions. Vintage Stacey wears a blue A-line shift with short white sleeves, orange collar, orange patch pockets with white-and-yellow daisy appliques, yellow zipper down to the hem, and oversized (for a doll) zipper pull that is also a white-and-yellow daisy shape. On her feet are yellow flats. Repro Stacey wears a red top with white polka-dotted short sleeves and Peter Pan collar and white polka-dotted miniskirt with two oversized-for-her blue buttons. On her feet are red strappy sandals. Right: Another illustration of Tressy, in Soda Pop Cutie: Blonde updo tied with red bow; high-waisted, A-line dress with dark blue top, red buttons down the front, white Peter Pan collar, white skirt with blue stripes, and red open-toed shoes, holding a beverage and straw.

    A quartet of fashion packs taught youngsters how to zip, button, buckle, and tie in colorful, playful mod style. Two, for zipping and buttoning, are displayed on a pair of Staceys above. The outfits that aren’t shown, both flower-powered minidresses, were groovy in their own right, particularly the buckling ensemble with its wide, white belt at hip height. For a change of pace we offroad a little, comparing the ’99 fashions to illustrated looks from circa-1966 Tressy fashion booklets with similar color blocking and even flowered patch pockets.

    2000 Groovy 60’s Barbie

    Two Mattel product images. Left, 90s Barbie with long auburn bob wears white schoolboy cap, large white earrings, pink A-line coat with hot pink tiered fur-like texture, minidress of paisley top, blue plastic or leather look skirt, thick white collar and belt, white fishnets and white boots. Right, Francie Wild Bunch repro of Black Francie doll, magenta hood and minidress with orange tie belt, orange tights, orange boots, furry magenta and orange coat, hot pink gloves, and camera.

    Part of a Great Fashions of the 20th Century line, Groovy 60’s Barbie, at left, fits right in with the earlier Far Out and Sixties Fun dolls–right down to her chunky earrings and white boots. Her novelty-colored faux fur reminded us of Francie’s the Wild Bunch (1970; 1997 repro shown above), and really, the whole look is in harmony. A faithful, detailed Sixties evocation.

    2001 Sunshine Day Barbie

    Three boxed Barbie dolls in psychedelic minidresses with knee-hih boots. Left is a Black doll in a yellow-forward look; center is a blonde doll in a pink-forward look; right is a brunette doll in a blue-forward look. The shoes have dimensional daisy patterns down the sides; some of the psychedelic dress pattern looks like waterways, trees and mushrooms; all have long, straight hair and round plastic clutches or purses with the dimensional daisy on the front. At right is a photograph of a vintage Standard Barbie doll in a colorful patterned floral minidress, with white collar and cuffs, wide white belt, and white shoes.

    Hat tip to Scarlett-Crypt on Reddit! Here’s another turn-of-the-century swinging playline series with different color schemes for each doll. “It’s a Sunshine Day” was, of course, a hit for the Brady Bunch in 1972. In ’73 Mattel released the unnamed Barbie fashion #3347, shown at right (via eBay seller vintagebarbie4u), colloquially known as the Marsha Brady dress. The dress came with white knee socks, in the patterned version above and in solid red.

    2002 Scooby Doo Daphne

    4 images of the Scooby Doo Daphne Barbie, with long orange hair and neat curled bangs, next to a Scooby Doo dog inside the box they came in which depicts a spooky mansion on a hilltop and a menacing cartoon zombie. At left, Daphne wears her original ensemble of violet minidress with ribbon trim at cuffs, waist, and bottom hem, lime green necktie, sheer pinkish hose and pale purple flats; next she wears a teal corduroy dress with lime green trim at cuffs and down the center, matching bow at chest, matching crocheted skirt at drop-waist level, teal crochet hood with same lime green trim and tie neck, sheer bluish hose, teal cowboy-style boots with more lime green trim. Next, a green minidress with puffy sleeves, yellow plastic collar and cuffs, yellow socks and shoes, and lime green felt hat with wide brim and yellow cord. Finally, velour-texture yellow minidress with hot pink trim at collar and lower hem, yellow tights and yellow shoes.

    Two Daphnes were released around this time, one based on Sarah Michelle Gellar’s character in the then-new live action film, and one based on the cartoon from 1970. Either could suit this list, although we opted for the more-authentic cartoon version. Daphne in her original outfit, above left, has total mod Barbie style as evidenced by the doll redressed in, from left to right, Now Wow, Snap Dash, and Mellow Yellow (all 1968-69). Except for one small detail: maybe because the hue was granny-coded circa 1960, Barbie wore almost no violet from her creation at least through the end of the original mod era in 1972. Thus Daphne’s outfit makes a great supplement to our vintage collections.

    2002 Rocky Mountain Mod Convention Doll

    Left, boxed doll on green-and-blue psychedelic background with smiling daisies and text reading Rocky Mountain Mod, Denver, Colorado June 2002. Doll's hair is half black and half blonde, changing at the center, in an updo of oversized curls. Earring are oversized discs, one black and one white, and dress is a tiled black-and-white pattern with a circle of alternating white and black over the bodice. She has thick white and black bangles, a black and white purse on a shoulder strap, one white and one black legged tights, and one white and one black boot. Right, mod standard Barbie, blonde, wears her original swimsuit and, over that, a metallic tube resembling a tin can with peephole cut in the center, tied to a metallic collar with silver cord, plus matching metallic armbands on her upper arms, Pamphlets about the steel products she promotes are visible in her box.
    Rocky Mountain Mod doll via ForeverPink on eBay; Barbie Loves the Improvers via Hake’s Auctions.

    This one’s kind of a cheat, because Mattel didn’t release the Rocky Mountain Mod doll; it was produced for the convention without Mattel/Barbie branding. However, its mod-ness is undeniable: the boots, chunky jewelry, and op-art design are all on point. It could be a John Bates design for Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) on the original BBC TV show, The Avengers.

    Due to its unofficial nature, we compare Rocky Mountain Mod to Barbie Loves the Improvers: a Sixties concoction by Inland Steel, circulated among their salesmen and/or customers, featuring a mod Standard Barbie wearing an outlandish, space-age metal tube. The “Improvers” garment is based on an avant garde design by Paco Rabanne and includes a belly-button-revealing circular cutout at the navel (the doll pictured above wears her metal tube too low), while the “Rocky Mountain” dress features a circle design at chest level. Captioning an assortment of solar-plexus-adorning or navel-indicating circle patterns on vintage dresses in Vintage Fashion: A Complete Sourcebook, Nicky Albrechtsen wrote that “the circle is the identifying shape of the sixties. Metallic, plastic, PVC and easy-care synthetic fabrics were the basis of Space Age modernist designs of mid-sixties boutique culture.” These dolls concur.

    2003 A Nod for Mod and 2004 Mod Redux

    Left: Barbie in a black-and-white checked bodysuit with white trim, hot pink tights, and white boots with black trim, plus white sunglasses, maybe with pink lenses. Center: Barbie in a black and yellow tiled tunic with long-sleeved rainbow-striped shirt beneath, black tights, and high yellow boots; next, illustration of barbie in a yellow tunic with patch pockets and matching shorts, yellow-and-pink striped long-sleeved undershirt, yellow-and=pink striped tights, pink flats; right, Stacey in jersey knit colorful skirt, jacket with matching sleeves and pink bodice, matching striped knee socks and pink flats.

    The two collector’s editions shown above left, released as a series, must rank among Mattel’s best original mod designs in the millennial timeframe. They are of a piece with the vintage fashions, represented above by the 1968 ensembles Tunic ‘n’ Tights (as illustrated on the Barbie Family House) and Stripes Are Happening (via Theriaults). Red White and Warm (1969) and Color Kick (1971), not shown, are also compatible, especially with the Gernreich-flavored Mod Redux. The major difference is that Barbie’s classic mod wardrobe tended to avoid black.

    2008 Goldie Hawn Blonde Ambition

    The only design on this list that’s an absolute miss for us, Goldie Hawn’s doll was based on an outfit she wore once on Laugh-In, the variety show that debuted in 1968 and launched her to stardom. A promotional photograph of this pirate-inspired, body-painted bikini look from the show is widely available, but Laugh-In had so many great, colorful costumes, it seems criminal to make a single Laugh-In fashion doll and let this be the “fashion.” Add some sequins and spangles to Swirly Cue, Sunflower, Flower Wower, or Two Way Tiger, vintage fashions shown elsewhere in this post, and you get much closer to the psychedelic look of Laugh-In. An opportunity squandered. Mattel’s 2008 choices appear in the header image for this post.

    2009 Barbie Loves Buzz

    Two Mattel product images. Left, silver halter dress with purple collar and bottom hem, with graphic of cartoon Buzz Lightyear splashed across the front, clear green sunglasses and spiraling bangle bracelet, white leggings, and silver boots to mid-calf. Right, red-haired T'm'T Barbie reproduction wearing chunky orange earrings, minidress of metallic silver bodice and teal metallic skirt, orange-and-silver belt, silver calf-high boots with orange trim.

    One of a series of dolls wearing Toy-Story-inspired fashions, Barbie Loves Buzz has great futuristic go-go style with metallic fabric, silver boots, chunky plastic accessories, and the most micro of micro-minis (with white leggings to complement). We compare her to 1968’s Zokko!, Barbie’s spaciest classic mod look. A recent book claimed Zokko! must be a BBC tie-in, because BBC aired a children’s show with a similar name. If Zokko! refers to anything, it seems most likely that this outfit was inspired by Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot, the Japanese children’s show that was syndicated in the US, and maybe in Britain, too. In the Sixties the BBC would have partnered with Pedigree’s Sindy, not Barbie–but that’s a tale for another time. Anyway, Barbie Loves Buzz is a great nod to the futuristic visions of an earlier era.

    2009 Pop Life

    6 images, Pop Life dolls are all boxed wearing different busy, black-and-white patterns, plus black and white bangles and dangling disc earrings, accompanied by chairs in different colors with white tulip bases. Christie wears a long-sleeved minidress with wide yellow belt, yellow leggings, white boots that cover the knee. Blonde doll wears babydoll silhouette with wide white belt, large pink bead necklace, pink tights, and white boots that stop below the knee. Redhead wears halter top, wide green belt and bellbottoms. Interspersed is a vintage Stacey wearing a rainbow, diamond-patterned outfit and orange kneehigh boots with cutouts; repro mod Barbie with babydoll silhouette and colorful floral pattern, plus green heels; and an illustration of a babydoll top and bellbottoms in green and orange tiger stripes with bow at the top's empire waist.

    We have entered the nigh-priceless stage of our review: this series and the collector dolls coming up in the next ten years are some of the most hard-to-find, most expensive millennial-mod looks, despite being the most recent. The Pop Life dolls were meticulously period-authentic, with boots, chunky jewelry, op-art prints and modern tulip chairs. Some even used retro face molds. For all these reasons, along with limited production and circulation, they are highly sought. We compare them with the vintage fashions Wild ‘n Wonderful (1968, image from Theriault’s), Flower Wower (1970; 2018 repro shown), and Two Way Tiger (1971; paper doll version shown) to show how similar the silhouettes and patterns of the newer fashions really were to the late Sixties/early Seventies creations. Barbie’s earliest mod adventures, the Color Magic ensembles, would also suit. However, the vintage examples also highlight a difference we’ve noted at least once before: vintage mod Barbie did not wear black and white. Carol Spencer has spoken about adapting then-current trends to children’s tastes, and that’s probably part of the story. Without question, vibrant color palettes were also in fashion and Barbie’s designers focused their energy there. The recent dolls, made for adult collectors, face no such constraints.

    Update: We just learned about this Jonathan Adler Barbie, also from 2009. Style-wise, she’s a bit of a fourth Pop Life; and her furniture is a suitable accompaniment to the Pop Life chairs.

    Blonde Barbie wears a tent-shaped mini dress with 3/4-length, bell-shaped sleeves. The fabric is white with a geometric black print. She has white chunky earrings and a bracelet, while-framed sunglasses, and hot pink open-toed shoes. Surrounding her in the box are a while geometric room divider, a white side table, a bulbous hot-pink lamp with white shade, a hot pink tray, and three vases striped with pink, black, and white.
    via baseballcards-and-bobbleheads.

    2016 Star Trek Lieutenant Uhura

    Left, two vintage Julia dolls with oxidized hair. One wears a minidress with metallic orange top, gold skirt, metlalic gold trim,yellow pilgrim shoes, and holds a gold cape with metallic gold trim on a yellow hanger. The other wears a minidress with light green bodice, teal skirt, and teal coat with light green fur trim, blue light blue pilgrim shoes. Right is Mattel product image of Uhura doll with green hoop earrings, electronic device on crossbody strap, sheer black hose, black boots, and red Trek Uniform with black collar, gold decoration at cuffs, and insignia on chest.

    Twenty years on, Mattel corrected course and released the Star Trek doll they should have made in 1996. The fashion is little changed from the ’96 release, but is now worn by the most memorable female crew member from the original series. This time around we compare her to Mattel’s 1968 Julia doll, based on Diahann Carroll’s TV character, wearing two fashions marketed for that doll. Note that Diahann Carroll did not have red hair; the vintage dolls’ hair has oxidized (they look sharp redressed as Star Trek officers, by the way). Julia and Uhura were both pioneering characters: Julia as series lead and title character who was not a broad stereotype (unlike the earlier Beulah); Uhura as a high-ranking officer in a professional, technical role–firsts for Black women, and in Uhura’s case, possibly for any woman.

    And, as depicted above, both characters were associated with miniskirts. The Star Trek pilot episodes show female crew in trousers, but the tunic-like minidresses arrived when the show went to series. Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Janice Rand, mentioned above) recalled appealing to the costume department to let her wear skirts, and producers concurred. In 1966 hemlines had been rising for a few years, so a costume designer envisioning the future had nowhere to go but up. The skirts of Star Trek are about as short as they get. Two years later, when Julia debuted, hems had indeed risen as far as they could; at the close of the decade they plunged, the mini supplanted by the midi. This caused turmoil over at Julia, where the miniskirt was regarded as her “signature look.” Should she stay on-trend or maintain her image?

    It’s easy for commentators today to overlook the fact that, like trousers, miniskirts in the ’60s were associated with women’s liberation. Before the swinging revolution, women’s options were movement-constricting pencil skirts or weighty yards of fabric with oppressive undergarments, a la Dior; thus the mini represented freedom, both literal freedom of movement and figurative choice and autonomy. Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) later said, “I was wearing them on the street. What’s wrong with wearing them in the air? I wore ’em on airplanes. It was the era of the miniskirt. Everybody wore miniskirts. It amazes me that people still make some remark about ‘the revealing’. They revealed nothing. I had long black stockings on and boots up to my knees and the skirts and panties on and a skirt that gave you freedom to move in.”

    2018 Yves Saint Laurent “Mondrian”

    Left: doll with brunette bob, in "Model Muse" pose, wears colorblock shift dress of black perpendicular lines surrounding white, blue, red and yellow panels. She wears black flats or low heels with metal-look bucklets. Right, Twiggy wears a knit dress of wide red, white and blue stripes, plus a clear PVC raincoat with red trim and blue buttons, a clear PVC hood with red trim, and clear boots with red-orange trim, Beside her is a circular suitcase with red, white and blue stripes and stickers for London and Paris.

    Yves Saint Laurent’s 1965 “Mondrian” series saluted the mod aesthetic with simple lines, bold colors and strong geometry. Mattel reproduced it faithfully, even going so far as to design a doll with the mod-essential “five point bob” haircut by Vidal Sassoon; everyone from Mary Quant to Nancy Kwan had a Vidal Sassoon cut. The doll’s features are further reminiscent of fashion model Peggy Moffitt, best known for her work with Rudi Gernreich, another proponent of sharp color palettes. See a few models sporting Mondrian dresses with Sassoon-style bobs in promotional images on display at the PatternVault blog.

    At right above we find Mattel’s Twiggy rocking the color block in Clear Out (1967), the dress from which resembled, in different colors, Twiggy doll’s original ensemble (shown in a collage with ’90s playline fashions a few sections up). Coincidentally, Twiggy had one of the most famous Sixties hair cuts that wasn’t by Sassoon.

    Miscellaneous Millennial Repros: peppered through this article have been mod reproductions created starting in 1996, including Zokko!, Sunflower, Flower Wower, and Wild Bunch. Older designs, they are still Millennium Mod in their production, as are further repros summarized in the image below.

    Box art from: Smasheroo (1997), Red White and Warm (2007), All That Jazz (2005), and Made For Each Other (2006). In addition, Mattel product photo of Nite Lightning (2006).
    Mattel product images and box art for the Smasheroo, Red White & Warm, All That Jazz, Nite Lightning, and Made For Each Other reproductions.

    Did we miss any critical Millennial Mod designs? Having spent a good bit of effort assembling these examples, we still find more from time to time and would love to know of other gems we’ve so far overlooked!

    ,
  • Cafe Today (1971)
    Color photo of plastic play set. Orange plastic rectangular structure has lithographed vinyl surfaces showing a grill with range hood, pink psychedelic swill wallpaper, soda fountain, and many-sized polka dot floor that can be folded up to close the box. A plastic counter is printed with the words "Now", "Rock", "Soul", and "Love", surrounding more psychedelic swirls, with cash register atop. One side of the structure has a window opening midway up, one flap folding down to form a counter and one folding up to make an awning. Three orange chairs--one at counter height, and two lower--are cylinder-shaped with flat circular seats. A circle table with thick cylindrical base has two flat plates on top printed with food (not detailed at this magnification but consisting of hot dogs, fries, olives and pickles).
    Source: kvitochki on eBay.

    Sixties Barbie was all dressed up with few places to go. There was the Little Theatre, but what’s “dinner and a show” without dinner? A show? Barbie’s only known 1960s eatery was not much of a restaurant, certainly not a nightclub: the Campus Sweet Shop was where Ken took Barbie for malteds, but she had absolutely nowhere to do this, or this,

    Two color comic book panels. Left, well-dressed patrons sit at tables with white table cloths. Draping, chandeliers and tall windows frame the space. A man in tuxedo says "Bon soir, Bar-bee. So nice to see you in our new restaurant." Barbie, dressed in a darker-colored Enchanted Evening, responds, "Hello, Pierre. You have my table ready?" Right, Barbie in Solo in the Spotlight stands between a microphone and a piano where Ken is seated. A caption reads, "The show started right no time. Ken accompanied Barbie at the piano, and Barbie sang a brand-new song that Ken had written." Barbie's word bubble contains music notes and the lyrics, "A word is a very useful thing, we all use words when we speak or sing..."
    Source: Dell Comics

    or any of this,

    Two black and white book illustrations. Left, Barbie in evening dress sits with a man in white tuxedo jacket at a circular table overlooking a swimming pool and palm trees. At right, Barbie in knee-length dress is helped into her seat by a man in a suit. The table and chairs appear wrought iron.

    just this:

    Another black-and-white book illustration, Barbie sits on a stool at a bar or counter--a sign on the wall reads, "SODA" to clarify. A teacup sits next to her hand. She has removed her shoes.
    Source: Random House books.

    The 1971 Cafe Today play set didn’t help the situation. With burgers on the grill, soft drinks in paper cups, hot dogs on the table, and the counter window with awning outside, Cafe Today appears to be a hamburger stand.

    Closeups of two interior walls. The grill with oven beneath and range hood overhead is orange with chrome trim and fieldstone backboard. Next to it are yellow counters with a soda machine on a pink, psychedelic-swirled background, and around the corner, a milkshake maker and some sort of canister. That wall is done in purple with pink-and-blue daisy pattern, still psychedelic, and the word LOVE printed in yellow bubbly script. Next to the counter is the jukebox, a low boxy style without any flashy lights. Looks like a cigarette machine of my youth. Album covers in miniature along the top may be based on real albums of the time. Above the jukebox is a "pay phone" in silver with orange receiver. It looks like a shelf with phone book is represented below.
    Printed interior details showing grill, soft drink dispenser, pay phone and ’70s-style jukebox. Ebay sources: supersebbe and kvitochki.

    We commend the interesting barrel chair design, at least:

    Counter, chairs, and hot dogs. Ebay sources: sjsutherland-2, supersebbe.

    In her Barbie structures book Marl Davidson describes Cafe Today as a discotheque, but I think that’s being generous.

    Color catalog image of a portable radio that opens out into a play set. The set is in bright rainbow colors. Quick-Curl Barbie and 1970s Ken with mustache and rooted hair sit in two chairs at a round table with drinks atop. The catalog text includes: "Take your fashion doll to the DISCOTEQUE... AM radio wall furnishes the top hits and colored light. $13.99, dolls, batteries not included. Radio Discoteque... where fashion dolls come to rock-out. Case opens into cozy nightclub with dance floor and table for two. Side wall has built-in AM radio with speaker and pulsating multicolored light show... you control music, volume and lights. When dolls are tired, fold discoteque into colorful carry-along radio." "ACCESSORIES: 2 chairs, table. Soda pop bottle and 2 glasses attached to tabletop. Two-section fold-up dance floor. Plastic."
    Now this is a discotheque (off-brand play set/working radio from Sears Christmas catalog, 1976).

    Would Barbie ever get to dine in style? This might be moving the goal posts, but I’ll venture the 1986 Barbie and the Rockers Dance Cafe, unquestionably a discotheque, as a fashionable place to see and be seen, drink and dance, possibly even get a bite to eat:

    Box art from Dance Cafe shows product photo. The floor is pink and shaped like a guitar with fretboard and head. body of the "guitar" is surrounded by pink plastic fence panels with guitar shaped inset and ROCKERS written diagonally in a black stripe near the top. Two yellow directors chairs sit at a white-topped table with some dishware atop (all plastic). Along the back is a circular piece of decor resembling a record with flashing lights embedded in the center. Before that sits a pink bar. A pink plastic phone sits atop the bar, seeming a bit out of place. Starry printed elements on black background decorate the bar front and cardboard back surrounding the record decoration. A green fern in white pot sits in the foreground. Rockers Midge sits at the table, while Barbie and Ken are hooked into an embedded stand that makes them "dance" (turn) and the press of a lever.
    Stylish Mattel discotheque, via retrorodeo82 on eBay.

    Will Pierre, the maitre d’, greet Barbie by name at the Dance Cafe? Perhaps not. But at least she can be hounded by paparazzi on the way in.

    Back at the Cafe Today things are comparatively laid back: jukebox blasting, sun shining and grill sizzling. It’s an informal hangout space to complement the Unique Boutique of the same year.

    Cafe today exterior. On orange frame, pink paneling dominates the lithographed structure illustration. In the front is a glass or screen door showing a counter and soda fountain within. Signs reading Barbie Cafe Today on the top and out front have more psychedelic flourishes. A fieldstone walkway extends from the door. Blue and green striped awning decorates the door and along the back of the structure. Orb-shaped lights hang from the awning out back and another sits next to the front door. In back the scene is completed with greenery, including a leafy plant in orange pot, and waterfall fountain surrounded by rocks and foliage.
    Cafe Today exterior front and back. Source: kvitochki on eBay.

    Glamour will have to wait.

    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.

  • The “built” environments of Whitman Barbie paper dolls

    We talk a lot about Barbie illustrations here, and we talk a lot about Barbie’s play sets and furniture, but what about the built environments within Barbie illustrations? In our posts on Whitman paper dolls we featured some paper doll folder interiors that show Barbie’s home or place of work; in fact, there are many such folders worthy of consideration. These illustrations provided a backdrop against which to dress and re-dress paper dolls, adding a little immersion to the 2D doll experience. The set below is a perfect example.

    A paperboard folder stands open with a paper doll standing/leaning against it. On the lefthand side of the folder, a dressing room is represented by white louvered doors shown in an open position. From the yellow rectangle between them, the doll has been punched out. The paper doll has brownette bubble cut hair and wears a strapless one-piece undergarment with black open-toed shoes. The righthand side of the folder shows a closet filled with dresses and hatboxes on the shelf above. Differently colored belts hang on the open door. To the left of the closer is a framed picture of a ballerina, and below that, a notepad. A low, pink-cushioned stool sits beneath them next to the closet, and two pairs of closed-toed shoes in red and pale blue sit near the stool.
    1963 Whitman Barbie paper doll set interior with doll. Source: PORCH SAFE on eBay.

    The illustrated interiors often show places where Barbie might dress, like this one depicting a changing room and closet. On the back of this folder is an illustration of Barbie posing before a full-length mirror, which we highlighted in our first post on the Whitman paper dolls.

    A thematically similar design from 1966 shows either a boudoir scene or a store dressing room (since there are tags on all the dresses). We used this backdrop for a Francie/Casey photo shoot in a recent post.

    Open folder with woodgrain look. To the left a closet is illustrated with pink tags hanging prominently from all the sleeves (Coutnry Club Dance stands out as a recognizable dress among them). Above these are boxes of various sizes. A horizontal slash through the closet where the hanger rail would be opens and blonde bubble cut Barbie, in paper doll form, can be seen peering out along with a bit of one of her fashions. The righthand side shows a three-panel "mirror" with a red-cushioned chair and blue area rug before it. Most of the "mirror" is a blur of white paint over brown, but the chair is clearly rendered in reflection. Unsettlingly, the reflection of a potted plant is shown in the corner between two of the mirrors, apparently in the foreground, but the plant itself is not illustrated. Along the bottom of the two sides is written "Put Dolls in This Handy Carry Pocket" and "Put Clothes in This Handy Carry Pocket."
    1966 Whitman Barbie Skipper Skooter paper doll folder interior, with dolls and fashions poking out of the lefthand pocket. Source: dianeb6182 on eBay.

    Midge’s changing area was decorated in a romantic style. As a backdrop for diorama or for imaginative play, this piece loses some immersivity due to its paper-doll-shaped holes (the missing Midges of this set are very cute, by the way).

    Red folder lies open. Toward the center, a matched pair of white three-drawer dressers in a classical style are illustrated over a printed area rug. Over one dresser a mirror in gilt frame hangs, surrounded by a pendant lamp, vase, and perfume or costmetics jar. To the right side, on the wall hang some indistinct works of art--possibly floral--and a vertical banner of three hearts. On the top of the dresser sit more bottles and a framed portrait of a fellow, possible Alan. To the sides of the dressers are Midge-shaped holes revealing brown inside paper or cardboard material.
    1963 Whitman Midge paper doll set interior. Source: harpagon-half on eBay.

    A different type of dressing room appeared inside the Little-Theatre-themed “Costume Dolls” set, which also included small versions of the Little Theatre’s stage backdrops. Since the Little Theatre itself has no backstage area, this folder makes a valuable addition.

    Another red folder. This one shows two two-seater vanities before large mirrors surrounded with lights. One vanity has a pink floral skirt and white stools with pink cushions; the other has a pale blue skirt with blue-cushioned barrels for chairs. On this vanity rests a wolf head, and red shield leans on one of the barrels. On the pink vanity are a bouquet of flowers and various cosmetic items. A note written on the mirror reads "Barbie-- Rehearsal at 7 am - Midge" A pair of black open-toed shoes sits next to one of the pink seats. Along the bottom are the same messages to put dolls in one pocket and clothes in the other.
    1964 Whitman Barbie Costume Dolls folder reproduction. Source: Arlene’s Vintage Paper Dolls on eBay.

    Barbie’s early-Sixties career as a fashion designer provided another setting in which dolls might get changed, below. We’re especially fond of all the sketches of authentic Mattel Barbie fashions shown, when the paper doll set itself contained few or no recognizable Barbie ensembles.

    An open folder showing white furniture: a drafting table with red-cushioned stool, a little round side table with drawers, and a larger four-drawer chest. On the drafting table is a drawing of Friday Nite Date, a headshot of barbie and other papers. The little table is pulled close to the chair and holds a palette and brushes. Hanging on the walls are sketches of Registered Nurse, After Five, Party Date, Dinner at Eight, Sorority Meeting, and a couple Ken fashions. A dressmaker's dummy and bolt of fabric sit to either side of the chest of drawers. The instructions to put dolls in one pocket and clothes in the other appear over the pockets. along the tops of the drafting table and chest of drawers.
    1963 Whitman Barbie, Ken and Midge folder interior. Source: Bees Knees Shoppe on eBay.

    At least once, a Barbie career was featured that did not immediately suggest dressing:

    Folder stands open showing an airplane interior like the one in the Barbie Friend Ship play set. To one side is a closet with coats and small luggage. Next is a service area with dishes, sink, coffee pot, hanging towels, and cabinets the really open; to the right are drawn two rows of seats facing each other over a thin wood-look table. Windows beyond these show a cloudy sky. Below the sears is written "Put Clothes In This Handy Carry Pocket" (there is no pocket for the dolls this time).
    1973 Whitman Barbie’s Friend Ship paper doll folder interior. Source: Variety Company on eBay.

    although the Braniff air hostesses from a couple years earlier did have three costume changes per flight! We’ve demonstrated the use of this folder as a diorama backdrop in a couple of posts.

    And other times, the illustrated setting was neither work nor home, as in the case of this drive-in burger joint:

    A folder stands open. Large red lettering along the top reads JOE'S BURGERS. Below that is a striped awning, followed by a wall of windows with signs for: Burgers, 19 cents; malts, 20 cents; hot dogs, 10 cents; fries, 12 cents. A male employee is drawn near a range hood, and a female employee stands inside on window with burgers and colas on a tray. A pitcher and glasses at another window are filled with pink fluid. Below waist level of the characters is a wall of aqua tile. On the surface below the folder are, among some partially-visible paper doll clothes, a miniature paper Barbie in a seated position, about half the size of the paper dolls, and a miniature Ken, just from the arm up, at a steering wheel. They are for inserting into a paper car, not shown.
    1963 Whitman Barbie and Ken paper doll folder. Source: Momma’s Hobby Vintage on eBay.

    To use it with dolls, paper or otherwise, the user must supply the car. The set did come with a small-scale paper car and small-scaled Barbie and Ken (lying in front of the folder shown above) to sit in it.

    Lastly, at least one folder featured Barbie’s house with Barbie squarely in the scene. These illustrations, on a 1967 folder, show that year’s new T’n’T Barbie inhabiting the New Dream House, first available in 1964:

    Inside of a paper doll folder. On the left side, barbie in Caribbean Cruise dusts a coffee table. Behind her is an orange armchair and across the table a yellow sofa. At the back, a brick fireplace with hanging ivy-like plant and two framed cats. At right, Barbie in a blue sheath and matching red polka dot apron and oven mitts, holding a casserole dish in front of an oven and range with hood. On the range sits a coffee carafe and to one side a spice rack hangs. Bottom of the folder bears the usual instructions for storing dolls and clothes.
    Inside the “Barbie has a New Look” folder from 1967. Source: onceagain34 on eBay.

    This is surely not an exhaustive list of built environments in the Whitman paper doll folders, although many folders featured illustrations less suited as a setting for imaginative play; in the Seventies the folders were phased out in favor of books with fewer ancillary illustrations.

    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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  • Unique Boutique (1971)
    Box for the Unique Boutique play set is printed with a full color photo of the boutique: a rectangular one-room shop enclosed on two sides, with a green roof and interior or walls of blue lithographed with a Tiffany pendant lamp, full-length "mirror, white shelves covered with accessories, zebra-striped floor covering. A dressing room extends from a third wall but can't be seen into from this angle. Next to the drawing room a metal bar extends from the wall, holding clothing on hangers. On the fourth side the wall has folded down to form a carpeted floor. on which sits a blue plastic chair (with Hair Happenins Feancie seated) and a counter with cash register, wigstand, and embedded shelves holding four pairs of shoes. A cardboard mannequin with yellow flip hair wears Rainbow Wraps. Text reads Mattel Barbie Unique Boutique Wig 'n Fashion Shop. The in place for BARBIE and her Live Action friends to try 'n buy her grooviest clothes 'n wigs! A colorful shop complete with accessory counter, wig stand, dress manikin, cash register, telephone, chair, mirror, clothes rack and hangers! It's a play place and a carrying case all in one! Washable vinyl! Fun and easy to assemble! DOLLS, CLOTHING AND WIGS NOT INCLUDED.
    Barbie Unique Boutique package exterior

    During the second half of the Sixties, Barbie was a total homebody: following the release of Skipper’s Schoolroom in 1965, Barbie went through about a dozen homes, but no more public spaces. When she was finally ready to reemerge in 1971, it was into a different world.

    Between the years 1963, when Barbie’s Fashion Shop debuted, and 1971’s Unique Boutique, clothes shopping underwent a revolution. In Vintage Fashion: a Complete Sourcebook, Nicky Albrechtsen explains: “Music, art and fashion interlinked to create a new culture, epitomized by the renowned informal boutique shopping experience… Boutiques stayed open ad hoc, a party atmosphere prevailing until the early hours, as consumers shopped listening to the newest music and the celebrities of art, pop and rock mingled with young shoppers all seeking forward-looking fashion that broke with convention.”

    An early and impactful boutique reimagining was Mary Quant’s Bazaar store in Chelsea, which faced legal trouble in the 1950s for staying open too late, placing an unfair burden on the competition to do likewise. The boutique of Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin was another Swinging London staple, where the clothes were hung on overhead rails that stretched from wall to wall, surrounded by bare lightbulbs in red and blue. In his book on the pair, Iain R. Webb quotes a contemporary journalist describing Carnaby Street boutiques such as theirs as “like a club–the assistants just smoke and lean against the wall and put records on.”

    Reminiscing for The New Yorker on his time living upstairs from trendsetting London boutique Granny Takes a Trip, Salman Rushdie wrote, “Inside Granny’s, it was pitch dark. You went in through a heavy bead curtain and were instantly blinded. The air was heavy with incense and patchouli oil and also with the aromas of what the police called Certain Substances. Psychedelic music, big on feedback, terrorized your eardrums. After a time, you became aware of a low purple glow, in which you could make out a few motionless shapes. These were probably clothes, probably for sale. You didn’t like to ask. Granny’s was a pretty scary place.”

    Meanwhile in New York, Paraphernalia, serving the Warhol set with designs by Quant, Tuffin and Foale in addition to American designers like Betsey Johnson and Diana Dew, leaned more Exploding Plastic Inevitable: a vast, chrome-and-white interior with slides of the fashions projected on the walls. Johnson described it as “like stepping into a spaceship or into the future.” In all cases, music was blaring.

    Mirroring progress in the real world, Barbie’s Unique Boutique, unlike the earlier Fashion Shop, has no stage for the store’s models to occupy, no armchairs and magazines for its customers. The space is narrow, an explosion of color and texture; you can easily imagine the records spinning… and you can practically detect the heady scents, as well.

    Color photos of play set. The one at left shows the same set as at the top, but no clothes hang on the rack or mannequin. The wall behind the clothing rack and leading into the dressing room is revealed to be lime green, like the roof. At right the box is shown with the front panel closed off to form an exterior wall, on which is lithographed an orange door with butterfly decoration and two windows displaying (illustrations of) dresses, boots, handbags and wigs. Above the door and windows are transoms of rainbow-colored glass, and a black wrought-iron fence is depicted running along the bottom.
    Left: vintage Unique Boutique interior including “manikin,” wig stand with wig, and cash register sitting on the counter/shoe rack. All that’s missing is that straight-backed plastic chair. Right: Unique Boutique exterior. Source: Ripley Auctions.

    Of the real-life Sixties boutiques we surveyed, we think the Unique Boutique shares the most DNA with Granny Takes a Trip–or maybe Biba. But Barbie’s London boutique phase was fleeting; her next forays into consumerism, in the Superstar era, would take place at indoor malls and department stores of a decidedly more American persuasion.

    3 color catalog images. At left, "Barbie's Fashion Salon" has a stage with curtain, two armchairs, a coffee table with magazines, a 3-paneled mirror, and shelves, racks and counters for merchandise. Bubble cut Barbie poses on stage in evening dress. Center is the Boutique, as previously described. Barbie is in the scene wearing one of her prairie-inspired dresses, and the mannequin wears a short pink dress or nightgown. A second Barbie occupies the chair. Right is Barbie Fashion Plaza, a two-story stopping extravaganza with escalator, food court, salon, and bridal boutique.
    Barbie’s shopping evolutions in Christmas catalogs, 1964-1976. via WishbookWeb.com.

    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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  • The Many Abodes of Barbie, Part VII: 1970
    Box for Barbie Lively Livin' House. Text says, "NEW! REAL ENOUGH TO FEEL! Sculptured Walls and Patios!; Super Realistic!' 4 Colorful Fun Area With Dozens of Unique Molded and Textured Features Inside and Out!; Super Movin' Fun!; Swinging Chair - Exercise Bar - Shuffleboard Court - Full-Length Mirror! Put Living BARBIE through All Her Paces!; You'll Love Barbie's Own Groovy Interior Decorating - A Lively Mixture of Old & New!; BY MATTEL". Down the righthand side are additional pictures of the 4 areas, labeled, "LIVELY LIVING ROOM", "COOKIN' FUN KITCHEN", "TEEN DREAM BEDROOM", and the bottom, showing the house with its front patios and gardens folded up, is labeled "PLUS..." and goes on to list a Sun Deck, Patio with Swinging Chair, Shuffleboard Court and Fish Pond, and other items.
    Source: slicksilver66 on eBay.

    In 1970 the best Barbie house arrived. A controversial statement, to say the least: of vintage Barbie Dream House enthusiasts, the chipboard diehards clearly feel differently, and for many plastic aficionados the great, timeless houses came later in the decade. However, we’ll present compelling evidence that the Lively Living House (and the Surprise House, which is the same) represented the acme of Barbie’s domestic adventures.

    In terms of furniture this house had the usual for 1970, glimpsed above: the couch and chair with game board, the circular dining table with two high-backed chairs, the solid molded shell of a bed; one novelty was a swing chair hanging from the second-story balcony, occupied by Christie in the image above. The ’72 version, the Surprise House, also added a planter with seeds for growing real plants and some gardening implements in keeping with the country emphasis of the time. The furniture was just fine.

    But the Surprise House distinguishes itself in two key areas: the walls and floors.

    Walls

    Let’s take a closer look at that front room/living room, lower left in the box art that introduced this post:

    Four panels showing living room walls and floor. Walls are pink. On one side of the room is a colorful stone fireplace with crackling fire; next to that are the bright red front doors with colorful stianed glass, and windows ot either side with orange-and-pink striped curtains; to the right, the wall shows a psychedelic poster, two white hanging lamps with spherical shades, and a low bookshelf of books and knickknacks. The floor is wood parquet look with a circular, flowery rug in pinks, reds, and purples.
    Walls and floor of one room of the Lively Livin’ House, via grozalis on eBay.

    Rich, colorful, detailed, midcentury-psychedelic. And here’s the kitchen next door:

    3 panels showing kitchen walls. All show green appliances, yellow cabinets, and walls covered in swirls of yellow, green, and orange. L: Refrigerator and cake stand with pink cake. C: dishwasher and sink, plus pendant lamp with stained glass depicting fruit, and a pile of fresh produce directly on the counter. R: oven with teakettle atop and some sort of large bird cooking within. Smaller oven or microwave overhead has more items inside, and red brick spans the space between the two ovens. To the side of the oven is an unidentified furniture item in a terra cotta color, perhaps somewhat vase-shaped, with a vented wide belly--like an early space heater or something. A blue teapot sits atop.
    Walls of the Lively Livin’ House kitchen, via raregold on eBay.

    .That mad wallpaper! The avocado appliances! There is no more beautifully-styled interior in Barbie’s plastic dream home era.

    And outside? We’ve noted that Barbie and her friends were illustrated on the exteriors of the Sixties mod houses. 1970 marked the end of that trend. Instead, the Lively Livin’ House walls are jam-packed with gorgeous furniture, plants, planters, etc. These panels enclose the living room and kitchen we surveyed above:

    Four panels. L: window with green-and-yellow drapes inside; in the fore, a reddish-orange chair with tulip base, wide winged armrests, and purple seat cushion. Next: a fountain consisting of 3 wide, shallow plates at different heights, in blue, yellow and red, sits before the kitchen window. A stained glass pendant lamp can be discerned inside over a table and chair set that looks like the one included in the set; next: Red front door with rainbow stained glass, long windows to either side with printed curtains inside, a range of greenery, and a gold and teal stone lion. R: Exterior side of the fireplace panel shows colorful stone in a random-looking pattern, along with a purple blooming bush in a large pot.
    First floor exterior of the Lively Livin’ House, via grozalis on eBay.

    The chair and fountain would not be out of place in the original Star Trek series, while the stained glass and fieldstone chimney are all peak 1970 aesthetics.

    In addition to the surfaces we’ve highlighted here, there was a bedroom in rich blues and purples, and three panels of garden walkways including a shuffleboard court. In a sharp pivot, this house didn’t fold up for carrying, but the three outdoor walkway panels did fold up to complete the house exterior with additional windows and decor and make it a bit more compact to store. The panels easily remove from the structures to serve as stylish backdrops for dioramas, and they are indestructible-ish vinyl, so they’re fairly common today.

    Floors

    When I named floors as a distinguishing trait of the Lively Livin’ House, I wasn’t talking about the appealing tiled floors that complement the walls detailed above. They’re great, but the real innovation of this house, floorwise, is this: as a two-story structure, it is the first Barbie home to have a second floor. Its multistory structure and lack of fold-and-carry capability set the precedent for more famous Seventies houses: the Townhouse and the A-Frame.

    L: Barbie Townhouse packaging shows a 3-story colorful plastic house with its own elevator. The rear walls and floors have screened designs. R: color catalog image for the A-frame house, a large 2-story structure with slatted and vented walls instead of vinyl or chipboard screened images.
    Famous houses. Sources: some_gave_all on eBay; Wishbook Web.

    The Townhouse had stylized interior walls featuring a heavy helping of gingham, but no printed exteriors. By the time the A-Frame arrived, screened-on wall decor was passé. We intend to end our Many Abodes series here, without digging into these dwellings; but it’s worth noting that the Townhouse is, with the possible exception of the Sleep-n-Keep case rooms, the most urban accommodation the Teen-Age Fashion Model ever inhabited. It took multistory housing to convince her to make the move which we’ve argued was necessary for her career since the start.

    Back to our thesis: the combination of richly illustrated interiors (and exteriors!) as Barbie enjoyed in the Sixties, with the structural sophistication she’d come to know in the Seventies and beyond, is what makes the Lively Livin’/Surprise House the best Barbie Dream House, ever.

    Rooms for Lively Livin’

    A column runs down the right-hand side of the box art that led this post, apparently describing the house’s three rooms: Lively Livin’ Room, Cookin’ Fun Kitchen, and Teen Dream Bedroom. There’s nothing unusual about describing the play set’s contents on the package, and it’s not too extraordinary to give them these cute little names. But as it happens, there is more to this tale.

    Color catalog image showing the house as described in the post. Text reads, "Barbie Lively Livin' House; beautifully furnished... over 2 1/2 feet long; Spacious vinyl house for Barbie includes dining room with table, chairs; den with couch, table, chair; porch with swing, shuffleboard; bedroom with clothes racks and mirror (bed, headboard, spread not incl.). 32x17x27-in. house folds for storage. Shpg. wt. 5 lbs.; 79N31029C...$11.87; Bedroom Set only. Plastic bed, headboard, spread and chair. 49N31034--Wt. 8 oz...$1.96; Den Set only. Plastic couch, table, chair and shuffleboard. 49N31033--Wt. 8 oz...$1.96; Dining Set. Table, 2 chairs. 49N31032-_Wt. 8 oz...$1.96."
    1970 Sears catalog entry for the Lively Livin’ House. Source: Wishbook Web.

    The 1970 catalog excerpt above lists not just the house itself, but also three individual rooms, sold separately: Bedroom Set, Den Set, and Dining Set. From the terse description, it seems as if these are just subsets of the full play set’s components (although this listing claims there is no bed or bedspread included with the Lively Livin’ House, other sources–including the box shown at top–disagree). But the Christmas catalog entries were often based on prototypes and concepts, as is the case here: besides the bedding confusion, note the red brick chimney on the lower left side of the house, and the densely-slatted fencing that differs from the final product. The real Lively furniture sets, rare-to-vanishing today, put their own spin on these rooms.

    Packaging for the furniture set Barbie lively livin' room (or livin'room, it's had to tell if they wanted a space there). Smaller text says, "ONE OF BARBIE's FAVORITE FUNROOMS; For Swingin' Party-Givin' or Cozy Fireside Conversation!" In the image, a child plays with a Barbie doll and furniture set of blue plastic, consisting of snap-together sofa, table, and chair. The sofa and chair have stickers showing vertically-striped upholsetery in blues and brown, while atop the table is a sticker showing a chess board.
    1970 Lively Livin’Room box art

    In fact, the “livin’room” set (probably the Den Set from the Sears catalog) does include the sofa, chair and table from the Lively Livin’ House, but in a different color palette (shuffleboard is not in evidence). The same was true of the Teen Dream Bedroom and Cookin’ Fun Kitchen furniture pieces. But it’s in the walls and floors (again with the walls and floors!) where the furniture sets really went in their own direction.

    Living room walls and floor: the carpet is pretty psychedelic, with blue and green swirls. Other furnishings are more staid, such as a grandfather clock, a landscape painting, and a television in a heavy wooden cabinet. The space is dominated by a white brick fireplace. Outside, the house is red brick up to a couple feet, then yellow boards; a window has green shutters and blue-and-white curtains within.
    1970 Barbie Lively Livin’Room interior walls and floor (L) and exterior (R). Source for this and previous image: wonderwoman13 on eBay.

    They’re not as groovy as the Lively Livin’ House–then again, what is?–but still deeply Seventies. This living room is a little more family-oriented than the one in the Lively house, displaying grown-up touches along with that trippy carpet.

    The wall had a simple dimensional feature that pushed the fireplace into the room, as shown above. The other two sets augmented their basic furnishings in the same way, with a dimensional bedroom dresser and kitchen sink. Like the livin’room, these rooms’ walls were new conceptions. Due to the rarity of the sets I have no images to share; however, Marl Davidson photographed them for her book on Barbie structures, and we included a snapshot of those pages when we recommended her book.

    Well there you have it! It’s the end, for now at least, of the Many Abodes of Barbie series. Our final house isn’t technically the Lively Livin’ House of 1970, or even the same-y Surprise House of ’72, but rather the ’73 Country Living Home we visited last time. There are still some Seventies furniture sets we wish to discuss with you, but on the whole, Barbie’s focus during this decade was outside the home. Where might we find her as the next decade progresses?

    Collage of images from walls of the Lively Livin' House: A stone lion guards the front door; inside the rood, a ceramic cat sits on a side table; in the bedroom, a modern sphere-shaped lamp sits on an hourglass-shaped stool/side table, with psychedelic blue-and-purple wallpaper depicting signs of the zodiac; a pink cake on a cakestand in the kitchen; an exterior view of a funky planter in the bedroom; and a bird alighting at a futuristically shaped birdfeeder, an orange sphere with large cutouts.

    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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