Tag: 1963
-
Barbie’s Fashion Shop (1963)
What is it that makes a doll boutique so desirable? I always wanted one as a child. Did my young mind subconsciously believe that the shop would refill with new designs as Barbie “purchased” them? Is it an aspiration to consumption, and a desire to incorporate the act into make-believe? Or would it simply render…
-
A chronicle of Barbie shoes, 1959-1967
Recently, while sourcing various, specific vintage shoes for a custom project, I began to realize there were basic facts about Barbie’s early shoes that were not known to me. What year was Barbie’s first pair of closed-toe shoes produced? (The answer surprised me, but maybe you already know.) What were the most common “gold” open-toed…
-
Whitman paper dolls (1962-1965)
One of the deepest wells of vintage Barbie fashion sketches must be Whitman paper dolls–if you agree that they have a place alongside all the art that came straight from Mattel. Whitman had paper dolls on many subjects, from Kim Novak to Marlo Thomas to Twiggy and far beyond, and it’s perfectly possible that the…
sheathsensation
