Tag: 1966
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Who wore it best?
Hat tip to BillyBoy*, who highlighted the above similarity in his 1987 book, Barbie: Her Life and Times. Hat tip to Paris Refashioned: 1957-1968 by Colleen Hill for featuring the Yves Saint Laurent and Christiane Bailly designs above. Where to next? Two further entries ask, “Who wore it best?”: one on designer Mary Quant, featuring…
sheathsensation
1960, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, after five, balenciaga, betty grable, black magic, cardin, christiane bailly, courreges, dior, enchanted evening, francie, how to marry a millionaire, intrigue, marilyn monroe, solo in the spotlight, stefanie powers, the girl from U.N.C.L.E., twiggy, vintage barbie, vintage francie, yves saint laurent -
Fashion Booklets
The first, foremost, and most famous source of vintage Barbie illustrations is, of course, the fashion booklet. When we assess the drawings on items like carrying cases, doll packaging, and sewing patterns, our evaluations often center on similarities to and differences from the booklet versions. Within the booklets, there are hundreds of hand-drawn illustrations to…
sheathsensation
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The Many Abodes of Barbie, Part IV: 1966
During the Sixties, Americans imported Mini cars and miniskirts from Swinging London, while Barbie innovated a “mini” all her own: the cramped accommodations she and her social circle favored in the second half of the decade. We got our first taste in the 1965 episode with the Sears exclusive “Deluxe” house; in the following year…
sheathsensation
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Sidebar: Color Magic Illustrations
The Color Magic line was a juggernaut for Barbie circa 1966, and with it came a raft of illustrations used for advertising and instructions. The image above is a run-of-the-mill fashion booklet spread like all ensembles merited in those days, but do a little more digging–from the dolls themselves, to the fashions, to the Sew-Free…
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Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen (1963)
Barbie’s earliest abodes may suggest that she was not much of a cook: neither the ’62 Dream House nor her ’64 Campus dorm room provided kitchen facilities (predictably, in the latter case); the Go-Together rooms offered a dining room, but no kitchen; and the ’64 New Dream House had a very minimal kitchen in the…
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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…
Silken Flame 