Tag: 1969
-
Illustrated fashion packaging
Barbie’s early ensembles were sold in boxes with cellophane fronts that neatly displayed the contents, along with black-and-white illustrated backs featuring a bit of snappy text. Only for a short while did Barbie appear alone on any packages; once Midge was introduced, even the earlier fashions still in production came in updated packaging that included…
-
Who wore it best? Mary Quant edition
In her 1965 memoir Quant wrote, “When you break a rule, you automatically arrive at something different and this is fun. Take stripes, checks and polka dots. For years these were worn on their own or teamed with a plain colour. Nobody asked why. I believe in mixing patterns and colours wildly. So far as…
-
The Many Abodes of Barbie, Part VI: 1969
When we last checked in on Barbie, she was living in a two-room “World of Barbie Family House,” her most sprawling home since her chipboard days. In 1969 life got better again for Barbie with the New Family House. At a glance the folded-up house, above, looks pretty similar to the old family house; but…
-
Doll Carrying Cases (1961-1972)
The Barbie carrying cases of the mod and vintage years certainly packed a lot of style. From the earliest examples, with limited palettes used to depict Barbie posed before jazzy, off-kilter colored quadrilaterals, her poses mirroring those found in the early fashion booklets, into the full-color phase, with floating heads and sparkle trails, during which…
sheathsensation
-
Whitman paper dolls (1967-1973)
During Barbie’s mod years, the Whitman illustrators experimented with a diversity of art styles, demonstrated in the collage of Barbie paper dolls above. (If a couple of them look like Stacey to you, let me reassure you that Whitman identified all as Barbie herself–we’ll see Stacey in a moment.) Starting with the “Barbie has a…
sheathsensation
Silken Flame 