Tag: vintage barbie
-
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 -
Fireplaces, 1963-79
Winter weather moved in last week and put me in the mood to huddle near pictures of mid-century toy fireplaces. Join me!
sheathsensation
-
Queen of the Prom, AKA the Barbie game
In 1960 Mattel developed a gorgeous board game for its brand new character, Barbie, and her boyfriend Ken. Titled “the Barbie game” upon its 1961 release, it’s better known by its subtitle, “Queen of the Prom.” Never mind that the Barbie close-up on the box lid and the fashion illustrations–of Enchanted Evening, Silken Flame, Let’s…
sheathsensation
-
Basic and dressed doll boxes
Basic Barbie boxes The first boxes in which Barbies were sold came decorated with illustrations that were simultaneously more detailed and softer in style than the fashion booklets of the time; where the booklet sketches employed heavy lines, the illustrations on the first dolls’ packaging were mostly without lines, except where needed, as in their…
sheathsensation
-
The Many Abodes of Barbie, Part V: 1967-68
In Barbie’s mod housing saga, the parade of small houses continued in 1967 with additional Sears exclusives, the “House-Mates” for Barbie, Francie, and Tutti: These cozy quarters, with their few furniture pieces mostly nailed to the floor, inhabited a grey zone between house and case room, with a couple aspects differentiating House-Mates from Sleep-‘n-Keep cases:…
-
Skipper’s Schoolroom (1965) and the play sets that never were
A Sears exclusive in 1965 and 1966, Skipper’s Schoolroom was notable as the first Mattel play set where Barbie went only to work (she may have worked or shopped at the Fashion Shop, and the Little Theatre similarly had multiple uses), as well as the last public space introduced to the Barbiesphere for a handful…
sheathsensation
-
Barbie’s Keys to Fame
Illustrations from the Keys to Fame game. Source for all images in this post: statestpac2011 on eBay. A funny little mid-Sixties board game, Barbie’s Keys to Fame illustrates a number of possible futures for the one-time Teen-Aged Fashion Model, each emblematic of a “key” to fame: the stamina of the Ballerina, the style of the…
sheathsensation
-
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
-
Beauty Parlors (1964-1977)
Tressy’s was first, in 1964. Introduced by American Character the year prior, she had the most sophisticated hair play for the time among Barbie and her rivals, with a lock of hair that lengthened and shortened by two separate mechanisms (a button to press and key to turn). Tressy’s Beauty Salon wasn’t functional–it didn’t add…
Silken Flame 