Tag: vintage barbie
-
Sew-Free Fashion-Fun Kits (1965-1966)
In the realm of vintage Barbie illustrations, the Sew-Free Fashion-Fun kits are a category all their own. The loose, markered style, supplemented with certain precise details like fabric patterns and fingered gloves, as above, lends the drawings drama, romance, and, of course, glamour. Were the fashions themselves elegant and appealing? We shall see. The illustrations…
-
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…
-
When Barbie turned 21
It’s a paradox: she was a teen-age fashion model in 1959, and she turned 21 in 1980. For Barbie, both are true. And in 1980 Barbie held her 21st birthday bash, where else? in a nightclub: “Hurrah” in Manhattan, a “new wave disco,” per the Charlotte Observer. Befittingly, the party was punctuated by a fashion…
sheathsensation
-
Barbie and Ken Little Theatre (1964)
The built environment of Barbie got a unique entry in 1964: a repertory theatre where Ken and Barbie starred in all the plays. In addition to the play set, seven costume ensembles were sold separately in 1964, with all but one carried over into ’65; the image above shows part of the packaging for a…
sheathsensation
-
Sidebar: Barbie Sings! (1961)
I stumbled across an interesting eBay listing over the weekend: a set of 45 rpm records from 1961, “sung” by Barbie and Ken (the back cover identifies the real singers as “lovely Charlotte Austin” and “handsome young Bill Cunningham”). The record jacket and lyrics pages are illustrated and make for a nice mini-update. Jodi Benson,…
-
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
-
The Many Abodes of Barbie, Part I: 1962
It’s 1962 and the Teen-Age Fashion Model is moving into her Dream House. One might be surprised to learn that the home of Barbie’s dreams consists of just one room, equipped with a twin bed, an entertainment system and a variety of seating. It’s breathtakingly modest–but then, for a single young woman of the time…
-
Visions of After Five
Where to next? Have visions of Solo in the Spotlight; envision After Five one more time in the Keys to Fame board game; or go up to the Table of Contents.
sheathsensation
-
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
-
Barbie on TV
When Barbie turns on her TV, it’s usually to watch Barbie. The televisions of the early years are examples of Barbie’s built environment that double as Barbie illustrations. The earliest television we feature comes from the original 1962 Dream House. It is actually a TV-stereo combination, as a panel on the top opens to reveal…
Silken Flame 