A Visual Guide to Barbie: Outfits, Accessories and More

You may have heard that a Barbie movie is coming out?
Well, that's not about this side. It was the 11½ inches of IP, however, that inspired all the craziness: the doll itself.
You know that one. Often blonde, always smiling, sometimes naked and neglected at the bottom of a toy box? Chances are you know this: According to Mattel, more than 100 dolls are sold every minute, and several minutes have passed since Barbie made her debut at a toy industry show in 1959.
Just as remarkable as how the doll has changed since then are the ways it hasn't changed. Like the characters in "Sesame Street" or "South Park", Barbie exists alongside us without truly aging with us - reflecting our times, but not our wrinkles.
This adaptive consistency may play a role in maintaining her cultural ubiquity (alongside her literal ubiquity), because if the things that make Barbie Barbie can skin new every few years, the DNA remains unchanged.
From its hair to its feet, from its portfolio of properties to its fleet of automobiles, virtually everything in Barbie's little plastic world bears her unmistakable signature. How? It's all about the visuals.
Her hair
turns out, it doesn't grow back
VideoCreditCredit...Photo illustration by Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times
The obsession with doll hair has reached its peaked in 1992, the year Mattel Totally Hair Barbie was released, with 11.5 inches of curly hair falling down to her toes. According to Mattel, she remains the best-selling Barbie in history.
But despite all the variety in Barbie's hair over the decades, nothing comes close to the home customization the children would give to their dolls. There is a venerable tradition of cutting it with a pair of scissors, often leaving its ends frayed and uneven. Some children would apply paint or Kool-Aid to her hair - a de facto form of hair dye - or dip it in hot water in an attempt to form curls. Many people can say they first learned to braid or do a ponytail using their Barbie dolls as practice.
Of course, many others accepted her hair as it was. But in a society with beauty standards that historically haven't been kind to those who didn't have blonde, straight or thick hair, transforming Barbie's hair into their image was a way for kids to really take ownership of the doll.
— Gina Cherelus
His Feet
Living Life on Tiptoe
Image

Fashion Jul 16, 2023 0 56 Add to Reading List

A Visual Guide to Barbie: Outfits, Accessories and More

You may have heard that a Barbie movie is coming out?

Well, that's not about this side. It was the 11½ inches of IP, however, that inspired all the craziness: the doll itself.

You know that one. Often blonde, always smiling, sometimes naked and neglected at the bottom of a toy box? Chances are you know this: According to Mattel, more than 100 dolls are sold every minute, and several minutes have passed since Barbie made her debut at a toy industry show in 1959.

Just as remarkable as how the doll has changed since then are the ways it hasn't changed. Like the characters in "Sesame Street" or "South Park", Barbie exists alongside us without truly aging with us - reflecting our times, but not our wrinkles.

This adaptive consistency may play a role in maintaining her cultural ubiquity (alongside her literal ubiquity), because if the things that make Barbie Barbie can skin new every few years, the DNA remains unchanged.

From its hair to its feet, from its portfolio of properties to its fleet of automobiles, virtually everything in Barbie's little plastic world bears her unmistakable signature. How? It's all about the visuals.

Her hair

turns out, it doesn't grow back

The obsession with doll hair has reached its peaked in 1992, the year Mattel Totally Hair Barbie was released, with 11.5 inches of curly hair falling down to her toes. According to Mattel, she remains the best-selling Barbie in history.

But despite all the variety in Barbie's hair over the decades, nothing comes close to the home customization the children would give to their dolls. There is a venerable tradition of cutting it with a pair of scissors, often leaving its ends frayed and uneven. Some children would apply paint or Kool-Aid to her hair - a de facto form of hair dye - or dip it in hot water in an attempt to form curls. Many people can say they first learned to braid or do a ponytail using their Barbie dolls as practice.

Of course, many others accepted her hair as it was. But in a society with beauty standards that historically haven't been kind to those who didn't have blonde, straight or thick hair, transforming Barbie's hair into their image was a way for kids to really take ownership of the doll.

— Gina Cherelus

His Feet

Living Life on Tiptoe

Image