The glamorous jewel tone and metallic outfits brought runway fun to young fashion lovers, sparking their imaginations and creativity. This was the start of many fashion collaborations to come. Andy Warhol made his mark by creating images of American icons. Barbie was added to the list when Warhol painted her in Barbie has been running for president in every election year since The first President Barbie came with an American-themed dress for an inaugural ball and a red suit for her duties in the Oval Office.
In , Barbie released an all-female ticket with a president and vice president doll set to inspire girls to believe they can be anything—including leader of the free world. Totally Hair Barbie is the best-selling Barbie doll to date. In , Barbie became a social media influencer with the launch of the barbiestyle Instagram account. The account was created to celebrate pop culture moments through the eyes of an icon and quickly became a leading fashion influencer channel.
From fashion and art, to culture and travel, barbiestyle excites followers as only Barbie can. In , Barbie launched a vlog on YouTube to talk directly to girls about issues they face. In , to better reflect the world girls see today, Barbie introduced three new body types: curvy, petite, and tall. The Ken doll was named after Handler's son and was introduced two years after Barbie debuted. Handler was the co-founder of Mattel, a company that manufactures a variety of popular toys.
Her parents were Jacob and Ida Mosko. She married Elliot Handler, her high school boyfriend, in With Harold "Matt" Matson, Elliot created a garage workshop in Their business name "Mattel" was a combination of the letters of their last and first names. Matson soon sold his share of the company, so the Handlers, Ruth and Elliot, took full control. Mattel's first products were picture frames. However, Elliot eventually started making dollhouse furniture from picture frame scraps.
That proved to be such a success that Mattel switched to making nothing but toys. Mattel's first big-seller was the "Uke-a-doodle," a toy ukulele. It was the first in the line of musical toys. In , the Mattel Corporation was formally incorporated in California. In , the company changed toy marketing forever by acquiring the rights to produce the popular "Mickey Mouse Club" products.
The cross-marketing promotion became common practice for future toy companies. In , Mattel released a successful patented toy cap gun called the burp gun.
In , Ruth Handler created the Barbie doll. Handler would later refer to herself as "Barbie's mom. Handler watched her daughter Barbara and friends playing with paper dolls. The children used them to play make-believe, imagining roles as college students, cheerleaders, and adults with careers.
Handler aspired to invent a doll that would better facilitate the way young girls were playing with their dolls. Handler and Mattel introduced Barbie, the teenage fashion model, to skeptical toy buyers at the annual Toy Fair in New York on March 9, The new doll was very unlike the baby and toddler dolls that were popular at the time.
This was a doll with an adult body. What was the inspiration? The Bild Lilli doll was a collector's item and not intended for sale to children; however, Handler used it as the basis for her design for Barbie. Handler said Barbie was a symbol of freedom and possibility for young girls and women:.
Handler created a personal story for the very first Barbie doll. It started well enough. In July , Mattel released a Barbie doll that could finally talk back to the millions of young girls who had talked to her for the last four decades. Despite all of these controversies, Barbie still remained on top of the toy store bestseller lists in the 90s, perhaps as a result of there being so many choices on offer. Customer complaints led some stores to remove the doll from shelves, but in , a Barbie featuring even more elaborate tattoos across her neck, chest, arms and shoulders was launched in partnership with L.
Hello Barbie has a microphone and a modicum of artificial intelligence that means the more she is spoken to, the more appropriate her responses are. Off the back of these technological teething problems, Mattel moved its concern away from the internet and back towards Barbie herself, launching two new lines representing different ethnicities and body shapes.
The Fashionista range of Barbie dolls offers seven different skin tones, representing African -American, Asian and mixed race features, 14 different hairstyles and, incredibly, with a range of shoe choices.
For the very first time, Barbie has been blessed with bendable ankles so she can finally wear flats. Three new body shapes — petite, tall and curvy — are now available, which can be mixed and matched with a number of skin tones, eye colors and hair styles, including afro and curly red hair. Barbie is still under fire for her unrealistic proportions though, with the BBC publishing an article that shows that even the new curvy Barbie would have a waist equivalent to a UK size if she were scaled up to full size.
An Instagram account created in December featuring a doll wearing the Islamic veil attracted tens of thousands of followers in a matter of months.
For over half a decade, Barbie has negotiated the fickle world of fashion, staying in the best-seller section of the toy store as other toys have come and gone. No stranger to controversy, Barbie has sought to innovate and stay up to date with technological advances with mixed results. Whatever her triumphs or fails, Barbie is a global icon, the original and the best fashion doll in the world. By Toni Marie Ford.
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