Barbie’s petite, just under a foot tall. Yet she exerts a palpable pull on American culture. Say the name, and female business leaders and feminists alike turn soft and melty, remembering their own Barbies, and all the accoutrements. The dream house. The airplane. And — most important — the clothes.
“Barbie is a little girl’s introduction into fashion and style,” notes designer Rebecca Taylor. Fellow designer Erin Fetherston agrees that “with each change of her outfit, we’ve seen Barbie do and be anything and everything.”
To celebrate Barbie’s 50th anniversary, more than 50 designers contributed dresses to a blowout Barbie fashion show at Bryant Park. The tent was mobbed by editors, buyers and other fashion industry bigwigs, many with daughters in tow.
Nicole Miller recalled how her mother (a Frenchwoman) only bought her French dolls, despite a young Nicole’s pleas for a Barbie. Vivienne Tam tried to curl her doll’s hair with toothpicks.
The extravaganza included a Barbie video, then the runway show featuring Rachel Roy’s sequin interpretation of the original Barbie’s black and white bathing suit, Anna Sui’s hippie homage (denim and crocheted vest), a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress, even futuristic looks from Michael Kors, Donna Karan and Badgley Mischka. Kenneth Cole had the honor of tuxing up his namesake, Barb’s ever-faithful Ken.
“Barbie was truly my first muse,” notes Carmen Marc Valvo, who recalls creating tiny evening gowns for his sister’s Barbie dolls. A “little polka-dot number,” found recently in the attic of his family home, now “sits framed behind my desk as a constant reminder of how it all began.”
