Barbie is the name of a fashion doll manufactured In America by the businesswoman Ruth Handler and launched for the first time in March 1959. The inspiration in creating this world known doll was the German doll called Bild Lili. Barbie has been an important “piece de resistance” in the toy fashion doll market, she was the subject of innumerable controversies and lawsuits, mainly because of the parodies appeared on the doll’s lifestyle.
The story of conceiving goes like that:
Ruth Handler watched on several occasions her daughter playing with paper dolls and calling them adult names. At that time the most popular children toys were imitations of infants, and Ruth thought that an adult-embodied doll would cover an important segment of the toy market. She shared this idea to her husband who wasn’t very enthusiastic and neither his directors form the Mattel toy company.
In one her visits in Europe, Ruth Handler came across Germany where she spotted the German toy doll that existed on the market. It was an adult-figured doll mostly popular among the adults preferences as it came with separate outfits to be dressed. Ruth took the doll back home and redesigned it giving a new name as well: Barbie (named after her daughter’s name – Barbara).
She exhibited the doll at American International Toy Fair on the 9th of March 1959 and this date was known to be the official birth date of the Barbie doll. The doll was released on the market as “Teen Age Fashion Model” and was offered to the buyers together with entire sets of outfits.
Among these outfits, princess and Barbie wedding dresses wore the most astounding gowns made in real silk and tulle and brocades, almost everything that is to be found as fabrics for wedding dresses fitted also for the Barbie dolls wedding gowns. Starting from the dress itself to purses, earrings, shoes, gloves, the sets of wedding outfits were wonderful examples of fashion and inspiration for the future to be bride.
The delicacy of Barbie dolls and the suppleness of her body lines made the wedding gowns to fit perfectly conveying the status of a fashion model to be followed both by designers and by the models to wear their creations.