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Barbie is a fashion doll created by American businesswoman Ruth Handler, manufactured by American toy and entertainment company Mattel and introduced on March 9, 1959. The toy is the figurehead of an eponymous brand that includes a range of fashion dolls and accessories. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company's largest and most profitable line. The brand has expanded into a multimedia franchise since 1984, including video games, computer-animated films, television/web series and a live-action film.
Bratz is an American fashion doll and media franchise created by former Mattel employee Carter Bryant for MGA Entertainment, which debuted in 2001.
Since Barbie's introduction as a teenage fashion model in 1959, the doll has been portrayed with many careers. Dolls are sold with sets of clothes and accessories that fit the career being portrayed. For example, the Lifeguard Barbie playset includes a Barbie, an outfit with shoes, a lifeguard chair, a dolphin, and a life preserver, while the Spanish Teacher Barbie includes a Barbie, an outfit with shoes, flashcards, a Spanish quiz, an easel, a notebook, a key chain, and a hairbrush.
Totally Hair Barbie is a fashion doll, in the Barbie line by Mattel, that was released in 1992. The doll's extra-long hair reached all the way to her toes and at the time, she had the longest hair ever for a Barbie doll at 11.5 inches in length. She is notable for being the highest selling Barbie doll in history.
Nicole Miller is an American fashion designer and businesswoman.
Fashion dolls are dolls primarily designed to be dressed to reflect fashion trends. They are manufactured both as toys for children to play with and as collectibles for adults. The dolls are usually modeled after teen girls or adult women, though child, male, and even some non-human variants exist. Contemporary fashion dolls are typically made of vinyl or another plastic.
My Scene is an American series of fashion dolls that Mattel released in 2002. They were discontinued in the US in 2008, and worldwide in 2011. Mattel's Barbie character is one of the dolls in the toy line. The My Scene dolls' bodies are slim, similar to earlier Barbie dolls, but their heads are larger. The New York Times described their features as "exaggerated lips and bulging, makeup-caked eyes." My Scene were designed to appeal to the tween market and compete with the Bratz dolls from MGA Entertainment.
Fulla is the name of an 11.5 in (290 mm) Barbie-like fashion doll marketed to children of Islamic and Middle-Eastern countries as an alternative to Barbie. The product's concept evolved around 1999, and it became available for sale in late 2003. Fulla was created by a Syrian manufacturer called NewBoy FZCO. In 2015 the company moved to the United Arab Emirates and is now located in Dubai. Fulla is also sold in China, in Brazil, North Africa, Egypt, and Indonesia, while a few are sold in the United States. Although there had been many other dolls in the past that were created with a hijab, such as Razanne and Moroccan Barbie, Fulla surpassed them in popularity due to launching alongside a marketing campaign aired on the popular Arabic television channel Spacetoon. Fulla is a role-model to some Muslim people, displaying how many Muslim parents would prefer their daughters to dress and behave.
Sindy is a British fashion doll created by Pedigree Dolls & Toys in 1963. A rival to Barbie, Sindy's look and range of fashions and accessories made her the best-selling toy in the United Kingdom in 1968 and 1970. After Marx Toys' unsuccessful attempt to introduce Sindy in the United States in the late 1970s, Hasbro bought the rights to Sindy and remodelled the doll to look more American. As a result, the doll's popularity declined; in addition Barbie manufacturer Mattel filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, which was settled when Hasbro agreed to remodel Sindy's face. During the 1990s, Barbie's share of the doll market continued to grow while Sindy's diminished, which led to Sindy being delisted from major retailers in 1997. Hasbro returned the doll's licence to Pedigree, and the doll was relaunched in 1999, manufactured by Vivid Imaginations. Sindy's 40th anniversary in 2003 saw a new manufacturer, New Moons, and another relaunch and redesign. There was a further relaunch in 2023.
Maxie's World is an American animated children's television program produced by DIC Animation City. Distributed by Claster Television and Saban International and originally aired in first-run syndication in the United States from September 14, 1987 through October 27, 1987. It consists of one season, comprising a total of 32 episodes, each 15 minutes long. In the series' original run, Maxie's World alternated on weekdays with Beverly Hills Teens and It's Punky Brewster. The series was briefly rerun on USA Network in 1994.
Francie Fairchild is a fashion doll issued by Mattel from 1966 to 1976 and re-introduced in 2011. Marketed as "Barbie's MODern cousin" from England, the doll had an extensive line of "mod"-style clothing, often employing bright colors and geometric patterns similar to fashions associated with Carnaby Street in the late 1960s to early 1970s. At 11¼ inches tall, the Francie doll was shorter than Barbie, but taller than Skipper, making the character presumably between the two in age.
Tarina Tarantino is an American costume jewelry and accessory designer, based in Los Angeles, California. Known for her flamboyant pink hair, she has been described as having "a pretty cult-like following here in LA" and as "the haute designer of playful jewelry for grown women".
Barbie Shanghai was the first Mattel Barbie flagship store in the world. Located in Shanghai, China, this 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) store held the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Barbie dolls and licensed Barbie products. It ceased activities in March 2011.
Iris Apfel is an American businesswoman, interior designer, fashion icon and actress. In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel led a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies. In retirement, she drew acclaim for a 2005 show at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring her collection of costume jewelry and styled with clothes on mannequins as she would wear it. She has become a fashion icon, she signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97, and she was featured in a 2014 documentary called Iris by Albert Maysles.
Monster High is an American multimedia-supported fashion doll franchise created by toy designer Garrett Sander and launched by Mattel in 2010. The show is aimed at children ages 7-14, the franchise features characters inspired by monster movies, sci-fi horror, thriller fiction, folklore, myths and popular culture, centering around the adventures of the teenage children of monsters and other mythical creatures attending a high school of the same name.
The Barbie Basics is a line of collector's edition Barbie dolls. They were created by Mattel designer Bill Greening and were introduced in late 2009 to be officially released in the spring of 2010.
George Washington Carver High School was a public high school located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This historically black school was named for George Washington Carver.
The Marvelous World of Shani, also known as Shani & Friends or simply Shani, was a fashion doll line manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched in 1991. The principal designer of the dolls was longtime Mattel toy designer Kitty Black Perkins, also responsible for designing 1980's First Black Barbie doll, and many other African American dolls in the Barbie line.
Carol Spencer is an American fashion designer. Most of her career from the early 1960s until 1999 was devoted to creating fashion for Barbie.
References
- 1 2 3 Conley, Linda "Designer dresses Barbie for success Spartanburg women make history," Archived 2015-02-25 at the Wayback Machine (March 25, 2001) GoUpstate.com. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
- ↑ Doll fashion designer. Ebony. May 1992.
- 1 2 "Kitty Black Perkins," Archived 2015-02-26 at the Wayback Machine South Carolina African American Honorees (January 2002). Retrieved February 22, 2015.
- ↑ "Cultural Icon: Dabbler in Careers Barbie Lives On" Archived 2023-04-11 at the Wayback Machine (March 3, 1991) Associated Press, Blade Wire New Service, Retrieved on February 22, 2015.
- ↑ Beyette, Beverly, "A Dress-Up Job : Barbie's Principal Designer Scales Down Glamour and Plays Up Fantasy," Archived 2015-02-25 at the Wayback Machine (February 6, 1991) Retrieved: February 22, 2015.
- ↑ ""Perkins, Louvenia" Archived 2015-02-24 at the Wayback Machine Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
