Looking great at
ABY dolls used to be all the rage in the 1950s... until Barbie came along.
She broke the plastic toy mould by daring to boast curves and a bust and her arrival at the 1959 Toy Fair in New York sent shockwaves through the industry.
A love of fashion was evident from the start though and Barbie made her debut wearing a stylish black and white zebra-striped swimsuit and sporting chic sunglasses.
American inventor Ruth Handler, who co-founded US firm Mattel with her husband Elliot, was inspired by a German doll called Bild Lilli.
She named her new-look doll after their daughter Barbara and it is estimated that 351,000 were sold during the first year of production.
The first Barbie was made in Japan and came in both brunette and blonde versions with a price tag of $3. She has now become a cultural icon with collectors around the world paying thousands for some of the rare dolls.
Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis once said: “I wasn’t the kid who lined up her toys, although when it came to Barbies and that little travelling wardrobe with the drawers and the little shoes, my stuff was always on hangers and the shoes were always in pairs. Things had their places.”
Barbie still looks as youthful as ever, even though she has now reached her landmark 60th birthday.
There have been many milestones. The doll launched in Europe in 1961 and her eyes were changed to look forward, not sideways, in 1971. She was given a belly button for the first time in 2000.
Barbie is now part of a billion-pound-a-year industry and is sold in more than 100 countries.
Her first job was as a teenage model and Barbie has packed in more than 80 careers since then, from surgeon and mother to ballet It’s time to get the Barbie started as the world’s most famous doll hits a milestone birthday.
checks out some of her transformations through the decades dancer and even astronaut.
Her first pet was a horse named Dancer and she has gone on to collect more than 40 animals over the decades, including dogs, cats and even a panda.
Boyfriend Ken appeared on the scene two years after
Barbie’s debut and it is reckoned more than a billion outfits and shoes have been made for them and their friends over the years.
Diamond-mining company De Beers helped Barbie her celebrate her 40th birthday in sparkling style with a dress covered in 160 individual diamonds worth $50,000. Many of the world’s top designers, including Versace and Gucci, have dressed the famous fashion lover over the years and her military uniforms were even approved by the Pentagon.
The first celebrity version to be added to the family was Twiggy in 1967 and she has been joined over the years by the likes of Cher, Charlie’s Angel star Farrah Fawcett and Diana Ross.
Oscar winner Cate Blanchett once pointed
out : “You know you’ve made it when you’ve been moulded in miniature, but you know what children do with Barbie dolls – it’s a bit scar y, actually.”
Star Wars and Black Swan star Natalie Portman admitted: “I was like a total clichéd 80s child. I had Barbies, obviously, as well as My Little Ponies and Cabbage Patch Kids, but I used to destroy them. I used to draw all over their faces and cut off their hair.”
Barbie has embraced cultural diversity over the years and her African-American friend Christie joined her in 1968. Mattel also announced in 2016 that it would be selling Barbie’s in three new body types – tall, curvy and petite – and she would come in seven skin tones, 22 eye colours and 24 hairstyles.
A hijab-wearing Barbie was launched the following year inspired by Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad. The life of the icon has certainly been eventful and Barbie and Ken have even made it onto the big screen in the Toy Story movies.
She might be only eleven-and-a-half inches tall and made of plastic, but Barbie is every inch a star and is recognised all over the world.
She now boasts her own Instagram account and is a social media star for a new generation of youngsters.
Margot Robbie has been cast as the style lover in a new movie which is scheduled for release next year. It sees a doll living in Barbieland setting off on an adventure in the real world.
And Barbie certainly is a creative influence.
Film actress Jessica Biel once admitted: “My Barbies were usually naked. Once I took their heads off, cut their hair, drew on their spiky hair with some markers, then stuck the heads on Christmas lights.
“Every year we’d string our tree with those Barbie heads. It looked demonic.
“My parents were so cool – they saw it as a form of self-expression.”