Barbie might be sagging at 50, but doll interest is up!
As you have probably heard by now - Barbie turned 50 in March (apparently she is a Pisces.) Its no secret that Barbie has lost some of her popularity in recent years but sales for her have sagged before and rebounded so she may very well make a full recovery yet. I was fascinated by my sister’s Barbie dolls when I was young. I wasn’t allowed to play with them but that didn’t stop me from an occasional visit on the sly. What I liked best, of course, were the clothes. In the early 1960s the clothing resembled a miniature reality, with tiny little working buttons and zippers, although I hated the gloves because they resembled mittens due to their lack of finger definition - very unchic.
Apparently my fascination was not unique. Several years ago I met Chris Stoeckle who recreates hand finished, historic Parisian couture and American designer clothes for dolls. He builds suits and dresses for two different sized dolls, both larger than the 11 inch fashion model scale of Barbie. The larger sizes allow him to get better results with the draping and detailing of the clothing.
What I didn’t know until meeting Chris is that there is a whole world of adults who still love dolls out there - enough to create more than one magazine to appeal to the various factions of collectors and creators of dolls and their clothes. I’ve asked Chris if he has considered recreating full size couture, for real people, but his scaled down versions are already taking up all his time and they fly out the door to collectors as soon as he can hand finish the button holes. But like many in the fashion biz, Chris’ talents haven’t gone unnoticed and he is now designing for a ready-to-wear line of doll clothes.
