Everyone knows the Barbie doll! It is the most sold and popular toy in the world. This year, Barbie celebrated her 58th birthday. Let's see what happened to her all this time.
Are you ready to see what changes have taken place with the appearance of Barbie from the moment of its creation to the present day, what cults were created in her honor by the fans? Then let's go!
The history of Barbie began
The most famous and popular doll was created by the married couple Ruth and Eliot Handlers, the founders of the company Mattel. The first doll Barbie descended from the assembly line on March 9, 1959. The couple gave their name to their creation in honor of Barbara's daughter.
The idea to create a completely new type of doll (long-legged, blond blond like a fashion model) came to Ruth after she noticed that her daughter was playing with paper dolls imitating adults. As a basis, she took the popular character of seductive appearance in German comics - the girl Lily.
The creators did not expect such a stunning popularity of their dolls literally from the first days. Barbie scattered from the shelves, because she was very fond of little girls, because she was the embodiment of a dream about what they want to become when they grow up.
The first Barbie had a "horse tail" hairstyle (as it is displayed on the logo), was dressed in a striped swimsuit, glasses and high-heeled shoes. The rest of the outfits and accessories had to be bought separately. And already in the early 60-ies clothes for blond Barbie began to create the most popular designers and fashion houses.
Barbie became so popular that the company Mattel did not have time to release new models, the demand for a doll was very large, however, as today.
Images and roles of the puppet legend
The most interesting thing is that the creators changed the appearance of the doll, its forms, hairstyle, make-up and outfits, taking into account the most flashy fashion trends of the current time.
So, a doll was created in the form of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn.
Barbie began to produce in the role of stewardess, doctor, teacher, firefighter.
This doll took part in the active phase of the struggle for gender equality, when this issue was at the peak of aggravation. In a word, the trend of the epochs reflected on the Barbie doll, thereby constantly warming up her popularity.
No less interesting is that Barbie was also produced in different nationalities and suits.
Barbie went beyond children's games
This doll has become a true standard of female beauty and a pop idol, real fans consider her to be the embodiment of the beauty of an ideal woman. Also, Barbie was in the Guinness Book of Records and was the first exhibit personifying not a living person, in the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.
By the 50th anniversary of the concern, Fiat, working with Mattel, has created a real model of the Fiat 500 car in the Barbie style.
In this series, the auto salon was made in pink, and the caps on the wheels and the instrument panel are framed with rhinestones.
Also in the jubilee 2009, the animation studio Universal Pictures and the company Mattel began work on a full-length animated film dedicated to this doll and timed to its fiftieth birthday.
... and forever entered our life
The popularity of this doll has grown so much that some grown-up girls have tried to change their appearance with the help of plastic surgery and make-up to be as much like Barbie. So, in 2012 the popular magazine V Magazine published on the cover of the next issue of the photo of Valeria Lukyanova from Odessa, who managed to bring her appearance and figure closer to the legendary doll more than others.
In 2013, in the style of Barbie, under license from Mattel Corporation in Taipei, a theme café was created.
And in 2015, the startup ToyTalk equipped a Barbie doll with a camera, microphone, speaker and Wi-Fi module. This doll can talk to the child by recording his voice to send to the cloud server in order to improve the dialogue algorithm.
Today, Barbie can be found in different dresses and nationalities, her popularity does not cease to fade. The abundance of toys is just off scale, and Barbie remains a doll number 1.