Exhibition 'Just Barbie'

More than 100 vintage dolls from the 1960s–1990s, iconic heroes and film characters, Barbie dressed by renowned brands, limited-edition dolls dedicated to artists such as Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh (Water Lily Barbie Claude Monets; August Renoir, the Reflections of Light Barbie; Barbie Suntlower Van Gogh), designers and art objects. A separate part of the exhibition is devoted to designer collectible dolls whose costumes were created by Bob Mackie (Bob Mackie Gold; Moon Coddess; Queen of Hearts; Starlight Splendor; Masquerade Ball). The most famous releases of the '90s, for example the best-selling doll Totally Hair. In addition to dolls, the exhibition will feature furniture, outfits — the full diversity of the doll world. The Toy Museum asks visitors to the 'Just Barbie' exhibition above all to put aside prejudice, both positive and negative. To look at Barbie not as an ideological fetish or a malevolent idol, but as an aesthetic object and a historical document. To trace the evolution of Barbie's image. To appreciate the variety of professions and statuses Barbie has assumed over more than sixty years of her existence. To study Barbie's 'object world' through the furniture and accessories shown in the exhibition, and, most importantly, more than 100 vintage dolls from the collection of the 'Cult Doll' community.

History of the iconic doll

The history of the Barbie brand begins with the creation of the toy of the same name. Barbie belongs to the company Mattel — practically the largest toy manufacturer in the world. In addition to Barbie, other popular toys produced under license from Warner Brothers include Batman, Superman and Harry Potter.

The creator of the doll is American Ruth Handler, who together with her husband Elliot founded the company Mattel in 1945; the original purpose of the company was the production of picture frames. The idea to create a doll came to Ruth after she noticed that her daughter Barbara especially enjoyed playing with paper dolls. The first prototype of such a doll was the character Lilli from German comics — a femme fatale with a wasp waist and long blonde hair, whom Ruth saw during a trip to Germany. Named after the Handlers' daughter Barbara, the Barbie doll soon sparked such a craze that the company could not keep up with production to meet the enormous demand. Mattel's main income, however, came not from selling dolls but from related goods — clothing, accessories and toy houses.

In the postwar years people were eager to spend money on entertainment, buying a wide variety of toys for their children. Handler changed the focus of her company and launched production first of children's dollhouses and then of music boxes. After signing a contract with Disney, they began advertising their toys during the 'Mickey Mouse Club' broadcasts, which made the company extraordinarily popular with potential buyers. In 1957 Mattel noticed the fashion for the Wild West and began producing toy Winchesters.

The predecessor of the world's future most popular doll was the plastic Lilli, released in 1955, whose prototype was a character from the German newspaper 'Die Bild Zeitung'. She was portrayed in a pin-up style, and the comic's plots often revolved around her relationships with a great many young men. The doll was originally not intended for children and was sold in tobacco shops and adult stores. However, that chapter remained with Lilli — her image was substantially reworked before she became Barbie. Later Mattel bought the rights to Lilli.

The first Barbie was both a blonde and a brunette and wore a 'ponytail' hairstyle; she had mother-of-pearl earrings, open high-heeled sandals, and was dressed in a black-and-white striped swimsuit. Barbie was not alone for long — in 1961 she got a boyfriend, Ken, named after Ruth Handler's son. In 1963 Barbie's best friend Midge was created, and in 1964 her little sister Skipper. Her circle of relatives and acquaintances kept growing — younger sister Tutti, cousin Francie, dark-skinned friend Christie and the English Stacey. From the '60s the long-legged beauty began living in a 'Dream House', and in the '70s she started driving her own car. Over the course of her existence Barbie has taken on 250 professions.

Already in the '60s famous fashion houses began designing clothes for Barbie, and soon the doll became one of the most fashionable and refined in the world. Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin and Jean-Paul Gaultier considered it no less prestigious to sew outfits for Barbie than for Hollywood stars. The cult designer Bob Mackie continued to create entire collections of outfits for the doll. A Barbie by Stefano Canturi is valued at $302,500: the Australian designer dressed her in a magnificent black dress and put a necklace with a unique pink diamond at its center; a ring on the doll's right hand also features a diamond. This Barbie was sold at the legendary New York auction house Christie's, and the proceeds went to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. In 1980 Mattel released a collection of more than 20 Barbies dressed in national costumes of different countries, later called the 'Dolls of the World'. There are also celebrity-portrait dolls. With the beginning of human space exploration, and specifically Valentina Tereshkova's flight, Barbie became an astronaut — this, incidentally, happened twenty years before the first American woman went into space. And in 1991 the doll became a presidential candidate.

As for the 'Pregnant Barbie', it should first be said that it was not Barbie but Midge, Barbie's friend, developed for the purpose of 'creating a family', since Barbie herself only had friends; Midge (and her doll husband Alan) did not gain wide acceptance in some countries: if complaints about the doll used to be that she 'only cares about fun and clothes', a new and well-founded criticism arose that the toy 'birth' looked like a soulless mechanical process, and the birth of a child did not convey the sense of wonder as in real life. In 2013 pregnant Midge was discontinued and reissued as a standard, non-family version. Later, however, a separate series devoted to family values appeared, with its own characters, houses, relatives and even picnic and camping sets.

Barbie's 'real name' is Barbara Millicent Roberts. In the 1960s her personal legend stated that she came from the town of Willows, Wisconsin, and grew up in the family of George and Margaret Roberts. In the 1990s Barbie's biography changed: with the release of the new 'urban' Generation Girls series, Barbie was declared a native of New York. In 1961 Barbie 'met' her 'boyfriend' Ken Carson. They 'were together' for over forty years, although Ken's production was paused several times. In 2004 Mattel announced that Barbie and Ken had broken up. Nevertheless, two years later they 'reconciled'. According to the official story, Barbie and Ken are not married.

Thanks to the popular 1970s TV series 'The Brady Bunch', the doll acquired the famous 'California smile' — a round happy open face, an upturned nose, girlish blush and painted eyelashes. Those years marked the peak of popularity, and that face became the most recognizable Barbie face in the world to this day. In total there have been 19 different body and face molds for Barbie dolls.

A missile specialist Jack Ryan devised hinges for her so that the doll's waist could turn and her elbows, knees and wrists could bend — at the time the twist dance was very popular. Later Barbie became interested in various sports; for example, the Barbie ballerina was specifically designed to perform splits, pirouettes and other ballet moves.

In 2015 the startup ToyTalk, which developed so-called 'smart toys', created a Barbie doll equipped with a camera, microphone, speaker and Wi‑Fi module to transmit data. With this equipment, Barbie can talk to a child, record their voice and use cloud technologies to improve dialogue algorithms. In many Muslim countries Barbie is banned; however, in many of those countries there are Barbie analogues — Fulla, Razanna and Jamila — who wear hijabs and have more modest forms. Many countries have developed their own Barbie‑like dolls; they can be found in France, Russia, Italy, etc.