The new Barbie comes in a range of body type, height, hair color and skin color.
Barbie, Just Like Us
It’s 2016, people, and there’s a whole new Barbie. Actually, there are several new Barbies. Toy giant Mattel has unveiled a newly revamped Barbie collection designed to more accurately reflect the diversity of the children who play with the doll. The newly unveiled dolls come in a range of heights, shapes, skin color and hair color.
Time magazine went behind the scenes to Mattel’s headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., to sit in on a focus group of children and their mothers taking a look at the new dolls. It’s a fascinating read. For me, the biggest takeaway was the one journalist Eliana Dockterman addresses early in the story:
Like every girl who has ever played with the most popular toy in history, I yank her clothes off and try to put on a new dress. It’s a blue summery frock, cinched tightly at the waist with a black ribbon. I try to tug it over her head, but the waistline gets stuck at her shoulders, her blond mane peeking out from the neckline. “Try going feet first,” the lead designer suggests, and I do. No good. Her plump bottom gets stuck in the same spot. Yes, plump. Barbie’s got a new body. Three new bodies, actually: petite, tall and curvy, in Mattel’s exhaustively debated lexicon, and beginning Jan. 28 they will be sold alongside the original busty, thin-waisted form on Barbie.com.
For the first time in her 57-year history, Barbie is finding that not all the clothes marked "Barbie-sized" will fit. Accurate and consistent sizing is a problem that plagues the real world of apparel, but until now, Barbie could wear anything. Not anymore.
Mattel—and the retailers who carry Barbie—are now facing a whole new merchandising challenge to carry an assortment of fashion to fit all the new (and original) sizes. (I hope they kept the shoe sizes consistent or the toy aisle is likely to look like the Nordstrom shoe department after the retailer’s annual Anniversary Sale.)
You can see all the dolls on Mattel’s Barbie website—as well as some nifty behind-the-scenes details on the making of the new Barbies.
