Barbie® at The Design Museum
After the absolute global phenomenon that was the ‘Barbie’ movie last year the Design Museum was excited to announce the ‘Barbie’ exhibition - it wouldn’t be open until a year after the fact. HOWEVER, that wouldn’t stop Barbie mania. This exhibition has been difficult to book, to say the least. It has been sold out consecutively weeks in advance. I was excited for this show - not only is it a trip down memory lane but also it just looks fun. A lot of the time exhibitions are beautifully curated and well-researched, but resoundingly academic - I was here for the bright pink fun. Emphasis on pink.
First impressions were -“My god this is a lot of pink. Neon pink. Bright sparkly, shiny, iridescent PINK” and I was 100% here for it. Did I also turn up to the show dressed head to toe in pink like I did for the movie? Yes. I have no regrets. (How many times can I say ‘pink’ in this review?)
When you first enter, you meet the first Barbie, the iconic Barbie, she has her own glass case and is slowly spinning so you can see her from all angles in all her shining beautiful glory! What I’m not sure about - and I heard this from other people at the exhibition - is whether this particular doll was a reproduction or an original? I’m not sure as I’m no expert.
The First Barbie® 1959, from Barbie® The Exhibition at The Design Museum, London, UK on loan from Mattel TM.
Walking through the show you had not only the history of Barbie but more importantly, its evolution. Barbie marketed itself as “Barbie can be anything.” Barbie could be an astronaut, a chef, a designer, an air hostess, a doctor - I could go on. But also Barbie kept up with the times - Barbie started to come in all different shapes and sizes, but more importantly, skin tones. There are things to be concerned about - whilst Barbie should be celebrated for supporting women and being finally seen as a feminist tour de force, we should look a little closer at the way they were modelled. Sure, this could be a purely economic reason - economies rise and fall over the years - so who knows what Barbie execs and designers were thinking. However, it was noted that some of the dolls, particularly ones of colour, reused some of the head moulds for previous models of Barbie. Now, it might sound like I’m making a mountain out of a molehill - and you may be right! But, facial features for different races are different and distinct. Occasionally, they are cultural. Now, Barbie may have been innovative for its time and looking back we can easily point out their mistakes, but we do have a license to forgive them - hindsight is a funny thing. The more recent dolls that represent the women of the world look at the facial features of women worldwide. That is a cause and effect of children wanting dolls that represented them. Oh, and feminism.
Barbie and Ken through the ages, from Barbie® The Exhibition at The Design Museum, London, UK on loan from Mattel TM.
One part that I was super excited to see was all the different Barbie Deamhouse’s. Some of them were HUGE - and I recognised their design from the film. But what made me super happy, was that I saw my Barbie dreamhouse that I had from when I was a child. I was very tempted to reach out and touch it. It was one that could easily fold away into the little townhouse - did the telephone still ring when you pressed the button? Did the bed still fold down? Does the fridge open to show all the stuck-on fruits and veggies? It was a wonderful moment, a trip down memory lane. From what had evolved from cardboard houses and furniture you could build yourself, to plastic cars to a full dreamhouse. Some of the dreamhouses were huge, multi-storey complexes with slides, lifts (elevators) with their own pools and designer furniture. Today, the Dreamhouses retail between a cool ￡189 - 300. Ouch. So not necessarily budget-friendly…
Barbie Talking Townhouse, 2002 by Mattel TM from Barbie® The Exhibition at The Design Museum, London, UK on loan from Monica Hodgson.
All in all, it was a great show - it was a shame that the show was rather small, I was hoping that the show would be a lot bigger. The marketing machine behind the exhibition was a lot and promised a lot and there was a lot of hype. I would’ve liked to have seen a little more about the history and its impact on pop culture, but maybe there were budget restrictions. But, even after the movie has come and gone, Barbie still continues to have her moment and turn London Pink.