and AP Have you ever wondered how Barbie’s homes, furniture and other products have reflected the tastes and trends of the day? A new exhibition celebrating the doll's 65th anniversary opened at London's Design Museum. It explores the story of Barbie through a design lens, including fashion and furniture design. After 5 years in the making, curator Danielle Thom says now is the right time.
It is "an anniversary year and so it feels like a good moment to look back and to take stock of everything that this quite remarkable brand accomplished in that time. But also from the perspective of the Design Museum, what we really wanted to do is to look at Barbie through a design lens." "A lot of people don't know is how these dolls come into being and why they come into being, and why they look the way they do.
These things are not designed in isolation. They connect to popular culture in so many ways, and we really wanted to explore that." "Barbie®: The Exhibition" will run at London's Design Museum until February 23rd, 2025.
The show presents 250 objects from Barbie's world, including 180 dolls. Highlights include a rare first edition of the very first doll released by Mattel in 1959 (‘Number 1 Barbie’). "Well, the first you encounter is perhaps the most important because it's why we're all here and that's the very first Barbie, the number one edition Barbie from 1959 and she is shown in her original black and white swimsuit, her hair in a ponytail in her high heels of course.
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