2015-01-17

50 billion shades of pink (+ glitter)

As I survey the big heap of hideously mismatched clothing in different shades of pink, lavender and various neons, which I've yet again failed to combine into something resembling a normal casual outfit, I realize what the problem with Barbie clothes is: no basics. Or rather, no way to just go out and buy those wardrobe essentials: plain white t-shirt, plain blue jeans, 10-pack of white tube socks, little black dress.

Apart from the Barbie Basics, which were a) expensive and b) discontinued I think, there are no fashion packs with just regular clothes. Nope, it's all glitter and weird prints that don't even go all the way around, and if you buy an expensive fully dressed doll the clothes are usually designed to fill a specific function in that outfit and you'll be lucky if there's one or two pieces that don't look out of place on their own (if they're even separate pieces, that is!). Finding affordable fabric, particularly denim, that's thin enough to work in 1/6 scale is a chore, and anyway I'm crap at sewing.

That's all I wanted to say really. On the other hand I found some good stuff at the thrift store yesterday, I'll post when I've gone through and cleaned it.

24 comments:

  1. Same old problem- few weeks ago I was discussing with ny sister about our first barbie doll (well, HER first barbie- I was allowed to watch, not touch back then) and her clothes. It was in deep 90' but her clothing resembled what women around us wore- sure, clothes were propably disgusting, but that was style around that time.

    I think that new fashionistas (the stiff ones) have some interesting pieces, but they are usually one-piece, oddly mismatched (I am a bore and don't like idea of polka dot and stripes put together) and there are so many dresses- and only few pants/shorts. I like Steffi Love clothing more, but SL lacks something- usually it's poorly made ( I think that her jogging set looks really cute, even tho it's pink).

    Really curious about your thrift's find.

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    1. I've heard people say Steffi Love has better clothing options, but most of the one I've seen are almost entirely dressed in pink too, although that could be a recent change. Plus you're right about the quality... The jogging set looks pretty good, though. I actually like polka dots with stripes (in moderation!), so I'm mostly happy with the Style and 2015 dolls. Mostly.

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  2. Your points are all true but you forget one thing. The doll and their clothes are designed for little girls. Little girls don't want basics. For little girls everyday should be special with special fancy glittering clothes!

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    1. Well, a long, long time ago I was a little girl and back then my Barbies had 'normal' clothing and evening wear. It wasn't all pink and glittery and I loved it. My Barbies had normal lives and needed normal clothes. And back then you could buy a large variety of clothing. And I really don't think all little girls want everything pink and glittery. My daughter complained about the abundance of pink. But then, maybe we're a bit weird. ;)
      Linda

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    2. Yeah, like the Anonymous above me, I remember an era when Barbie's clothes were not all pink and glittery. She dressed like a fashionable late-teen/early-20s young woman, in regular colors and patterns (some quite loud, but they weren't pink-pink-pink).

      My Christmas stocking always included a few Barbie clothing packs, as this meant I would be quietly busy re-dressing my dolls until my parents got up and got the ham or roast into the oven. I loved those! Part of the pleasure of the Lovely Patsy clothing pack BOGO at Thanksgiving was reliving the thrill of Barbie packs... but Lovely Patsy's tastes also run a bit loud and glittery.

      I did not like pink AT ALL as a little girl -- I'm actually friendlier to it now -- and wanted my Barbies to dress like regular people. It was a big deal, with both my Barbies and my paper dolls, to dress dolls correctly for the proper occasions, so that playing all the events of, say, a long holiday weekend required many, many clothing changes.

      In any case, Mattel knows adult collectors exist (and milks us like crazy at the collectibles end). The marginal cost of making sets of "basics" to be sold only online probably wouldn't be significant.

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    3. That is a good point, actually, and something I tend to forget. Looking back, I'm pretty sure I was very much in favor of pink and glitter as a kid, although preferably in the form of huge princess dresses. I think I still would have found it weird that, for example, Barbie's shop assistant uniform was all pink and glittery...

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  3. Hello from Spain: I agree with your thought. I also prefer clothes in natural colors. Keep in touch

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  4. In my day (I am probably older that most of you!), the Barbie clothing sets were amazing -- more like what you see now on the Silkstone dolls. They had ensembles that any fashion maven would love to wear. And pink was not the primary color either. And you did not have to buy a new doll to get clothing for any of the dolls. Ken, Skipper, Barbie -- they all had wonderful clothing sets. I don't think that they targeted 3 year olds for their end consumer. Today, there is multiple market from little girls to the adult collector. In some cases, Mattel completely misses the mark, in others they are spot on. I would love a job with Mattel say as a marketing consultant!

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    1. Yeah, I own a few pieces of vintage Barbie clothing and I don't think any of them are pink. Although many vintage outfits seem to be not exactly casual wear, more like something for the red carpet? But I'm no expert so I might be wrong. It does fit in with the origins of Barbie as a doll marketed to adults, though.

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  5. Mr. BTEG and I were just talking about this a few days ago. It doesn't matter if there *is* a market for certain things; if the market is not *big* enough, a company is not going to make them. If the biggest purchaser of Barbie dolls is for 3-6 year olds, for example, that's who they'll make dolls for. I'm sure that there are a lot of collectors who want this or that, but the number has to be big enough to make it worth for Mattel or any other manufacturer.

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    1. Yeah, I think part of my problem is that Mattel *does* produce the kind of clothes I like for the adult collector market, except in smaller numbers and with a higher price tag than I'm prepared to pay. :P

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    2. How does a company decide the market isn't big enough? If they don't produce it I can't buy it...so how do they know it won't sell enough?
      I always wonder about that and I admit I don't know the first thing about marketing and such.
      Linda

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    3. To be honest I don't know either. I guess it's a case of better safe than sorry - if it sells, there's no point in changing it. Of course if one company tried it and made huge profits the others would follow.

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    4. Anything I want to type about this just seems to be taking too long to explain. I will just say that big companies like Mattel, or LEGO, do a lot of studying of the market to determine what the demand will be for certain products. Mr. BTEG tells me it took about ten years for the pool of adult LEGO collectors to get large enough and have enough buying power for LEGO to cater to them.

      I remember when Mattel did not make collector dolls at all, and adults loved Barbie but were clamoring for dolls beyond the playline mode aimed at little girls. We'll see where the market takes collectors next.

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    5. Oh, I imagine there's an entire science to it! I didn't realize collector Barbies were a relatively new invention, but LEGO is an interesting parallel - I only just heard of their Architecture series and I can't imagine something like that coming out in the '80s.

      Mostly I guess I'm just frustrated that simple white T-shirts aren't as ubiquitos as simple pink dresses.

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  6. Actually I still have some of the old Barbie clothes that were made with real fabric, not just the knits and plasticy feeling fabrics used today. I found some recently and was fascinated by the construction and detail. However, Mattel is not the only source for Barbie clothes. There are lots of clothes of all colours and styles available on sites like Etsy at all sorts of price ranges - most are made by other doll collectors like me (one thing I want to do this year is restart my Etsy and MadeIt shops - your post is just spurring me on.)

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    1. Yeah, I have some '80s doll clothes too that are more realistic and higher quality. But then there's the problem with 30 year old elastic... I think Sindy had pretty realistic outfits, but they don't always fit Barbie.

      Glad to hear my post inspired you! Handmade migh actually be the best option for non-pink clothes, although of course they'll always cost more. Sometimes I look at the coats at clear-lan.com and dream...

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  7. I guess that as far as Mattel is concerned, it's all about the glittery bling.

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    1. Glittery bling - gling? Blitter? Anyway, I think you're right.

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  8. I'm still astonished at how brazen Mattel was with pricing on the Basics line. "Here's a "doll" with normal jeans and a plain t-shirt. That'll be $25-$30, please!"

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    1. Haha, they probably cost twice as much over here! The only place I remember seeing them is notoriously expensive though, and I wasn't interested in Barbie back then so I never took a closer look.

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  9. What about buying Barbie clothes off of Etsy? I just did a search to see what they have, and while there is some pink glitter here and there, I actually found a wide variety of cute, tasteful things. Some of them are very reasonably priced. It's a good thing I'm learning to sew, or I would be very tempted!

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    1. I'm beginning to think that might be the best option. Usually the nice handmade stuff gets quite expensive - and I feel bad about complaining because I absolutely think crafters deserve to get paid, it's just *I* probably can't afford it. But I'll take a look.

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