2015-09-02

ID needed: Pink hearts + mysterious wedding gown!

ETA 9 sept: Wedding gown has been identified over at Flickr as 1990 Wedding Collection #8289. Thanks to FanofBarbie! Still no ID on the heart print dress though, so I'm keeping the post as it is.
 
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Once in a while I like to try and put a name to the doll clothes I pick up at goodwill. Sometimes this turns out to be surprisingly difficult. Here's two dresses I'm having trouble identifying. One I'm not sure about, but the other one is definitely Barbie - which makes it all the more frustrating that I can't find out what it is.

ID help please!
Mystery frilly flocked heart dress
This frilly, slightly frayed thing with pink hearts doesn't have a label. I'm guessing mid-90s. It's too big for Sindy, and I can't find anything like it on this Sindy ID page anyway. The style reminds me of Petra, but I haven't found any match so far. Of course it might as well be any Barbie size clone doll.

Mystery dress + bow
Mystery dress + matching bow
Fun fact: about three weeks later, in a completely different goodwill store (although run by the same organization), I also found this bow that looks like it came with the dress. I'm guessing it was part of a hairband that's disintegrated since. Donated sets get split up between stores all the time, so it's not unheard of, but it's such a tiny scrap of fabric and I'm surprised I even spotted it.

ID help needed - Barbie wedding gown
The elusive wedding dress with its tag
Now, this one has been ridiculously difficult to pin down. It has a tag, so we know it's Barbie, and I'm pretty sure it's a wedding dress because, well, look at it.

The design is simple: the skirt is a single layer of shiny, ribbed nylon fabric. Many Barbie wedding gowns have a layer of tulle on top, but this one hasn't, and there's no sign of any having been cut off either. The top is made of lace with long puff sleeves and a fairly high neckline, over a bodice of the same shiny nylon as the skirt. The waistline is V-shaped.

Wedding gown - detail
Inside the bodice
It looks a bit on the cheap side, so it might be a fashion pack rather than a doll (but that might just be because I hate the look of the fabric). Going by the style and materials, I'd say '80s-90s. Should be easy, right? Wrong.

I've googled, ebay-ed, flickr-ed, and gone through this entire list of Mattel wedding dresses and not found anything like it. Well, I've found several that looks a bit like it, but there's always some part that doesn't match: Wedding of the Year (1982), Private Collection outfit (1987), Wedding Party (1994), or Bridal Collection outfit (1995). Although the last one has a pretty similar style and uses what looks like the same shiny fabric, so maybe I'm getting warmer?

Wedding gown + wrong hat
Close-up of bodice with V-shaped waistline (ignore the hat)
I originally thought the hat was from the same set since it kind of matches, but I've ID'd it as most likely being from the set Romantic Wedding (1986) and that dress is quite different.

So there you have it: a tagged Barbie dress that seems to have mysteriously disappeared from Mattel's online annals of fashion. Any leads are greatly appreciated!

2 comments:

  1. You may have a Wedding Party (1994) dress that just came from a different lot or factory, so it's slightly different.

    The reason I suggest this is that my youngest sister has what we know for sure is a specific Korean Barbie from the 1980s or 1990s. However, the doll's face-up is slightly but noticeably different from the ones seen on eBay (less obtrusive make-up). The doll was never altered, isn't a fake, and isn't some other model -- she was just from a lot that happened to be a little odd. So it happens.

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    1. Good point; I know sometimes the European version of a doll is a bit different. Not sure if that could be the case here, since there are so many differences: https://www.flickr.com/photos/halbarad_midnight/10626300066/ Unless they changed the design almost completely at some point, of course?

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