Selling the Barbie life to full-grown adult women

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

Barbie doll sales have fallen off, so Mattel is attempting to revitalize the brand by hiring top designers to produce adult clothing/accessories with the Barbie touch. The prices for the Barbie Luxe line - $176 for a pair of jeans, $140 for a hoodie - are deliberately high to make the brand "aspirational." Targeted to women in their teens, 20's and 30's, Barbie Luxe will be carried by stores like Fred Segal and designer boutiques.

The upshot: Barbie is more popular with nostalgic women than with contemporary girls. That's really encouraging and really pathetic all at the same time.

If I saw a young woman dressed in Barbie Luxe, I would assume she was either a nitwit or heavily ironic, depending on the way she wore it. What about you? Would you wear Barbie?

Mattel launches designer Barbie clothes for women

NEW YORK, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Toy maker Mattel Inc, known for Barbie fashion dolls, is expanding the plastic icon's domain to include high-end designer clothing and accessories for adult women.

~snip~
Using Barbie as their "muse", designers like Anna Sui, Anya Hindmarch, Citizens of Humanity, Judith Leiber, Nickel, Not Rational, Paper Denim & Cloth, Stila and Tarina Tarantino have added Barbie-esque touches to their designs, such as pink stitching on jeans or a retro silhouette on a cameo pendant.

~snip~
"When a teen or 20-something is carrying an Anya Hindmarch, Barbie bag it'll reinforce Barbie as as relevant, cool brand for little girls," said (Mattel Sr. VP Richard) Dickson. "Little girls are growing up faster than ever and looking to adults and teens for inspiration, and Barbie is their aspiration."

~snip~
"Barbie has a special relationship with women," said Dickson. "It takes them back to being a little girl and fantasizing about what they're going to be in the future."

http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh47465_2005-10-15_00-36-42_n1460267_newsml

[...of J.Temperance]

1. I'm telling you, in Dallas

There are SO many Barbie-looking women, it's SHOCKING. So, I'd bet these women will be buying these Barbie clothes hand over fist.

I've NEVER seen so many people, women AND men, who've obviously had plastic surgery, it's really grotesque.

[WLKjr]

18. Barbie Does Dallas......

sorry, bad joke.

[...of J.Temperance]

19. It

Wasn't THAT bad a joke, really it wasn't.

[neebob]

2. Would I wear Barbie clothes?

Definitely not if I have to have huge boobs, a tiny waist, and legs that are like 5 feet long. Definitely not if the clothes say "Barbie" anywhere on the outside. If they don't say Barbie and fit my body, then maybe but still probably not.

Even if they were really cute, it would remind me of Lori across the street - who was a lot like Angelica from Rugrats, only it was 1965 - taking my Barbie's stretchy navy blue pants and insisting they were hers. It would bring back the whole trauma.

[Carolab]

3. I never even wanted a Barbie!

This is ridiculous.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

11. Oh I wanted one

My parents refused so I suckered Grandma into getting me one.

I liked dressing her up but I didn't enjoy playing with her. I felt pity for her rock-hard breasts and perpetually pointed feet. She looked so uncomfortable.

But she had a blonde bouffant 'do that was perfect for me 'n my brothers' favorite game with her, which was to put our thumbs under her chin and pop off her head like a champagne cork. Never failed to crack us up. Then we lost her head and that was the end of that.

[Lorien]

17. Me either. No dolls at all (I was a tomboy). n/t

[gumby]

4. Sociology=Marketing?

Or is it Marketing=Sociology?

Either way=:puke:

[susanna]

5. There are no words.

Please let this be a joke.

on edit: clarity

[MisterP]

6. Robert Clapley!!!

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

8. I had to google that

but then I laughed.

Yes, Robert Clapley. And Mr. Smithers too.

[enlightenment]

7. That Dickson guy is seriously evil

-- something very bad should happen to him. I say we make him wear "Barbie Luxe" everywhere. With the little Barbie slut shoes and the little pink plastic Barbie bag.

My mom got me Barbie, but I wanted GI Joe -- he was fully articulated . . .

[celestia671]

9. Stila?

Say it ain't so!

[Wilms]

10. In addition to "nostalgic women", they might do well marketing to

unconscious women.

Recently spent some time in an affluent area and was struck by the idea that some of the women looked like they were Barbie, playing house. Saddest, their children. They were dolls, too.

Makes sense, they market trucks modeled after the toys guys played with as kids. Those trucks kickin' up dirt in the commercials are like boys in a sandbox.

[gumby]

12. "..fantasizing about what they're going to be in the future."

Ah, yes, a future of horrible physical problems.

It's a ba-zoom that's so large that it causes back problems. It also causes nerve damage in your shoulders and arms from bra straps that cut into the bones of your shoulders.

It's the feet that are bound so small that they are no longer functional.

It's the blondness that poisons not only your hair, but your brain.

Yeppers, that's the "future" that we are all fantasizing about.

10-4 Comrade.

[kineneb]

16. now wait!

"It's the blondness that poisons not only your hair, but your brain."

Natural blond here, who doesn't look a thing like Barbie. My brain is just fine, thank you. B-)

Now as to shoes, well, there are never enough. (I channel Imelda).

[kittykatkoffeekup]

13. There is also a new marketing strategy for teens

There is now a Bling Bling Barbie.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/toys/B000A7S596//104-1736879-3877532

[Infomaniac]

14. I shaved the hair off on mine. I think I was about 9.

Prolly do the same thing if I was given another one. I sure as fuck wouldn't pay big bucks for one.

[JanMichael]

15. Clothing for the truly insane. Line them up. And hit them with books.

Many many books. Good books like War and Peace or Crime and Punishment.

In the forehead repeatedly.

I HATe this shit. Period. HATE IT! The products are made by economic slaves for fucks sakes. Where is Kathy Gifford??? Oh wait, once the media blitze died she went back to collecting millions off of millions of poor people.

FUCK HER AND BARBIE TO TH WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!