Designing the Doll: From Concept to Construction

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Barbie dolls have also been designed to represent real-life celebrities and historical figures. The first celebrity Barbie was based on Twiggy, a model and actress whose style helped define the '60s. Spencer drew inspiration for Barbie’s wardrobe from her surroundings in Los Angeles. Her designs were influenced by the clothes she saw on people walking around Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive and Melrose Avenue, as well the swimwear beachgoers wore in Malibu and Venice Beach. We followed the trends,” Spencer continues. “Barbie was to change as we changed. So in that regard, we kept her up to the minute with whatever was happening, whatever was popular, that the children could have interest in.” In the '70s, Barbie became a working woman There is a book she uses, a Costume Guide with a lot of drawings and a good explanation on the costumes during time. Mieke has followed the groupings of the book, such as crinoline and Biedermeier, making reproductions from ancient Egypt all the way to 2015. There are still some holes in the time line, but so far Mieke has finished about 65 Barbie and Ken dolls. Until now she hasn’t sold any of them. Doll Hair and Make-up There are lots of talented doll dressmakers in the world and I wanted to introduce two of them, Joanna and Mieke. I asked them about their stories, how they got into making doll clothes and how they manage to make such beautiful, tiny works of art. They also shared some tips. I hope you’ll find their miniature creations as inspiring as I did! Kamelia Dolls

Within the perspective settings, FOV is a very important parameter, to the impression of your image. So far, Barbie has run for president six times. Barbie first went to the moon in 1965 with Ken. This Astronaut Barbie from 1985 brings her '80s style to outer space. Mattel In connection with the "Barbie" movie, Mattel released doll versions of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, as well as dolls representing Liu as Ken, Rae as President Barbie, and America Ferrara as Gloria. A new, more inclusive era Besides making clothes, Mieke loves history and especially the history of clothes. She’s fascinated by how the styles were always moving and changing, sometimes slow like in the middle ages, or fast like in the 19 th century. She made lots of clothes for her little sister’s Barbie dolls. But the trigger to start making historical clothes was a TV series about Henry VIII that Mieke was watching around 2007-2008.Ok! Finally its time to actually get designing. There are many different mediums with which you can create a design. You can do it the old fashioned way with pen and paper, this way is a bit easier if your not too confident with computers. Also, this method allows you to attach fabric samples directly to the design, making it even more detailed. Of course, creating your design digitally also has its advantages. It makes it easier to distribute and it can look cleaner and more visually accessible. Whether you create your design digitally or not, when designing it is important include lots of detail. Labelling different elements with information about the desired fabric, texture, color or pattern will make your design clear to everyone. A further detail that will elevate your design is some sort of description which brings to light the concept behind the doll. Explain who your doll is, where they live, what they like to do. You could even write a story that comes with the doll!

Mieke doesn’t limit herself to the clothes: During the history of fashion, the make-up has also changed, just like the clothes. So she started to repaint the dolls, always learning and improving… Besides that, there is the problem with the hair. Some dolls needed a wig and sometimes even re-roots. It’s difficult to find a Ken with long hair! Typical Workflow Making Doll ClothesNext, cover up anything you don’t want to get paint on with masking tape. I did a major error here as I didn’t do this at first as I thought I would have a steady enough hand to avoid getting paint on the ceiling. I made a total mess of it though and had to paint over the excess paint with white paint.

Below I share what I did and what I learnt when I decorated my Exmouth dollhouse that I got from Freecycle. How to strip a dollhouse Spencer tells TODAY.com that Barbie began her professional life with the “Get Up and Go” line of fashions in 1972. Another important stage of this process is to conceptualize the desired response. What feelings do you want to evoke in the potential owner of the doll? Obviously, happiness and satisfaction are up there, but you can aim for something beyond this! Do you want the doll to evoke a sense of nostalgia for a bygone era? Do you want it to form part of a cultural exchange, showing the owner something about a culture they were previously unaware of? Dolls are a kind of art form in themselves, and thus can impart powerful emotions and information to those who receive them. As a designer, it is your task to guide this response.

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TODAY.com spoke with Carol Spencer, 90, who was one of Mattel’s chief Barbie designers from 1963 to 1998, about Barbie's evolution and how the doll has managed to stay relevant.

In 2016, Mattel introduced three new body type options for Barbie, marking the first-ever change in the doll’s plastic proportions. The new doll lineup featured curvy, petite, and tall Barbie dolls alongside the original model. The 2016 line of Barbie dolls included three new body type options. Mattel You’ll need at least a couple of coats of paint to get even coverage and I recommend using a small decorating paint brush, although mini rollers are available too. I didn’t bother with a mini roller as I wanted to keep things cheap and didn’t want to invest in a paintbrush and a roller. Some paint samples come with mini rollers attached which are very handy and you can use a small brush to cover any areas where the roller won’t reach. While subtle changes were made to her hair and makeup in each iteration, the doll form itself was kept consistent show off the fashion, Spencer says. After all, Barbie's first job was being a teenage fashion model. Decorating a dollhouse gives you the artistic license to indulge in your interior design fantasies, at a fraction of the cost of doing up a real house. And while you can’t live in your dollhouse of course, decorating it is a great way to have some creative fun!

I was so at home with Barbie that I just stayed, because I loved her so much, and I loved doing the work,” Spencer says of her time at the company. Painting a dollhouse is a fiddly job as everything is on such a small scale. The best way to make it easier for yourself is to remove as much as possible out of the dollhouse before you start painting. Remove everything that moves!