Sure, Ty’s Malia and Sasha dolls may have the national media spotlight, but not for long, if a certain 11.5-inch blonde has anything to say about it.
On Feb. 14, Barbie will fete her 50th birthday with a runway show at Bryant Park during New York Fashion Week. Designers including Diane von Furstenberg, Vera Wang and Anna Sui are offering Barbie-inspired duds (on real-life models), and this is not the first time Barbie is celebrating a milestone with the help of fashionista friends. Back in 1994, when Barbie turned a kicky 35, the owners of Baltimore’s Ruth Shaw boutique enlisted the likes of Bill Blass, Todd Oldham, Oscar de la Renta and Calvin Klein to whip up scaled-down looks for dolls (donated by Mattel) to be auctioned at an AIDS charity ball.
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Bill Blass opted for a black cutout dress, while Oscar worked his ultrafeminine vibe on a black velvet and blue taffeta confection. Calvin went predictably minimal, though Anna Sui’s outfit, a near-exact copy of one of her spring 1994 runway looks, took the cake: “a white cotton bodysuit and blue metallic leather micromini skirt, double-breasted short trenchcoat — silver-plated buttons and all — and backpack,” WWD reported. While making such tiny clothes was time consuming for the designers — Sui’s took two days at the patternmaker’s and another 10 hours of sewing to complete — Todd Oldham acknowledged that he was happy to work with “an icon” who didn’t complain about fittings.
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