Fashion Show!

My Christmas dolly diorama. 

It's some hybrid of sleigh ride and caroling.  

Don't think about it too hard, just enjoy the seasonal 

T-shirts.  

     After holiday markdowns and Santa's visit, more of them!  I bet the bottom halves of Khalil and Jeremiah are cold.  Also Hagrid's toes.  Hagrid is tickled pink at shirts he can wear, and even talked me into letting the gold and black be a year-round shirt.

Santa also brought Grumpy Bear Cutie Reveal and a whole bunch of clothes!  (Also some Mini Brands Home, but that's got no bearing on the fashion show you know I planned immediately.)  The clothes are second-hand and not all in pristine condition, some need repairs, but Santa did an excellent job of finding me a variety.  No complaints.

I decided to use the dolls in the diorama (and Grumpy, because none of the diorama females are standard body molds.  Susan B is curvy, Morgan and Diana have the athletic/heroine mold, Rose-Grace has a Wild Hearts body) as models in the fashion show. 

Are we ready, kids?

We'll start with the Disney Princess gowns.  I'm assuming the solid-color skirts go here because they were packaged with the gowns.  Ariel, Tiana, Rapunzel, Rapunzel skirt.  (Grumpy's built-in top helps with modesty!)

Mirabel, Isabella, and Merida

Anna, Belle skirt, Belle, Elsa skirt.  Rose-Grace's improvised top is not part of the fashion show.  

Three versions of Elsa.  The sheer fabric on Morgan and Diana's shoulders were in bad shape, so they went bye-bye.  Other wise, all fashions shown are as they arrived.  

The red/yellow on Casey would work better as a top, or on a shorter friend. The red on Diana (I'm pretty sure) came from a Holiday Barbie.  I suspect the ones on Susan B and Morgan are hand-made.

More dresses.  

Susan B's house robe is really quilted.  I think it and the dresses on either side of her are hand-made.  

Skating costume and some more dresses.  I promise, we'll get to britches eventually.

I wonder where they are going, all dressed up?

Susan B finds another dress that better serves as a shirt.

The dress on Susan B looks like it came off a teddy bear, definitely needs some taking in.  Or turned into a skirt.  She's one movement away from a wardrobe malfunction!  (And yes, I know Diana looks like Jeanie dressed her.  Because I did!) 

Look!  Britches!  Now Susan B looks like Jeanie dressed her. 

Rose-Grace and Grumpy rocking the micro mini skirts.  Or are they shorts?

Now that we're into britches, the guys join the party.  

Ignore the dice bag holding up Khalil, he has a bad case of the floppies.  

Hagrid is wearing his original pants.

Now we're just getting silly.  Ron's in a life vest and Yule Ball Harry is wearing a coat with shorts.

Now Casey's wearing a coat with shorts!

Now, I know that Baywatch suit came on a full-size Barbie!  But it was even too small for Grumpy?

Trying really hard not to go off about doll proportions here.  Barbie's unrealistic, but them undies came off a doll with a head bigger than her torso.  

Back of the jackets modeled elsewhere.  The blue one says POP, not POO.

The swimsuit tops are too big around the chest (under the boobs).  

You saw Casey model the gingham, but it was very tight, and the others' waistband were too small even on Casey.  These things will fit Emma, Dan, or Roxy.  Maybe even the Harry Potter girls - they're quite skinny. 

All told, a very nice addition to the doll wardrobe.  

Has Mattel Done It Again?

There's been more than one mistake in the long history of Barbie.  Some of them were the result of Mattel's ignorance of subcultures in our society.  I'm concerned they may have done it again!

Earring Magic Ken dressed like the rest of Barbie's Earring Magic crew.  Leather and mesh tops in vibrant colors, hoops dangling everywhere so they could be switched out with the doll's earrings.  The look gave the females in the line a vaguely disco-biker look, but since Ken was male...  One report said he "would be at home on Christopher Street".  Christopher Street at the time was well known for homosexual promiscuity.  Since Ken is canonically in a committed heterosexual relationship with Barbie, such was clearly not Mattel's intent.  

Given the time of the doll's release, Mattel had probably planned for some controversy about his earring.  Male earrings were a new thing and the guys were very careful to get the correct one pierced.  Ken's piercing indicates his heterosexuality, but this doll was quickly pulled from production because of the implications of the rest of his wardrobe.

Oreo Barbie was a case of damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't.  Mattel worked with Nabisco to make a doll hawking the classic cookie.  Mattel has a history of at least attempting inclusive doll lines (some better than others) and so the Oreo doll was offered in two skin tones - the classic blonde and the one pictured.  Can you guess what the problem was?

In slang, an Oreo is someone white on the inside and black on the outside.  (My Sioux friend tells me her people have a similar use of "apple".)  So this doll was laughed off the shelf.  Instead of "these cookies are yummy" she sent a message of "I betray my people".  Not exactly what Mattel had in mind.

  For context, I will remind my readers that a few years before this line, Midge got married.  The Midge bride doll was dropped off by Santa one year, under my sister's tree, and her daughter was a Midge girl from that moment on.  I remember eyeing the wedding set - six dolls - and forcing myself to pass it by for reasons that have no bearing here. 

The Happy Family line created chaos, in part because silly Mattel forgot at first to give Midge a wedding ring, but mostly because people still thought of these dolls as teenagers.  There were also those who knew Midge was married, they knew Midge was of age, they just didn't care.  That doll is teaching children about sex.  As if children haven't been rubbing Barbie and Ken together since 1961, without Mattel giving them the idea. 

So a happily married, adult doll was removed from production because it was scandalous.

Side Note: Midge's baby bump was magnetic and without it she looked no different from any other Midge.  The hollow-bodied horror many articles show is not even a Mattel product.

And now we reach the latest possible scandal.  Cutie Reveal dolls come wearing animal costumes.  My first thought was cheerleading mascot.  Some others are reminded of The Masked Singer TV show.  The costume, sans the head and paws, could be fuzzy pajamas.  The top doubles as a jacket over a molded on swimsuit.  There's a variety of skin tones and nine points of articulation.

  But way too many of us are calling them "Furry Barbie".

Furries are, put simply, people who cosplay as animals.  There is a sexual component, which gets all the press, but I suspect it's likely comparable to Trekkies role-playing in (and out of) their Starfleet uniforms.  The public opinion of Furries seems to be that they are all raging perverts.

I think this line is really cute.  I've managed to get Panda and didn't find her in my usual store.  I'm worried that these gals might go the way of the others mentioned in this blog.  Poor Ken, outed because he wanted to match his friends.  Poor Oreo, betraying her heritage by liking a cookie.  Poor Midge, reproducing in the most socially acceptable way there is.

I hope Mattel holds their ground on this one.