This article is about the fashion doll and brand. Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is barbie dreamhouse black friday with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. Barbie is the figurehead of a brand of Mattel dolls and accessories, including other family members and collectible dolls.

Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over six decades and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parodies of the doll and her lifestyle. Mattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company’s largest and most profitable line. Barbie and her best male friend Ken have been described as two most popular dolls in the world. Sales of Barbie dolls declined sharply from 2014 to 2016. 35 billion worth of Barbie dolls and accessories and this was their best sales growth in two decades. 950 million the brand sold during 2017. The first Barbie doll was introduced in both blonde and brunette on March 9, 1959.

Ruth Handler watched her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children’s toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company. During a trip to Europe in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Ruth Handler came across a German toy doll called Bild Lilli. The adult-figured doll was exactly what Handler had in mind, so she purchased three of them. She gave one to her daughter and took the others back to Mattel.

The first Barbie doll wore a black-and-white zebra striped swimsuit and signature topknot ponytail, and was available as either a blonde or brunette. The doll was marketed as a “Teen-age Fashion Model”, with her clothes created by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson. The first Barbie dolls were manufactured in Japan, with their clothes hand-stitched by Japanese homeworkers. Louis Marx and Company sued Mattel in March 1961. Hausser’s patent for Bild-Lilli’s hip joint”, and also claimed that Barbie was “a direct take-off and copy” of Bild-Lilli. The company additionally claimed that Mattel “falsely and misleadingly represented itself as having originated the design”. Ruth Handler believed that it was important for Barbie to have an adult appearance, and early market research showed that some parents were unhappy about the doll’s chest, which had distinct breasts.

Barbie’s appearance has been changed many times, most notably in 1971 when the doll’s eyes were adjusted to look forwards rather than having the demure sideways glance of the original model. Barbie was one of the first toys to have a marketing strategy based extensively on television advertising, which has been copied widely by other toys. In 2006, it was estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls had been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with Mattel claiming that three Barbie dolls are sold every second. 6 scale, which is also known as playscale.

Since the mid-to-late 1980s, Barbie-branded products included not only the range of dolls with their clothes and accessories, but also a large range of branded goods such as books, apparel, cosmetics, video games and audiovisual content. As at the release of the film Barbie in the Pink Shoes on February 26, 2013, the film series have sold over 110 million units globally. Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. In a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s, her parents’ names are given as George and Margaret Roberts from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin. Mattel has created a range of companions and relatives for Barbie. Barbie has had over 40 pets including cats and dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and a zebra.

Barbie has become a cultural icon and has been given honors that are rare in the toy world. In 1974, a section of Times Square in New York City was renamed Barbie Boulevard for a week. In 1986, the artist Andy Warhol created a painting of Barbie. In 2015, The Andy Warhol Foundation then teamed up with Mattel to create an Andy Warhol Barbie. Outsider artist Al Carbee took thousands of photographs of Barbie and created countless collages and dioramas featuring Barbie in various settings. Carbee was the subject of the feature-length documentary Magical Universe. In 2013, in Taiwan, the first Barbie-themed restaurant called “Barbie Café” opened under the Sinlaku group.