All dolled up

Once upon a time, when I was a right little madam little girl growing up in the late 1960s, I badly wanted a Barbie doll. 

In fact, I guess it was not so much the doll I wanted, but her fabulous wardrobe!

Several of my girlfriends had Barbie dolls and some had Ken too, as well as Barbie's little sister, Skipper. 

The really lucky ones had vinyl carry-cases, which had space for a doll as well as a rail for  the doll's clothes.

I think it's fair to say that the green eyed monster had me firmly in its grip!

I begged and begged my Mum to buy me a Barbie doll, but she wouldn’t budge. She said Barbie had an ugly face, but I suspect it was the fact that Barbie wasn't exactly flat chested which was bothering her ...

In 1970, when I was nine years old, my Mum finally succumbed to my constant nagging and accompanied me to the village toy shop to choose a doll. 

In the end, I did not get Barbie, but Barbie’s friend P.J., who sported a fringe and two pigtails tied with beads. A true child of her time!

In the above photo you can see the boxed P.J. doll, which I bought a couple of years ago. The one I had as a girl was non-talking but otherwise looked the same, except for a different outfit (see below).

I tried pulling the string at the back of her neck (just reachable through a hole in the back of the box), which should get her talking, but I guess the years have taken their toll as she is mute.

Here's the doll I got (not my photos), so that you can see the outfit she was wearing: a hot pink bathing suit with a lacy skirt and an orange vinyl belt.

Isn't her eye make-up gorgeous? And note that she has real eyelashes too!

With the doll came a booklet showing the latest fashions, which I pored over religiously and knew by heart. In fact, when I came across this very booklet when I started collecting over thirty years later, I recognized all the dolls posing in their different outfits as if I’d only seen them yesterday.

Ok, so now I had a doll, but it wasn’t much fun without clothes. My grandmother, who was nifty with a needle, made her some dresses, but they were all of the same basic and frankly speaking boring model. Very creative, she wasn’t. Needless to say, P.J. looked a right frump in them. 

So, the nagging began again, this time for a real Mattel-made outfit.  My Mum, knowing from experience that I wouldn’t let it go, actually allowed me to go to the toy shop on my own. 

In my mind's eye, I can still see the shelves lined with exercise books and paint boxes - the shop doubled as a stationary shop - and smell the lingering scent of crayons. If I close my eyes, the scene is played out in front of me: there I am, not yet ten years of age, tiptoeing up to the counter at the very end of the shop and timidly making my request, and the candy-striped boxes brought out by the shop’s owner for me to choose from.

After much deliberation, I chose an outfit called “Dreamy Blues”, which is the gauzy ruffled dress you can see P.J. modelling here.

On a side-note, this is not the actual doll I had as a child, nor the dress, which first got passed to my little sister and then to the girl next door, but not before poor P.J. had had her hair bobbed.

I was lucky enough to find the doll on Ebay for next to nothing when I first started collecting.

For Christmas, my grandmother, who I guess was getting tired of sewing doll outfits, bought me another set of clothes, called "The ZigZag Bag", consisting of a pair of bell bottoms, a shirt with a wild zig zag print and a red sleeveless jumper.

Up until the early 1970s, all the outfits had names, and quite a lot of the late 1960s, early 1970s ones really sum up the era perfectly. 

What do you think of "Pajama Pow!" (1967), modelled here by Growin' Pretty Hair Barbie, who sported an updo hairstyle and had a retractable ponytail?

This one is from 1968 and called "Zokko!" (with exclamation mark!), and the doll modelling it is a Twist 'N Turn Barbie with the delightfully named hair colour "Chocolate Bon Bon".

One of my favourites is "Smasheroo" (1968), modelled here by Barbie's ginger haired friend Stacey, whose talking version spoke in a British accent!

Oh, and if you think of the colour pink when you hear the name Barbie, you’d be quite surprised to hear that pink did not feature all too prominently in Barbie’s Pre-1973 wardrobe.

Lemon yellow and silver lamé (lah-MAY, as Sheila would say!) were combined in this outfit called Silver Polish (1969).

The doll modelling it is another one of Barbie's friends, called Christie.

Another Christie, whose hair has oxidized to a funky red, is modelling this wild yellow jumpsuit, called "Caribbean Cruise" (1967), while a ginger haired Living Barbie (with movable hands) is wearing a tunic and bell bottoms called "Mood Matchers" (1970).

Here's Stacey again, a blonde version this time, wearing an orange sleeveless dress with a separate lacy top, called "Disco Dater" (1967).

I'm ending this post with Barbie's friend from 1972, called Walk Lively Steffie, who is wearing an outfit from 1973 called "Simply Summery". Look at those gorgeous purple shoes.

Whenever I walk past the display cabinet she is in, I somehow have to think of Vix, who I guess would love this gorgeous halterneck maxi!

The story of how I came to be collecting these dolls, featuring more gorgeous outfits dating from 1959 until the early 1970s (I literally have hundreds) will be for another post.