May 4
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Stop what you're doing and look at this Ken.
This is the first Ken in the Ken Kouture line, announced by Mattel this year as being an ongoing series celebrating Ken.
For the longest time I didn't know what to say about this man. I just wanted to look at him. Look at him and wonder what was happening. Why does Ken look like this.
Then gradually I started to realise this is Mattel branching out into the Ryan Gosling Ken fanbase. Note this isn't a Ryan Gosling Ken - the movie Ken wasn't high fashion like this. But notice how they're marketed with words like Ken-rgy and Kenaissance.
This is a high fashion Ken aimed at people who already loved high fashion Barbie, but who were charmed by Ryan "I'm Just Ken" Gosling and wanted to show him some love too.
Incidentally, if you think this Ken looks kind of similar to the first new Barbie in the freshly revived Barbie Fashion Model Collection, I saw it too and that's no coincidence.
2024 is the 65th anniversary of Barbie, and both these dolls are themed around the traditional gift for a 65th anniversary: blue sapphire.
Side note, I should be better about shouting out the designers of Barbies I talk about, so do take note that this Ken Kouture doll's design was credited to Carlyle Nuera.
And Nuera has some really interesting things to say about him on Instagram.
hello everyone, hope you are well, i’m just sitting here thinking about how i’d sell my actual soul for these barbies!!!
It hasn't been that long since I've done a new release round-up post, but I thought I'd do another since the Mattel launch calendar has confirmed there's no more big Barbie releases coming for May this year.
(There is another new doll that has been previewed which will be released in early June, and I do most definitely have opinions about it, but I will save that for another post.)
First up among the May releases I wanted to talk about is the new Styled By Design doll - this one a Ken designed by KidSuper.
I had no idea what to make of this doll when I first saw it, and if I'm honest, I still don't. The clothing, however, is extremely striking, featuring a giant size Barbie and Ken head on the jacket and birds on the trousers.
The embroidery on the Barbie and Ken faces is amazing.
I don't think I could say much more about this. Good for KidSuper, and good for Ken.
Remarkably little fanfare surrounded the announcement of the new Fashion Model Collection Barbie, Petticoat Perfection.
Like, was this just me? I saw almost no one talking about this, but she's INCREDIBLE. I love her.
But then again - maybe that's because she dropped only four days before some slightly bigger news for Barbie collectors: the Fifteenth Doctor and his companion, Ruby.
Yes, they are sold separately, but I do like them as a twosome. And I Really like their outfits too - contrary to some recent releases, it really looks like a lot of effort went into some of the clothing design. Just look at Ruby's jacket, for example.
I've seen a few people talk about how "now that" Doctor Who and Barbie coexist so I wanted to add something - do remember that this isn't the first Doctor Who Barbie! There was one in the likeness of the Thirteenth Doctor as well.
Francie was an early character in the Barbie line, and one of moderate importance to the history of Barbie when you consider that she was the first character in the Barbie line to be depicted as anything other than white (although not the first to be exclusively portrayed as a woman of colour, as she was also released in white versions).
However, she is largely forgotten. Unlike characters like Skipper who still appear in the Barbie line today, or Midge who at least got a shout-out in the 2023 Barbie movie, Francie is pretty forgotten, relegated now exclusively to the realm of special releases for the adult collector.
For example, the Silkstone "Kitty Corner" Francie from 2011. This featured two different outfits for Francie as well as a cute cat for her to love on.
The same year brought "Nighty Brights".
...as well as Check Please. All three dolls were released as Gold Label dolls, meaning a run of less than 20,000.
(Personally, my favourite is Check Please, but I know that's a preference. I just think she's really cute.)
The most recent was the 2022 release, celebrating 55 years since the first Black doll in the Barbie line.
The lead designer on this project was Bill Greening. Apparently the doll contained the same features as the original doll, including a return to the "Twist n' Turn" waist.
Apparently Bill Greening's favourite part was her kitten heels. That's what the Mattel website says, anyway.
Since 1965, International Nurses Day has been celebrated on the 12th of May - to commemorate the birthday of Florence Nightingale, and to celebrate the role and contribution of nurses in society. The theme for 2024 is "Our Nurses, Our Future" - or, less pithily, the role of nurses in driving a healthy economy.
With all due respect to the theme being about future, I can't help myself but to talk about Barbies of the past.
In 1961, Barbie became a nurse in a fashion set (i.e. a release which was new clothes to put on your Barbie, not a new doll). This was rereleased in the My Favorite Careers throwback collectors series as Nurse Barbie. And... not the most respectful rendition of a nurse, if I'm honest.
Nurse was one of Barbie's first careers - following fashion model at debut, then fashion designer and singer in 1960, and matched with flight attendant and ballerina in 1961. I think it's great that nurse was one of the earliest careers Barbie had. But what the hell is "Get new shoes and call me in the morning"? How was this not just as controversial as "math class is tough"?! Way to devalue nursing and make Barbie look like a bimbo roleplaying careers instead of actually being a career woman!
But -- that rant over -- Barbie has been a nurse around 10 times in her history, give or take, putting it approximately on par with astronaut but well below doctor in terms of numbers.
Including another representation of the original white dress and navy cape, but this time in the Fashion Model collection (aka the Silkstone collection).
And of course, it can't go unsaid that as part of the Inspiring Women series, Barbie has represented Florence Nightingale herself.
A woman who is not referred to as the mother of modern nursing for no reason.
One of the recent tie-in products Mattel released for the Barbie line was built into one of their other popular products: Uno.
The Fashion Model Collection has been immortalized on an Uno deck. (This was part of the Uno Canvas collection, which, to my knowledge, is essentially a collection of different "artistic" Uno decks themed around other media.)
What makes this release really beautiful in my opinion is that instead of using photographs of the dolls, the art is based around sketches of the Robert Best designs. This really sets it apart. It would be pretty typical for Mattel to release a set that had pictures of Barbie dolls. This is kind of next level and I love it.
It's driving me crazy that I can't recognise the Barbie in the black and pink outfit that's prominently on the front of the box. She looks really familiar but I can't find her anywhere. I don't know if she's just eluding me (and is probably really obvious) or if she was a sample sketch that doesn't actually look much like the final product, or if I just think she looks familiar because she looks kind of like the 1998 Happy Holidays Barbie?
I've found other Robert Best sketches that look similar to it, but no actual dolls.
In any case, some of the sketches are definitely identifiable as specific dolls. For example, Camel Coat.
Would I, personally, pay $35 for a pretty Uno deck? No. But I am glad that it exists.