‘Barbie: A Cultural Icon’ Exhibit Explores 65 Years of the Doll’s Fashion and Life-size Style Trends at Museum of Arts and Design

Sixty-five years after Barbie debuted at the American International Toy Fair in New York, the beloved plastic blond returns to the Big Apple in “Barbie: A Cultural Icon,” an exhibit staged by the Museum of Arts and Design.

“It’s definitely this nostalgic trip down memory lane,” MAD’s senior curator Barbara Paris Gifford told WWD.

After traveling to Phoenix, Las Vegas and Duluth, Minn., “A Cultural Icon” makes its exclusive East Coast engagement at MAD timed to the Barbie’s milestone anniversary.

The exhibit, which is inspired by Karan Feder’s 2023 book “Barbie Takes the Catwalk,” features six decades of the doll’s fashions and the life-size style trends that inspired them. Era-defining aesthetics like Space Age, psychedelia and disco are reflected across 250 dolls, as are designer collaborations with labels such as Oscar de la Renta.

A pink leather skirt set from Moschino’s spring 2015 collection is displayed alongside Mattel‘s Moschino Barbie, a limited-edition doll baring the same — albeit miniaturized — version of the Jeremy Scott-designed look. A brightly colored scarf print dress dated to 1989, meanwhile, is juxtaposed with 1992’s Totally Hair Barbie, who models a similar frock.

Most of the dolls featured in “A Cultural Icon” were provided by longtime collector David Porcello. “What we have on display represents not even a fourth of his collection,” Gifford said. Feder’s book also predominantly features dolls from Porcello’s archive.

“As it happens, Mattel had not kept a historical collection of Barbies,” Gifford continued. “They decided from the book that they wanted to do an exhibition based around fashion.”

While children will certainly get a kick out of the massive doll display, Gifford suggests that “A Cultural Icon,” like Barbie herself, has multigenerational appeal. The exhibit includes a substantial feature on collectibles, such as those from the Barbie Silkstone line, which are intended for adults. Older visitors might also recognize the dolls they grew up playing with.

“Mothers bringing their children through, they’re likely to see their Barbie and say, ‘My Barbie had that too,’” Gifford explained.

After all, Barbie wasn’t always made for children: her predecessor, Bild Lilli, based on a satirical German comic strip, was billed as a pornographic doll for men. Lilli was the initial inspiration for Barbie after Mattel cofounder Ruth Handler spotted her at a German convention. In 1964, Mattel purchased the rights to Bild Lilli and ceased production of the doll, though her resemblance to the original Barbie — blue eye shadow, blond ponytail and all — is striking.

While Handler’s design might have been borrowed, her concept was novel. As depicted in the opening scene of Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster “Barbie,” most playtime for little girls involved simulating motherhood with the use of baby dolls.

“[Handler] had this incredible insight in realizing that little girls want to imagine lots of different scenarios,” Gifford elaborated. “Having this doll with breasts and thinking of themselves in the future was a really special thing to enable girls to do.”

“Barbie: A Cultural Icon” is on view now through March at the Museum of Arts and Design, located at 2 Columbus Circle.