Fashion doll, Black Barbie, Kitty Black Perkins for Mattel Inc., 1979-80

Adult-bodied fashion doll with a dark brown skin tone and brown eyes. Its body is made from PVC, and it has loose-curled natural hair probably made from Saran. The doll is dressed in a long, lustrous ‘disco-style’ red dress, with a gold collar. It is accessorised with a pair of red high-heeled shoes, dangling red plastic earrings and a red ring. The doll is in its original box of pink and green card, with clear plastic window at front.

Dolls have been a popular children’s toy for several centuries. In the past, they were seen as tools for girls to learn and practice motherhood skills, as well for their roles in imaginative play and early years companionship. Prior to the mid-19th century, the art of commercial doll-making was carried out by professionals in small workshops, usually utilising painted wooden heads and bodies (see Misc.49-1963), and materials such as leather for limbs. For families who could not afford to buy a doll, found objects such as animal bones and rags were used to make them (see Misc.12-1924). The popularity of dolls meant that they eventually began to be produced industrially in bisque and composition, with the finest examples being manufactured in France and Germany.

The ability to dress and redress dolls has long been one of their primary appeals, and they have tended to closely follow fashion trends throughout their history. During the 20th century, the spread of mass global culture through print, film and television enabled fashionable trends to spread wider. This, combined with new materials and manufacturing techniques, created a new wave of cheaper fashion dolls made from PVC and similar plastics.

In the mid-1950s, Ruth Handler had observed that her daughter, Barbara, usually assigned adult roles to her dolls whilst playing with them. At that time many dolls represented babies or toddlers. Spotting a potential gap in the market, Handler approached Mattel with a German adult-bodied doll called Bild Lilli. This doll was part of a franchise that had begun in 1955 and was initially targeted at adults, although it also became popular with children who enjoyed its wide range of fashionable outfits. After some persuasion, Mattel redesigned Bild Lilli and introduced Barbara Millicent Roberts, better known as Barbie, on 9th March 1959 at the American International Toy Fair.

In 1961, Mattel were sued by fellow American toy giants Louis Marx and Company for infringing several patents relating to Bild Lilli, whose rights they had recently licenced from German company Greiner and Hauser. The case was settled in 1963 and Mattel closed the matter by purchasing the copyright and patents from Greiner and Hauser the following year.

Since 1959, Barbie has taken on many appearances and has had more than 200 careers, including as a dentist, astronaut and video game developer. She has traditionally been accompanied by a circle of friends, including Christie and Francie, as well as her boyfriend, Kenneth ‘Ken’ Carson.

Barbie dolls have tended to divide opinion and have been criticised for giving negative messages about beauty standards and body image to pre-teen children. Mattel have received steady criticism over the years for a lack of diversity within the range, which they have tried to improve since the launch of the first Black Barbie in 1980. This doll was not the first in the range to represent an African American person – that is usually considered to be Talking Christie of 1968. Indeed, it was far from the first black doll, examples of which have been produced since the 19th century with varying levels of stereotyping. Shindana Toys, a contemporary of Mattel in the 1960s and 1970s, were more progressive in the drive for representative toys. They made dolls sculpted with African features and names derived from West African languages in an attempt to support discourse on race relations in America. However, the significant thing about Mattel’s doll is that it was the first time a Barbie doll with a non-white skin tone was named Barbie, which was a sea change for a major manufacturer. At the time of writing, female Barbie dolls are available with 22 skin tones, 94 hair colours, 13 eye colours and 5 body types.

Barbie dolls were devised in the late-1950s to provide options for children to explore adult roles, fashions and careers. Although black dolls had previously appeared within the Barbie range as 'friends' of Barbie, this model was the first that was actually supposed to be Barbie herself. Black Barbie was one of the earliest attempts by a major toy company to reflect black pride.

The designer, Kitty Black Perkins, was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina into a racially segregated society. She spent the early 1970s designing children's clothing and sportswear for several major retailers before joining Mattel as a clothing designer in 1976. She later became the first African-American chief designer of fashions and doll concepts for the entire Barbie range, creating more than 100 designs a year until leaving Mattel in 2003.

B.32:1 to 13-2021