MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
 
JUMP TO PAGE   100  >  200  >  300  >  400  >  500  >  600
VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Barbie Christmas: 1964

Barbie was made out to be some sort of vixen on those carrying cases, huh? View full size.

Barbie was made out to be some sort of vixen on those carrying cases, huh? View full size.

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Glad I was born a boy

Even as a youngster I did not envy what women had to go through, reminded by the curlers and hair net on that girl.

My sister and mother owned the bathroom. I think they spent more time in there than in any other room in the house. Not just going through the personal appearance thing, but constantly hand washing clothes like nylons and woolens.

I did resent the little clotheslines strung everywhere, particularly over the bathtub!

Those curlers

are the soft sponge ones. Not *too* horrible. At least she didn't have to sleep on the brush ones! Impossible.

And I have one of the black Barbie cases in my attic right now. What a surprise to see it here!

Barbie Memories

I can relate to so many posts on this page! I too was disappointed that Barbie couldn't ride Thunderbolt or Flame without taking a leg out of its socket, although I eventually got an articulated bay horse made just for her.

My sister's Barbies were from the early 60s, and mine from the late 60s. My aunt in Germany knitted and crocheted outfits for ours, based on the latest styles from Coco Chanel! We also made our own from leftover scraps of cloth. I think the only store-bought clothes we had were what came on each doll, and my sister had a gorgeous 50's era wedding dress and nurse's outfit, and a tuxedo for Ken, which probably came with him.

http://www.fashion-doll-guide.com/Vintage-Ken-Tuxedo.html

We never knew quite what to do with the Ken doll, so I think we just sent him off "to work."

Deja Barb

Oh my gosh! I had the same Barbie case except mine was pink and my sister had a blue one. Wish I still had it, but I do still have Skipper and talking Barbie from when they first came out.

Visions of Barbies

Holy crow, I just noticed that the young lady to our right has curlers covered by a hairnet. It must have been difficult enough trying to sleep on Christmas Eve without those devices burrowing into your head.

Re: Railsplitter

My grandmother made clothes for my Barbies. Furniture, too!

Some Things Never Change

I'm one of those moms! I regularly make clothes for my four year old daughter's Barbie dolls. She picks out the fabrics and trims, and we go to town!

Doll Clothes These Days

My mother made lots of Barbie clothes for my dolls, I still have some crocheted dresses and sweaters that an aunt made also. My daughter played with them and they are packed away now in the hopes that there will someday be a granddaughter to play with them. The store-bought outfits of today fall apart after dressing and undressing a few times but the homemade dresses look as good as new.

Barbie Clothes

My daughter had all of the "Barbie Family" and I was one of those mothers who made not only clothes for her but even knitted teeny tiny little sweaters. I admit I was crazy but after buying the dolls we couldn't afford the clothes.
She took care of them and still has them.

Tinsel Intact

I guess you didn't have a cat, or that low-hanging tinsel would be missing from the tree and found in small gobs on the floor around the house.

Barbie and Skipper

Perched on the top of a bookshelf behind me are a short-haired dark brunette Barbie and a pretty darn cute lighter-brunette Skipper (Barbie's little sister, I think). Both were my wife's from long ago and I suppose they are worth something today. They are wearing dresses that my mother-in-law made from scratch. How many out there can say they had a mother who made clothes for their Barbies? We've also got a black Barbie case identical to the one in the picture.

Barbie & Me

Barbie was wonderful until I figured out she couldn't ride any of my Johnny West horses without doing the splits... She just didn't have an athletic bone in her rigid little body. Then I found out you could pull her head off with a "pop." Shocking, to say the least. Wish I had kept just one with the original clothing. Perhaps I could put a kid partially through college.

Doll House of Horrors

My aunt had four or five of these first Barbies, which were there for the kids (me, brother, cousin) to play with when we visited in the summer. The boys tortured the Barbies and I'm afraid I cut their hair off. All that money.........

Barbie

Barbie has a good reason to look like vixenish. Mattel bought the molds for the original Barbie from a German company that had marketed her as a doll for adults, based on an adult comic strip. Mattel executives were very unsure about an adult doll for children -- at least, we can assume, until the serious money started rolling in. My sister had one of those first generation versions. They are worth a lot of money now. I had the first G.I. Joe, back when fathers were quite leery of their sons playing with dolls, so the term "action figure" had to be invented. Joe was a lot more masculine than Ken. Barbie publicly dated Ken, but secretly wanted Joe.

Vixen-Barbie

She looks like Marlene Dietrich at a nightclub microphone

Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.