BillyBoy*

An interesting overview of the development of Barbie from the doll's origins in the late 50s up to the 1980s when the book was published. I found it quite uneven however. The first chapters which explain that a lot of the outfits were influenced by European high fashion were very interesting - the Barbie clothing designers attended Paris fashion shows and certain outfits can be seen to be directly inspired. But as the book went on, it became a bit more waffly and more of a name check of certain outfits, with subjects being brought in abruptly - for instance, when talking about sports outfits in the 1970s, the author suddenly starts discussing the earlier 1960s ones making the whole thing a bit disjointed.

The 1980s section is very superficial, and the whole last part of the book is taken up with a lot of photos of an international fashion exhibition which the author was directly involved in organising - quite interesting but not really 'canon' and I felt it unbalanced the book. So not really a comprehensive or thorough history although there were some interesting snippets of information and some nice photos of the dolls and a few outfits. On balance therefore I would rate this at 3 stars.… (meer)