Thanks for all of your kind wishes about family funerals. Since I was back in the ancestral homelands, I had the opportunity to play with my Barbies again, and so can furnish you with more photographs of the couture knitwear collection I introduced to you a few weeks ago. Here, from left to right, are some of the more eccentric items in the collection: Barbie 1962 is wearing my all-time favorite in the collection, the sparky black and silver coctail dress; Barbie 1958 is wearing the swimsuit, Barbie ca. 1977 is wearing the ice skating outfit with angora trim, and Malibu Barbie 1966 is wearing the caftan. I’ve got sad news to report: in the course of dressing up Malibu B., I wrenched off her remaining leg, so she’s a paraplegic an amputee now! All of them except Barbie 1962 have pretty significant health and/or aesthetic flaws–but more on that later next week. We’re all getting older, after all.
Historiann 
Trust Historiann to put her finger on the next big academic development:
Barbie disability studies.
I’m gonna have to throw my dissertation over and get cracking on this one.
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I love the sparkly cocktail dress — could we wear adult versions, you think?
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Susan, great taste–that’s the one I’d want to wear, too! (Only because I don’t think I’ll have too many opportunities to wear a red knitted ice skating costume trimmed with angora.) And sis–yes, disability studies are hot, so get going on the next cultural studies “big thing!”
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Three more fieldwork pics on the way in from Philly, as soon as I can squeeze them out of my cellphone camera.
Maybe I’ll just send you the cellphone…! 🙂
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Damn, I was going to make the disability comment! Seriously, I believe the correct term is amputee, not paraplegic. Perhaps you could turn her into an Aimee Mullins action figure?
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Right–of course, amputee. It’s really sad. There’s not much action in her, because when you lose both Barbie legs, you lose the glutes too, so she can’t even really sit!
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I’m grooving on those white go-go boots!
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Yes, those boots were cool not just because of the look, but because they’re the only Barbie footwear that actually stayed on their feet! Barbie’s shoes were notoriously shoddy and ill-fitting, but the boots stayed where they were supposed to, and for that reason we’ve still got two of them, rather than just the one sad shoe phenomenon. (My barbie case is full of shoe orphans!)
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What’s really cute is that the stitches are so small that they are almost to scale, as if Barbie picked up her own toothpick-gauged knitting needles.
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There are actually knitting needles sized zero that are literally the width of toothpicks. Really hard to work with though.
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Frankly I’m waiting for the Elvira Barbie–Is that a healthy fantasy? Hmmm
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Hi Susan,
As you can see, I own a beautiful home in Germany. I am fro,=m Seattle, but have lived in Europe for 14 years. I make dolls. Could you please make me an outfit for om=ne of them?? Price is not a problem for me.
Thank you,
Judy
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