Barbie meets 'The Birds'

There are many people out there who consider Barbie the personification of the dream woman. But Barbie is anything but a stereotype. She’s single, has a career, a house, a car and even her own airline. Sometimes she looks Asian, sometimes African.

Barbie in her hundreds of roles and faces is the star attraction at the exhibition “Modewelten der Barbie-Puppe. Zwischen Alltag und Glamour” (“Fashion Worlds of Barbie Dolls: Between Everyday Life and Glamour”) at the Bergkamen Muncipal Museum in Germany until October 6.

Whether dressed in a pilot uniform, a grandiose fairy-tale gown, a swimsuit or a motorcycle jacket, Barbie’s fashion world is just about as colourful as life itself.

When she first hit toy stores in 1959, Barbie was wearing a simple black and white striped strapless swimsuit. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail with bangs up front.

“Barbie back then was a doll for adults,” says curator Bettina Dorfmann.

The 51-year-old Duesseldorfer is in the Guinness book for her Barbie collection of 15,000 dolls. She has dark-skinned Barbies as well as Asian Barbies and thousands of other variations. Seven hundred her Barbies are on display along with a few Ken dolls.

Initially shy, Barbie became more and more confident as she rode trends in society.

In the 1980s, Barbie was wearing shoulder pads, and in the 1990s she exposed her belly button.

What about a piercing? “No, not Barbie,” says Dorfmann.

But there was an “Earring Magic” Barbie in pink leather. In 1992, Barbie even ran for US President with a presidential candidate doll.

“There’s hardly a career that Barbie hasn’t had,” says Dorfmann. Barbie’s been an archaeologist, a dinosaur researcher, an Olympian and an astronaut. “The only thing she’s never been is a pastor.”

Barbie’s measurements have also changed. She still has a figure that makes it nearly impossible to walk upright without assistance – but her breasts are smaller than they were in the 1990s and her hips are wider.

“Fashion nowadays is once again more hip accentuating,” says Dorfmann.

Of course there are exotic and designer pieces on display in Bergkamen. “Madame du Barbie” has the royal pomp of a rococo dress. And designer Bob Mackie has dressed up the plastic doll as a huge butterfly for a collection piece.

The Hollywood and rock star section of the exhibition has Barbie dressed up as Cher, Shakira and a Disney princess. Her boyfriend Ken meanwhile is dolled up as Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and James Bond.

The displays also place Barbie in a number of settings from pop culture. She’s the perfect stand-in for Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchock’s thriller “The Birds” and fits with ease into the short-skirted red uniform of the original “Star Trek” TV series. She and Ken are placed against cardboard cutouts of actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy on the bridge of the starship Enterprise.