Creative Process Journal: My Double

My Double (Work in Progress) by Ingrid Mida 2012

This is the doll that I have decided is my double. I found her in Paris and she is normally dressed in a burgundy knee-length sheath dress with a matching coat and pill box hat. She is smaller than a Barbie, not as tall, not as busty nor as curvy. Her hips are narrow and she is petite, as I am. Her glasses are a match for my own.

My research -- into the uncanny, fashion dolls, wunderkammer, and the museum as a metaphor -- will be translated into designing two outfits for my double that will be placed inside a glass "coffin". The outfits will be constructed from scraps of material from my mother's dresses that I photographed in the series "My Mother/Myself".

Creative Process Journal: Barbie

Barbie

In 1959, when the Barbie doll was first introduced onto the market by Ruth Handler, more than 350,000 units were sold and since then an estimated that over 1 billion dolls have been sold. She has survived a range of assaults, including the firing of Ruth Handler from the company in 1971 and backlash from feminists and women's rights advocates. Robin Swicord, an author and screenwriter, said "In countries where they don’t even sell makeup or have anything like our dating rituals, they play with Barbie. Barbie embodies not a cultural view of femininity, but the essence of woman” (qtd. in Lord 80). 


Barbie was a respectable version of the Lilli doll in Germany. Lilli was "a German doxie - an ice-blond, pixie-nosed specimen of an Aryan ideal" that was popular among German men who often placed her on the dashboards of their car or gave the doll as a gift to their girlfriends (Lord 8). Handler recast Lilli as a wholesome all-American girl and marketed the doll to young girls. The rest is the stuff of marketing legend.

Barbie's 50th Birthday!!!

Today is Barbie's 50th birthday! Happy Birthday Barbie!

I'm not ashamed of being a Barbie fan. I have many fond memories of playing with Barbie, and making her clothes. I longed to own a store-bought Barbie outfit, especially a beautiful emerald green gown with a strapless bodice and a poufy skirt made of tulle that my best friend owned. Years later, when I went to the toy museum in Prague, I chuckled when I saw that same emerald green gown on display.

It is astounding how many fashion designers have cited Barbie as their first muse, client, inspiration. During the recent New York fashion week, Barbie was celebrated with a line-up including Anna Sui, Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors, Marchesa, Tory Burch and Tommy Hilfinger. Christian Louboutin designed a pair of peep-toe hot pink pumps in honour of her birthday.

Even the revered Karl Lagerfeld has created an exhibition using Barbie as his muse at the Collette stores in Paris (213 Rue Saint-Honore, Paris, 75001). This exhibition called "Barbie and Ken by Karl Lagerfeld" will be on display from March 9 to 28th.