You ve got to be at the top of your game to be a one-name model: There s Iman, Naomi, Gisele - Barbie. The 29-centimeter plastic doll is still on top as a high-fashion muse as she approaches her 50th birthday, and will make her New York Fashion Week catwalk debut on Saturday in 50 outfits by the country s top designers. Barbie s life-size stand-ins will strut in a red carpet-worthy gown by Marchesa, a hot-pink wrap dress by Diane von Furstenberg and an outrageous green party dress by Betsey Johnson. The fact that Barbie is just shy of her 50th birthday - officially marked on March 9 - doesn t seem to matter in a fashion industry that worships youth. (Being made of plastic, she can even avoid the indignities of Botox.) There s been an epic display of unity around Barbie as a muse, says Richard Dickson, general manager of the Barbie brand at Mattel. Barbie is 50. What s the next chapter? Hello Kitty is also getting her own Fashion Week party, but there s little doubt about who s top doll. Barbie even knocked down the Bratz girls last year, resulting in a legal decision that essentially will end sales of the edgier tween dolls. A majority of designers have had some run-in with Barbie, says Carmen Marc Valvo. She s an American icon, and there has to be an interesting association between play and Barbie, and creativity and fashion. Valvo insists he s never had his own Barbie, but he was surrounded by his sisters as a kid, and his very first design was a Barbie dress - a Renaissance gown for a school project. It s proudly displayed in his office, even though the dress is lacking properly cut armholes, a skill he did not yet have. Valvo s new life-size Barbie dress is a frothy black strapless cocktail dress with pleats that reminds him of Barbie s early wardrobe of gowns. This one will be worn with hot-pink Christian Louboutin shoes: It looks like a Bon Bon. Nicole Miller s checkerboard trapeze dress and swing coat is the third outfit she has done for Barbie, filling a childhood void from a time when her French-born mother wouldn t let her have one of the dolls. I always envision Barbie in that 60s mode - I made her mid- to late-60s mod, said Miller. It s a version of a dress Miller put in her very first runway show, worn by Linda Evangelista. It was the season she was a blond. I immediately thought of that outfit. Tommy Hilfiger, who will put Barbie in a hand-beaded white minidress, sees Barbie as an American pop-culture icon that translates to other cultures and countries. There have been countless Barbies produced in the traditional dress of faraway lands, including a Korean bride in a hanbok and a Kenyan doll wearing wooden bead necklaces. The dark-skinned Barbie even boosted the self-esteem of a young Rachel Roy, a designer with mixed Dutch and Indian heritage. It helped me understand that brown was beautiful, she says. Many of the Barbie styles are headed straight for Bloomingdale s flagship store - but they ll be on display, not for sale.
