Barbie’s 50th birthday Kiwi makeover
11 Mar 2009
Barbie has had a Kiwi makeover thanks to New Zealand’s best known fashion designer Karen Walker, who took on the job of designing a new range to celebrate the doll’s 50th birthday.
Walker joins other high profile fashion legends - including Gucci, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Hermes, and Patricia Field - who’ve created new wardrobes for the iconic doll over the past five decades.
New York collection
Walker used key looks from her coming Autumn Winter 09 collection to style mini replicas for Barbie. The ‘she’s cracked’ collection was presented last month (February 2009) at New York Fashion Week.
The outfits include a bronze twist front dress, a grey Wedgwood dress in wool silk cloque, and a powder blue Beswick dress in shattered china silk crepe.
"Barbie has always been a fashion leader and so we wanted her to have the very latest outfits that aren’t even in the stores yet," said Walker.
Playing dolls
Walker admits to being a Barbie fan and that without the doll she might never have gone into the fashion business.
"My first Barbie was Malibu - she was the first one I ever made clothes for," Walker said.
The New Zealand fashion designer has come a long way since those childhood days of playing with dolls. Barbie is just another in a long list of famous women that she’s dressed. Madonna, Kate Hudson, Claire Danes, Bjork, Claudia Schiffer and Cate Blanchett have all chosen Karen Walker designs.
Effortless style
Walker has a reputation for her original, effortless and unpretentious style and her designs are stocked in over 250 stores throughout the world.
There are three Karen Walker flagship stores in New Zealand, and another in Taipei. Walker, who shows her latest collection each season at New York Fashion Week, has permanent showrooms in London, New York, Tokyo and Sydney.
Phaidon have included Karen Walker in Sample, a new book curating the 100 most influential designers to emerge in the last six years. Taschen have also listed her in their recent book Fashion Now 2 which highlights the world’s 160 most important designers.
Designs on show
Walker’s Barbie designs will become part of the official Mattel archive collection, and will also be displayed at the Karen Walker Newmarket store in Auckland from next week (16.03.09).
More information:
New Zealand fashion designer: Karen Walker
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