I recently wrote about the CFDA Barbies available on Ebay, and tonight I had the opportunity to attend ‘Barbie’s first Tweet up”! Myself, along with about 30 blogger friends donned our requested lbds for the unveiling of the 12 different Barbies customized by some of the best accessory designers in the world! I hate to say I’m biased since Justin Giunta was there at the event tonight and is also one of my absolute favorite designers, but in all honestly, his Barbie was just purely stunning (see above). I asked Justin what it was like working on such a small scale, and when he first started the project, what came into his mind – a material, a shape — to which Justin answered. “Well, its always interesting in thinking how you’re going to use, what resonates in your design arsenal, and it’s so miniaturized that it seems scale appropriate for this little doll, and I know from growing up you always play make believe and build out of candy wrappers, and wire closures, something for your legos, G.I. Joe, what have you, so its really a way to adopt a sort of nostalgia that fits the design of how am I going to solve this creative problem and keep it functional…it took a lot of tedious little, little pearls stringing on a string and being very patient.”
Steven Kolb, executive director of the CFDA, also took some time to speak to me about the evolution of the project, telling Fashion Pulse Daily that the CFDA thought ‘it would be fun to do a collaboration with just accessory designers, and they (Barbie) had come up with a basic Barbie and it’s just a perfect canvas that you can do anything (with). So when you look at the 12, each one is so different, its kind of like they (the designers) have their own miniature version of what they do in big-scale.”
The designers who created the customized Barbies are:
Justin Giunta for Subversive Jewelry
Betsey Johnson
Botkier
Lorraine Schwartz
Isaac Mizrahi
Rachel Roy
Tory Buch
Philip Crangi
Albertus Swanepoel
Kate Spade
Alexis Bittar
Devi Kroell
And of course as I was leaving the event, what popped out of the gift bag but my a Barbie and her own new accessories. She looks different than I remembered her from our last encounter a good 20 years ago, but still utterly fabulous (and I wish we were the same size – she’s got some AMAZING accessories now!)
For more about the CFDA Barbie ebay charity auction, click here
-Julia DiNardo
