The Fashion Doll : From Bébé Jumeau to Barbie

"Feminists have argued that the Barbie doll perpetuates unrealistic standards of feminine beauty and undermines the credibility of women. Yet, for every mother who disapproves of Barbie, there is a young daughter who adores her. Barbie has enjoyed a prosperous and important history in Western culture, but she is simply the most high-profile of a series of iconic dolls produced in the past 150 years. For the first time, this history is explored to reveal how intimately connected dolls have been to fashion and culture, from their early history right up to the present day. The prominence of haute couture in popular culture suggests that the link between fashion marketing and dolls should be an obvious one. Yet to date this connection has not been adequately interrogated. Peers' original and shrewd analysis fills a major gap in cultural studies by examining the doll's associations with concepts of femininity and fashionability."--from publisher Feminists have argued that the Barbie doll perpetuates unrealistic standards of feminine beauty and undermines the credibility of women -- that her long, slender plastic limbs and tiny waist fetishize the female body in unnatural ways and that her mature, overtly fashionable image promotes consumerism and superficiality over and above women's liberty and intellect. Depending on the viewer, Barbie is either a malign symbol of the strategies of the capitalist system or she is a symbol of glamour, high fashion and style, a fascinating index of cultural change and nostalgic memory. Yet both Barbie's fans and detractors assume that she stands alone. In reality she is the most high profile of a series of iconic dolls that over the past century and a half have been intimately connected to notions of fashionability. The prominence of haute couture in popular culture suggests that the link between fashion marketing and dolls should be an obvious one. Yet to date this connection has not been systematically explored. Doll collecting has been viewed as an enthusiasts' or curatorial preserve, while the volumes these artefacts speak about culture and identity have not been adequately interrogated. Peers' original and shrewd analysis fills a major gap in cultural studies by examining in depth the doll's associations with concepts of femininity and fashionability. Annotation. Feminists have argued that the Barbie doll perpetuates unrealistic standards of feminine beauty and undermines the credibility of women. Yet, for every mother who disapproves of Barbie, there is a young daughter who adores her. Barbie has enjoyed a prosperous and important history in Western culture, but she is simply the most high-profile of a series of iconic dolls produced in the past 150 years. For the first time, this history is explored to reveal how intimately connected dolls have been to fashion and culture, from their early history right up to the present day. The prominence of haute couture in popular culture suggests that the link between fashion marketing and dolls should be an obvious one. Yet to date this connection has not been adequately interrogated. Peers' original and shrewd analysis fills a major gap in cultural studies by examining the doll's associations with concepts of femininity and fashionability Preliminaries......Page 1 Contents......Page 5 Acknowledgements......Page 6 List of Illustrations......Page 8 1 Introduction......Page 9 2 Consuming Dolls/Consuming Fashion: Contemplating the Doll Fashion Interchange......Page 23 3 When Paris Was a Doll Nineteenth Century French Couture Dolls......Page 49 4 Pretty, Magnificent, Wonderful: the French Bébé and Female Representation......Page 77 5 Decline of the French Doll Industry and the Fate of the Fashionable Doll During the Twentieth Century......Page 105 6 In the Thrall of the Dress – Dolls, Glamour and Female Image in the 1950s......Page 143 7 Not Only a Pretty Face: Towards the New Millennium with the Designer Doll......Page 177 Notes......Page 203 Bibliography......Page 211 Index......Page 221