Design Museum opens major Barbie exhibition

London’s Design Museum is banking on another summer of Barbie-mania with an exhibition dedicated to Mattel’s favourite doll, charting Barbie’s legacy and design evolution through fashion, architecture, furniture, and even body image.

‘Barbie: The Exhibition,’ runs until February 23, 2025, and marks the 65th anniversary of the Barbie brand, delving into the doll’s expansion universe, from the rare first-edition Barbie from 1959, featuring Barbie in a black-and-white bathing suit to one-of-a-kind Talking Barbie prototypes, as well as exploring how she has changed appearance in relation to evolving cultural shifts around diversity and representation.

Danielle Thom, curator of ‘Barbie: The Exhibition’ at the Design Museum, said in a statement: “The Barbie universe is expansive and exciting, and it’s thanks to the meticulous work of talented designers over the past 65 years. Barbie is arguably one of the most globally recognised examples of world-building through product and graphic design and in turn, she has inspired many designers and artists to respond to her history. The design story of Barbie is a rich topic for our museum to put under the spotlight.”

Fashion is a significant theme running through the exhibition, with dozens of original Barbie outfits highlighting her origins as a fashion doll and her changing silhouettes of mainstream fashion over the last 65. Visitors can see the influence of designers - from Claire McCardell and Christian Dior to Nolan Miller and Zac Posen on Barbie fashion choices, as well as see iconic Barbie outfits such as ‘Poodle Parade’ (1965), a life-size replica of which was worn by Billie Eilish when she performed at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February, and a 1985 outfit by Oscar de la Renta.

The exhibition features more than 250 objects and 180 Barbie dolls, including some of the most recognisable and best-selling dolls, including the ‘surfer girl’ Sunset Malibu Barbie from 1971, one of the most popular of the decade, and the ground-breaking’ Day to Night’ Barbie from 1985 that was designed to reflect the workplace revolution for women in the 1980s, which saw Barbie’s work-attire pink suit transform into a chic evening gown.

There are also two examples of 1992’s 'Totally Hair' Barbie, the best-selling Barbie of all time, which has sold over 10 million across the globe, as well as the very first Talking Barbie, launched in 1968, which is one of several rare items borrowed directly from the Mattel headquarters archives in Los Angeles. This prototype has a transparent torso intended to display the doll’s voice mechanism that is activated by a pull-string to prospective wholesalers and toy buyers.

Another highlight is how Barbie has been adapted over the years to reflect today’s diverse, multicultural society, with examples of the first Black, Hispanic and Asian dolls on display, alongside the first Barbie with Down syndrome, the first to use a wheelchair and the first to be designed with a ‘curvy’ body shape.

Alongside the fashion, there is a section dedicated to the expansion Barbie universe, with playsets, vehicles, and houses, including a rare example of the first-ever Barbie Dreamhouse, released in 1962, made from cardboard and sporting the distinctly modernist design of its era, and examples of her first car from 1962 to her first campervan from 1971.

Tim Marlow, director and chief executive of the Design Museum, added: “Design has been at the heart of Barbie’s story ever since her creation 65 years ago. And as we’ve seen recently, her impact has also evolved with each new generation.

“Visitors to our timely exhibition will come face-to-face with some of the most important and recognisable iterations of Barbie from across the past six-and-a-half decades, and we hope it will be a joyful, fascinating, inspiring, illuminating and even perhaps nostalgic experience for generations of Barbie fans.”