I’m pretty sure that you have no idea who the Barbie
in the picture below is, and no wonder. Fashion Play was a budget line released
in Europe and Canada. The line had regular yearly releases between 1983-1991.
At first, these were 4 dolls a year and later the number was cut by half. Those
were simple and basic but incredibly graceful dolls with straight arms and no
accessories save for the shoes. Later releases came also with a brush but
that’s it. The dolls were packaged in narrow pink boxes and I remember those
from my childhood. This may have been no more than a basic, budget doll, but to
so many Polish children, she was unattainable, a luxury!
Poland was a communist country when I dreamt of
my own Barbie and those were only available at a chain of luxury stores called
Pewex. The store usually offered 5-6 dolls at a time, there were Fashion Play
for $6 and one or two large boxes that held not even a dream, a fantasy really
for the price of $16. This may not seem much now, but back then $6 was an
equivalent of approximately 25 per cent
of one’s monthly income and $16 was just a staggering amount! That may
give you an idea of what a Barbie meant to a kid back then. I was a very lucky
child, I got the large pink box holding the incredible Super Star 1988, but I
still have some very tender feelings for the lovely and graceful Fashion Play
that coincidentally is so hard to get nowadays. One day I came across a FP with
a short neck, and you know what that means. I’ve never dealt with such cases,
but the doll had her dress and her shoes and I went for it. Call me a weirdo, a
lunatic, I just couldn’t resist.
So I’ve waited about 30 years but I finally got
my own Fashion Play. I remembered how I used to play with my friends’ Fashion
Play Barbies when I was little, or should I say I held them for a brief moment,
because dolls like that would not come easily. Usually, parents needed to make
sure you really, really wanted the extravagantly expensive doll before they
bought you one. So once you got Barbie of your own, you might have felt
uncomfortable when somebody else held her. Anyway, I was so happy with my miserable FP, you have no idea. I guess, my
reaction might have seemed disproportional to the occasion, because FP looked
just horrible but I saw her potential. Yes, she was dirty, filthy, sticky and
gross, but she had her stock clothes and shoes. And yes, her hair was a mess
held in a weird pony tail with a … sock, but there was some shine to her curls.
And of course, she had that neck problem, but the head wasn’t attached
permanently with magic glue. So, you see for yourselves that she could be
beautiful again, but first thigs first, I beheaded her and washed her.
I was determined to fix her Philippine body and
to do that I got some acrylic powder and liquid and I followed the instructions
from a tutorial by a Thousand Splendid Dolls. Gosh how smelly that awful
concoction was, but it worked miracles. That’s been my first attempt at fixing
a badly damaged neck. I wouldn't say it's
perfect for my natural clumsiness and bad "fine" motor skills, but still, Barbie
looks much, much better. She even has articulation to her neck because I
remembered to wiggle the joint as the acrylic mix was drying.
Fashion Play Barbies’ clothes are just amazing
in their simplicity. Those are the clothes that were fashioned after the real
trends of the 80s. They looked realistic and chic and my Fashion Play is a
great example of that. I personally would gladly wear a dress like that, well
perhaps it could use another layer but the design is universal. There was also
a belt but it’s missing. Belt or not, the doll is a classic Mattel beauty with
her lovely superstar features and the subtle Philippine brush that gave her
coral lips and some blue eyeshadow. She’s got the straight PTR arms but that doesn’t
bother me in the least. In fact, I came
to like those so much that I’m now convinced nothing would do but I must add my
childhood Malaysian Sun Sensation Barbie to the collection and soon.
I’m speechless! My childhood memories hit me with all their
happy power and I feel like a 6-year old again. Fashion Play, being a foreign
release, are kind of obscure and certainly underappreciated but one cannot deny
their gracefulness and beauty and to me they have that added value – they’re
the embodiment of luxury unattainable in the times of sad communist reality.
Just a touch of pink where everything was overwhelming gray.
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