Fashion Play Barbie 1988

 I guess you have no idea who this lovely lady is but she’s well known in Europe and many Barbie collectors from Poland feel very nostalgic about her. She’s the 1988 Fashion Play Barbie also known as the “Pink Dress”. Fashion Play line was produced between 1983-1991 and it has nothing in common with the US series under the same name available in stores in the 90s. The dolls were fairly basic but incredibly graceful and they were considered as budget Barbies. Back in 1988 Mattel produced two dolls belonging to the series, one was dressed in pink, the other in blue. They look great together, but I was strangely drawn to the pink one. She quickly became a very special doll for me and I had to get her asap. What is even stranger is the fact that I have no idea why she is so special to me!

The Pink Dress feels very familiar, but I didn’t own her growing up and neither did any of my friends or cousins. Yet when I saw her picture for the first time as an adult I thought to myself “I know her!” Where did I meet her? It was as if I was seeing the face of a good old friend. I was forcing my brain for scraps of memories of the doll to no avail. Now, only one possible scenario comes to my mind, namely, I must have seen her in that store where my Mom bought me my first Barbie. Both dolls were produced in the same year so they might have hit the stores together. Or maybe FP’88 simply reminds me of my SuperStar 1988? There’s some similarities between both dolls – their dresses are the same soft pink, their make-up and their hair look much alike (the saran variants). In fact, FP’88 seems to be a more basic, less extravagant version of the SuperStar ’88.

Whatever may be the reason, the doll climbed to the top of my wish list and I knew no rest until I tracked her down. This leads to a transaction that cost me a lot of stress and took almost a month and a half! A certain lady put out some dolls for sale through a popular portal. I contacted her and bought one, but since it was weekend and I wasn’t busy I was thinking about some other doll the lady had, or should I say, her dress. The dress belonged to FP’88 and I thought, perhaps if she has the dress, maybe there’s the doll who owns it too? There was, I swapped the doll I bought for FP’88 and … that’s where the problems began. First there was a significant delay, then apparently the doll was sent to the wrong address, then another delay. The lady offered a doll for free to make up for the inconvenience and we decided together which doll it should be. She sent them to the right address this time, but there were more mistakes to be discovered upon their arrival. The envelope contained my FP’88 without her dress which was a part of the deal and the “doll-for-free” wasn’t the one I asked for. The lady promised she’d send the right doll and the dress asap … but she broke her leg (come on!). I almost lost hope I’d ever get the doll and the dress that I actually had paid for, but then she contacted me and I offered I’d pay for the “doll-for-free” because nothing ever comes for free. When I did, she posted them both … after a due delay of course. What made the whole situation even worse was the fact that the lady wasn’t very responsive. I’d send her a query and then she’d reply three days later, or never.

One thing I have to admit though. The lady might have irritated me many a time, but she wasn’t sort of a person to take your money and then show you the middle finger. She didn’t try to cheat me and she was fully aware I paid her every time promptly and it was her turn to do her part of the deal. That leg thing I don’t believe, I’ve heard such stories already and neither do I think she is a collector like she said she was. A collector doesn’t keep her dolls in the state you’re about to see, and knows a little more about dolls in general. This lady was clearly convinced all dolls with straight arms were Fashion Play, which obviously isn’t the case. But she remained calm and polite and tolerated my increasing impatience and repeated questions and nagging with much kindness, I reciprocated with equal tolerance of her unreliability, constant delays, lack of replies and silly excuses. She also had a number of interesting dolls for a good price and I would have become one of her regular clients had this transaction gone smoother. 

Anyway, the doll’s here and so is her dress. The dress looked fine to begin with, but as to the doll, well she needed a lot of help. When it turned out the lady did have the FP’88 in her possession she assured me the doll was in perfect condition but sadly had no pictures of her at that moment. After 10 days of waiting I finally saw the doll I was about to purchase and it turned out that the term “perfect condition” leaves much room for interpretation and that we obviously don’t define it the same way. Barbie’s hair was awful! Awful, heavily played with kanekalon! It meant a great challenge to my restoration abilities if not a full re-root. But I really, really wanted that doll and I’d been searching for her these past two years and I only managed to find 2 dolls except for this poor thing – one was still boxed, she had kanekalon hair and was insanely expensive for a “budget” Barbie and if she had saran hair, maybe I’d save up for her and got her evenutally. The other was a corpse, heavily overpriced, naked corpse that I wasn’t willing to resuscitate. Not at that price. This one was potentially problematic, but she was affordable and she had her dress in a great condition. Sold! That’s what she looked like when she arrived.

I scrubbed her with dish soap and baking soda and then I put her hair in fabric softener. I find that fabric softener works miracles on kanekalon hair. I usually let the hair soak for at least 24 hours. After that time I wash the hair and there’s no point doing that before, because the hair needs to soften a bit for the dirt to be removed easily. It really makes a whole lot of difference but it requires much fabric softener – a glass at least plus half the amount of warm water. I washed and conditioned the hair and it finally surrendered to the force of gravity that it previously defied with all its might! It was also a nicer color, not so dull and gray as before. But it was still far from perfect so I boil-washed it and I was much more nonchalant doing that than I normally am. I dipped it in almost bubbling boiling water and I combed it with a fine tooth comb still hot and dripping. I repeated that process about 10 times until the hair became soft and sleek. Then I poured a generous amount of diluted gel for more shine, worked a little bit on the part line and when the hair dried it became silky and shiny and very, very straight. I tried curling it twice but it was a disaster so I just left it like that.

Barbie had to wait for her stock dress for over 3 weeks but it was worth it. Simple as it may be, it’s really pretty and since it has no Velcro whatsoever, it’s still in a great shape. I love the soft, baby pink and the overall design of the dress. It’s made of the most Barbie-ish fabric there can be – lurex. The peppelum is two layers of tule the top one adorned with a silvery thread that’s a nice touch and makes it a tiny bit more elegant. My Barbie should also have some classic 90s pumps – baby pink with pearly sheen but they’re long lost. I’m a completionist and I hope to find those someday in the future.

I’m so glad Fashion Play ’88 finally took her rightful place in my cabinet. I wasn’t sure this would happen and I almost lost hope I’d get her dress but they’re here. The dress, as you can see, is identical to Special Expressions Barbie’s save for the color. You might say I got both 1988 Fashion Play Barbies because Special Expression is a redressed “blue” Fashion Play 1988. Pink FP’88 is so pretty I would be very glad to have a duplicate of her with saran hair but she’s even harder to get than the kanekalon one so it’s a fat chance.