The story behind Fun-to-Dress Barbie 1987 is simple and uncomplicated pretty much like the doll herself which I never meant to purchase and add to my collection although she’s a very well- known Barbie in Europe and my country especially and many collectors speak of her fondly. Of course I knew her and I thought she was pretty enough but somehow she didn’t seem like a material for my collection. Neither would she blind you with the neons of the 90s nor would she throw you to your knees with the glamor and elegance of the 80s. She’s not the over-the-top, slightly tacky, Happy Holiday type of doll either. It wasn’t my intention to get the doll, she arrived by mistake as a Fashion Play ’88 Barbie’s companion you might have read in the previous post. She was that ‘doll-free-of-charge-for-the-inconvenience-and-criminal-delay’. I expected a completely different ‘doll-for-free-and so on’ but the seller made a mistake and sent me this one instead. I had every intention of sending her on her way back but I took a closer look at her and realized she was a very pretty doll. I offered to buy her (I was still hoping to get the right doll for free) and the lady took my first offer, so she stayed.
Fun-to-Dress 1987 is a starter Barbie. She came packaged in a slim pink box with nothing but her underwear on. As far as I know, not even a brush was included and neither were any shoes. The whole idea behind Fun-to-Dress was that you get the doll and you buy some fashions for her. That’s it. Fun-to-Dress was produced in two countries and came in three variants. One has a very gentle, subtle face paint and saran hair and is of the Philippine make. The other two were manufactured in China, their face paint is much more distinct and their features prominent and they came either with saran or kanekalon hair. Mine is a China make with saran hair and she happens to be my favorite version. The hair was a decisive factor, if she had had kanekalon rooted, she would have gone back to her previous owner. There was also an ethnic variant – an AA Fun-to-Dress, absolutely stunning, but she was never sold in my country.
In 1988 and 1989 the line was continued and the whole concept remained the same. The dolls were still pretty, blonde or AA and in 1989 also Hispanic and they wore pink lingerie. They still had no shoes, no accessories, no additional outfits. They still had straight arms without the movement to the sides but they were absolutely lovely. After 1989 the line was apparently dropped because customers expected a little more which they got in 1992 when the series was reintroduced. This time the dolls weren’t so pretty anymore and someone at Mattel’s decided a towel was slightly more decent than lingerie. Strange. There were many variants of this doll available because she was produced in China (kanekalon) and in Malaysia (saran) and there were 2 ethnic dolls (AA and Hispanic). There were also two versions of the towel itself – blue or pink and if this was a little too little, you could also purchase Barbie as a Fashion Gift Set with two additional outfits and shoes. It appears that only the blonde one was available in the pink towel or as a gift set.
That will suffice for a Barbie encyclopedia excerpt, now to the doll herself. She arrived in a state of neglect and partial undress. She was wearing an ugly rag that once probably belonged to a clone doll. Now it was literally falling apart and as soon as I paid for her, the rag went where it belonged – to the trash. Barbie’s hair wasn’t damaged though it was a little thin. Whoever owned her as a child must have valued the therapeutic properties of brushing Barbie’s hair and she lost some of it in the process of relieving her owner’s stress however, it remained soft, silky and shiny and the color is simply lovely. Barbie’s face paint is very unique and she’s easy to identify. The pale, peachy lipstick and lavender, almost white eyeshadow make her instantly recognizable. The Philippine variant may be prettier, but it’s definitely more common looking.
Unfortunately, my Barbie’s lost her stock outfit – the simple white and pink underwear. I’m a completionist and I’m currently looking for it but in the meantime I dressed her in one of my favorite fashion packs and decided it was a good opportunity to extend my Barbie wardrobe a little bit. If any Barbie was created to change clothes, it was Fun-to-Dress, right? In the photo below, Barbie’s wearing a Weekend Collection Fashion that is dear to me. When I was 5, my Mom took me out shopping for my very first Barbie. At that time in my country, a Barbie doll was a luxury product, very expensive and available only at a very special store called Pewex. There was at least one Pewex in every major city in Poland. There was also one near to where I lived. After I chose my Barbie from a group of 5 or 6 dolls available at that time, my Mom surprised me with another gift – I could select one furniture playset. There were 2 to choose from and I picked up a Sweet Roses Roll-top desk with bookcase. The Barbie that was featured on the box was wearing that same fashion pack! It’s sooooooo 80s!
I got two fashion packs for my Fun-to-Dress that I had had my eye on for quite some time. The first one is very basic, but I love the colors of it. It’s the 1989 Fashion Finds that consists of a pair of purple shorts and a multicolor, striped top. There are no shoes included, which is a shame, but the colors are so vibrant they make up for the obvious deficiency in the shoe department. I like the entire Fashion Finds series that you can see on the back of the packaging. You can mix and match them easily and they seem to have been designed for it.
The other fashion pack has many more pieces and it’s the 1993 Happening Hair. The idea behind the series, that consists of 4 sets, is that you play with the outfit AND the hair. The outfit is so happy and colorful as well as soft and pastel I just had to have it. It consists of a pair of shorts, a striped top and a vest. There’s a pair of sea foam green tennis shoes too. The hair accessories include a hair pick, two bows, a hair accessory I have difficulty defining (looks like a shoe lace shaped like a spring, Totally Hair Barbie had one too) and a packet of long expired hair gel.
Your new doll and the clothes are so perfect together! She cleaned up nicely. I never used L.A. Looks styling products, but the logo still takes me back to those days when I built up my hair!
ReplyDeleteShe did and she was very easy to work with. She hardly needed anything save for a bath and something nice to wear.
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