National Barbie Day was on March 9th and what better way to spend the day than to go to a Barbie exhibit? Currently, the Museum of Art and Design has a Barbie exhibit called Barbie: A Cultural Icon. The exhibit was in honor of Barbie’s 65th anniversary. The first original Barbie came out on March 9th, 1959. I don’t know about you but I miss the era of The Barbie Movie and this exhibit teleported me back to that.
One of the fun things to see while visiting is all the different careers Barbie has had. The ones I was most intrigued by were the older career Barbies because I had never seen them before. Specifically, there was a pink astronaut outfit and it was metallic and just such a girl boss Barbie. The outfits of the older career Barbies are just so much better than the ones now. In the exhibit, fashion was very represented. They had Barbies with Oscar de la Renta, a Karl Lagerfeld one, and so many more.
My favorite part of the exhibit was a life-sized pink Corvette that you could sit in. This car is a replica of the 1984 Barbie Ultra ‘Vette. I actually had the Barbie size one of this when I was younger so it was so cool to see a life-sized one. The best part about it is you could even sit in it. I personally loved that they had the 1959 original Barbie in the black and white swimsuit. I have never seen the original Barbie in person and it was so cool to see. Overall there are more than 250 Barbies on display.
Throughout the exhibit there were Barbies from all decades. One of the most interesting things I noticed was that the clothing for the outfits was more intricate and it seemed like they had so much more details than the ones now do. I think now Barbies look more plastic and fake than they did when we were children playing with them.
This exhibit is definitely something to go check out and guess what? They have a student discount which makes it only $14 so definitely go see Barbie: A Cultural Icon before it is gone.