Back in early November, a story appeared on WWD about the Ron Robinson deal with Mattel for an Andy Warhol/Barbie collection, exclusive to the Ron Robinson shops: the one in Fred Segal on Melrose Avenue and the flagship in Santa Monica. The collection has many items in small quantities, designed by various artists and inspired by Warhol and Barbie. The collection will become available in the shops on December 1st but pre-orders have begun from November 15th online. What interests this blog is of course the doll. It is a Platinum edition of 999 dolls but they are nowhere to be seen on the Robinson website. What is really strange though is that the doll surfaced on the Bloomingdale's website on the 18th of November. I do not know if it was possible for anyone to make a pre-order (I did read in Facebook that some people did but nothing concrete), but the site shows the doll unavailable. Having in mind that it is supposedly an exclusive for Rob Robinson, it looks even weirder. I suspect a new storm will hit Barbie Collector with this one.

UPDATE: Barbie Collection will have the doll for sale on the 3rd of December, 10am Pacific time.

There is no price mentioned. Fro mthe packaging I'm guessing it will be around $150. The sculpt is the Mackie sculpt, made to look like the iconic artist. To me it looks cheap and hastily made. The fact that it includes painting brushes and colors shows either how ignorant is the one who designed the set (Warhol never painted but silk-screened the polaroids he took to add colour and effects) or it was a company decision to make the doll look more "artistic" - i.e. "let the ignorant buyers know that Warhol was an artist, let us include some paintbrushes and colours". It is insulting to the collectors and mainly to the artist. 

If you really want this one, get another Mackie Barbie cheaper, give her a razor cut and buy clothing and accessories to make the set yourselves. I bet one can find even a polaroid camera in scale from companies that make action figures - maybe even an older Barbie set. You can find the iconic Warhol Barbie portrait easily to print in scale too.

Photos courtesy of  Mattel.

It seems Mattel is not only releasing one Tokidoki Barbie but two. As you can read here, there is a Black label version of the doll coming out on the 1st of September but there will be a second version of the doll, as a Platinum Label edition (no more than 999 dolls available). The catch is that the doll will be available only to those that can complete a treasure hunt for her. It seems Mattel likes to put collectors through hoops to get their rare edition dolls - let's hope the newly updated Barbie Collection website will be up to par for the frenzy coming upon it in two days.

The news were revealed on the Barbie Collection website, first through a video exclusive to club members, but then there was a post for everyone to read. The process will be like this:

I wish good luck to everyone who tries to get her, it will be hard. She does look better than the Black Label version but still not the kind of doll I collect.

All photos ©2015 Mattel. All Rights Reserved. ©TOKIDOKI, LLC. Designed by Simone Legno

In another fashion moment for dolls, which seem to be running high on the list of fashionistas around the globe right now (enjoy it while it lasts), Net-A-Porter, who is one of the shops one can buy Lagerfeld Barbie tomorrow, enlisted her as their fashion correspondent for the Paris Spring Summer 2015 collections. Their instagram feed is full of the doll's photos in various settings. 

Today the first photo of the upcoming Karl Lagerfeld Barbie popped up on the indomitable designer's website. It shows the doll looking up to her real-life counterpart, dressed in a miniature version of his iconic black suit and white shirt plus accessories as promised by the original sketch.

According to the website, Barbie Lagerfeld is arriving at the end of the month. Taking inspiration from the designer’s signature style, the doll will be dressed in the designer’s likeness with accents taken from the real KARL LAGERFELD line. Borrowing from Karl’s iconic silhouette, the doll will be wearing a tailored black jacket, white high-collared men’s shirt with French cuffs and black satin cravat finished off with fitted black jeans featuring the iconic all-over head print. The accessories include black fingerless gloves, sunglasses, black ankle boots and a black leather purse with silver metallic accents. As for the doll, I can't tell which sculpt this* is but the body looks like a pivotal. Barbie specialists please advise!


The Platinum-label Barbie Lagerfeld doll will be available in limited quantities (only 999 dolls will be produced) for approximately $200 USD or €200 Euro through exclusive retail channels including: select KARL LAGERFELD retail stores, TheBarbieCollector.com, NET-A-PORTER.COM and Colette in Paris. The worldwide retail launch is set for Monday, September 29, 2014. I bet it will be really hard to get one despite the extremely high price.


* Update 16 Sep. 2014: the sculpt is new and it is named Karl (of course)! Body type listed as poseable. Skin tone: Peace.




All photos ©2014 Mattel, Inc. All Rights Reserved.