It will be the largest barbie exhibition in the Netherlands to date. As of today, the Almelo City Museum exhibits more than 600 plastic Barbie dolls. The first is from 1959, the last of a very recent date.
“It is not a dumb blonde”, says director Sigrid Ivo of the City Museum RTV East. “Barbie is truly an emancipated woman. She has had hundreds of professions. She had been to the moon as an astronaut in 1965, before Neil Amstrong went to the moon.”
The 600 dolls in Almelo come from the collection of Bettina Dorfmann. She has roughly 18,000 Barbies in her home in the German city of Düsseldorf – the largest collection of Barbies in the world according to Guinness World Records.
Lots of Velcro
It is no coincidence that the dolls were brought to Almelo. Ivo points out that the city of Twente has traditionally been a textile city. “Barbie is known for her different pieces of clothing. Evening dresses, suits, bathing suits. The doll has always been on trend,” emphasizes Ivo.
It was also that fashionable style that fascinated her as a young girl about doll. “My father sometimes went on a trip to America. And then he took a barbie for me. Back then the clothes were still very nice, with small buttons and other details. Nowadays the clothes are made for young children, so a lot of Velcro.”
It is precisely the historical development of doll that is central to the City Museum. “There was already a colored barbie in the 60s,” said Ivo. “Since 2016 there is also a fuller Barbie. A tall Barbie. And a short Barbie.” Even more: if you pay close attention, you will also see a doll with a prosthesis among the variety of barbies in the exhibition.
The exhibition will run until January 31, 2021.
–
