Several months ago, costume jewelry designer Tarina Tarantino launches her retro-Barbie line. I'm not a big fan of Barbie; I had several Barbie dolls when I was a little girl, all in various stages of undress and dirtiness, most of them with cropped hair. A game I particularly enjoyed was bending Barbie's leg to an odd angle, pretending she had a compund fracture, wrapping the leg in toilet paper and Scotch tape, and building a wheelchair chaise for her out of my Legos. Sometimes I had a whole lineup of my broken legged Barbie patients lined up beside me in their Lego wheelchairs while I watched afternoon TV shows.
But Barbie is back. She's been around, but she's really back - she's aimed at people my age this time. At $200 + a necklace, Tarina Tarantino's baubles are not priced for children. Further, I received a Barbie Loves MAC (cosmetics) promo packet in the mail today - shaped like a black MAC powder compact bearing a pink Barbie silhouette, much like the second necklace. MAC has a whole line of Barbie cosmetics coming out any day now. One lipstick is called Real Doll: I rolled my eyes.
The theme is playful, sexy, naughty. Sexy little girl... Lolita... blah blah. Women are dolls, dolls are women, blow up dolls, Realdoll, porn, Barbie... you get the idea and the associations.
Tarina Tarantino's Barbie collection is a bit more interesting in that she uses Barbie images from several eras. The seventies-looking Barbie is my favorite. I like Tarina Tarantino's stuff a lot - but none of the Barbie items are on my wishlist.
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