According to Mattel, Barbie's California-based manufacturer, the doll needed a more realistic and athletic body in order to wear the trendy, hip clothes of today--cropped tops, hip hugger pants and bell-bottoms.
Over the years, children have been moving away from Barbie dolls at younger and younger ages. Mattel hopes that the changes (including new packaging that incorporates other colors, besides bright pink) will appeal to girls over the age of seven. Until now Barbie's body has not changed (except for a few minor modifications to make some of her parts move) since her conception.
At the American International Toy Fair in New York this February, Jewel Girl Barbie was introduced and is expected to hit stores in September. Jewel Girl Barbie, along with her friends, Christie and Teresa, can bend and twist at their new soft waists. Each doll can be dressed in 24 new outfits from the very hip "24/7" mix'n'match collection that includes stick-on jewelry, vinyl jackets and platform shoes.
Of course, Mattel is offering collectors much more than just the Jewel Girl Barbie this year: Fifties Barbie, Swan Barbie, Wonder Woman Barbie, Merlin and Morgan Le Fay (Ken and Barbie) Wedgewood Barbie, Groovy Sixties Barbie and Mann's Chinese Theater Barbie are just a few of the new dolls. And Mattel has hinted that Barbie and Ken will walk down the aisle for the first time together in October.
A new body, different packaging, a marriage: why is Barbie going through the changes? In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Adrienne Fontanella, Barbie brand president for Mattel, tied the Barbie makeover to an international slip in the product's popularity. The article said Barbie sales "have been sliding for two years," with sales peaking in 1997 at $1.8 billion and dropping to $1.5 billion last year. "The world changed very quickly and we missed a beat. Barbie wasn't talking to girls. She just wasn't hitting it," Fontanella reported to the Journal.
She added that sales in the United States were expected to rebound this year after an increase in the last quarter of 1999. And Fontanella believes sales in Europe will recover by the fall.
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