Barbie Fashion Evolution

With her 39-21-33-inch curves, Barbie no doubt sets an impossible ideal. Not even Gisele Bundchen and her slinky 36-24-35-inch stats could compare. But if Barbie is No Girl, she's also Every Girl – cheerleader, rock star, teacher, President, Olympic skier, frothy beach bunny, fearless astronaut, a mover-and-shaker who's cycled through more incarnations than Madonna, Lindsay and Britney combined. The one constant: Barbie has remained the ultimate fashionista, sporting the perfect pillbox in the Jackie Kennedy days, psychedelic colors in the wake of Woodstock and 70 different high-rent designers in the decades of conspicuous consumption. Now, Barbie is hitting the big Five-O, but unlike many other Baby Boomers, she shows no signs of losing her bod, her face -- or her sense of style. To see how she's evolved from plaything to fashion queen, click on.

Mattel

When Barbie came into the world on March 9, 1959, with a cardboard box and a $3 price tag, her birthday suit was a black-and-white striped bandeau. Modeled on the shapely (and vaguely sinister) German doll "Lilli," Barbie was like no other creature in post-War America, where baby dolls and Davy Crockett caps reigned. But for Ruth Handler, who created Barbie for Mattel, Inc., that was the point. "Every little girl needed a doll through which to project herself into her dream of her future," Handler once told The New York Times. "If she was going to do role playing of what she would be like when she was 16 or 17, it was stupid to play with a doll that had a flat chest. So I gave it beautiful breasts." The first year alone, 300,000 girls – flat-chested or not – bought into the dream.

Mattel

Ruth Handler dubbed Barbie a "teen-age fashion model," but not even young Suzy Parker owned clothes like this. Mattel lavished Barbie with 22 outfits, all designed by a Seventh Avenue veteran named Charlotte Johnson. In a matter of weeks, she created not just impeccable daytime ensembles like this skirt-and-coat "Roman Holiday" set (one of many that nodded to the movies), but also delicate underwear (bras, slips, girdles) and baby-doll nighties (sheer enough to set '50s mothers clucking). To finish: exquisite accessories, from tiny pearl necklaces and working belts to miniscule gloves and cats-eye sunglasses.

Mattel

Even more stunning than the design of Barbie's clothes was the execution – by legions of Japanese housewives. "Eyes straining, needles flying, they handstitched gold buttons onto Barbie's red 'Sweater Girl' cardigan and attached flower appliqués to her 'Picnic Set' sunhat," writes M.G. Lord in "Forever Barbie," her 1994 unauthorized Barbie biography. "Then, after their handiwork had been vetted for flaws, they gave the garments to other housewives who stitched them into cardboard display packages."

Mattel

Barbie landed in an era when air travel was growing dramatically, so it wasn't surprising that stewardess was one of her first careers. Her 1961uniform was a replica of the American Airlines original, down to the AA flight bag and the winged pin on her jacket and cap. In the days before airline de-regulation, Barbie would also suit up for United Airlines and Pan Am.

Mattel

In the early years, Barbie-lovers owned one doll and saved their pennies for new outfits, which sold for $1.25 to $3; even an elaborate satin wedding gown was only $5. One of the most popular looks was "Solo in the Spotlight," a tulle-trimmed siren's gown, complete with elbow gloves and long-stemmed microphone, that transformed the nerdiest 'tween into a sultry chanteuse.

Mattel

Though Barbie could wear short-shorts with the best of them, her passion was couture. According to the 1987 BillyBoy book, "Barbie: Her Life and Times," Barbie's dress designer Charlotte Johnson "would travel seasonally to Europe to watch the Paris collections. Dior, Fath, Heim, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Gres, Schiaparelli, Carven, Balmain, and Saint Laurent were all inspirations for the first few years of Barbie's extensive wardrobe." BillyBoy, who owns more than 20,000 Barbies, added that, like this "Red Flair" ensemble inspired by Spanish designer Cristobal Balenciaga, Barbie's outfits borrowed "the charming haute couture custom of naming outfits to evoke dreams."

Mattel

Poor Barbie. Our favorite mannequin (shown here in 1963) has spent five decades at the center of the national body-image furor. We'll leave the blame-her-or-not to the psychologists, but we will note that, while Barbie's face, hair and makeup have been transformed over the years, her body has changed not an ounce. With her 1965 "Slumber Party" outfit came a bathroom scale set – for eternity – at 110 lbs. Barbie even had her own (toy) diet book: "How to Lose Weight: Don't Eat.

Mattel

Like most American women, Barbie in the early 1960s took her fashion cues from Jackie Kennedy, that other paragon of chic. Like the simple pink knit that sheathed a 1964 Barbie, the doll's clothes, says author Lord, became as pedigreed as Jackie's. But all that changed in 1968, as Lord writes in "Forever Barbie": "She had married Aristotle Onassis, and Mattel was not about to link its Golden Girl to some stubby, shriveled Mediterranean type with alleged links to international organized crime."

Mattel

In 1963, Betty Friedan's "Feminine Mystique" warned housewives of the "problem that has no name," but Barbie has never seemed unfulfilled. In the course of 50 years, Barbie has had 108 careers, from the traditional (nurse, teacher) to the trailblazing (doctor, pilot, NASCAR driver). But perhaps none was more thrilling than her debut as an astronaut in 1965 at the height of the race to the moon. Would that her get-up matched the euphoria. Barbie's first astronaut suit was drab one-piece gray. Thankfully, when Astronaut Barbie returned 20 years later, it was in a fuchsia and silver space suit with other-worldly puffed sleeves.

Mattel