Oh Barbie!

Barbie, is by far the most far reaching fashion icon in history. While I can't back this up with a thesis on the cultural impact that Barbie has had on American society, I can say from experience that before girls can even coordinate clothes for themselves, they start with a Barbie.
If you think about it, as girls, we can play dress up to some degree, however, that takes a fair amount of money just to see yourself in ill fitting clothes compared to seeing how clothes "should" fit on a Barbie. You see, at a very young age, we were color and fashion scientists. How does this fit? How does this look? A friend of mine says her mom gave her pieces of cloth and she made clothes for her Barbie. One day when I brought Barbies to school for my friend, all of the girls were huddled in a giant group waiting for our turns to dress her. I always got pissed when I lost a shoe.

With a few exceptions of gimmick Barbies, I've really enjoyed how her style has diversified while remaining vibrant, new, risky...overall, a perfect combination of the craziest fashions in a package that makes it work. She out-divas Lady Gaga and Madonna. It also doesn't hurt that, like me, Barbie has large calves.

Observe a more recent conception of Barbie. Sugar by Byron Lars. Who could wear a pagoda style hat that (when placed to scale is probably the size of an umbrella) completely covers a large afro? Barbie. Who could wear a safari style bustier on the outside of her blouse? Barbie. Who could get away with wearing THAT much blue eyeshadow? Barbie. Who could think up an outfit like this? It's like mixing all your watercolors together and actually getting something nice oppose to a giant breen (brownish green) sludge. Of course that would be the amazing Mr. Byron Lars. I'm sure Barbie is the best client to design for. For one thing, she can wear anything. Secondly, I feel that designers chosen to create collections for Barbie are more sought out because of a pure interest in their art oppose to their ability to recreate trends in their vision. It's free range, pretty much complete artistic freedom.

This was mainly inspired by the Barbie Fashion Show over a year ago. Were the designs awesome or what? It would be nice if designers could produce a Barbie line for the general public because seriously

I'd want to get married in this.
I'd want to just go out somewhere in this. Betsey Johnson really got it down!