Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 52

Section Page 4 Fort Worth Star-Telegram Thursday August 26 1993 MILESTONES A dollhouse full of facts She a Barbie boomer 1 ft' 1 acquainted collectors with those accessories most likely to have disappeared into the vacuum cleaners of the '60s "One of the rarest is the tiny brass compact with the powder puff that came with the 1 959 Roman Holiday outfit" Ouellette says "That set also came with tiny sunglasses and a tiny pink sunglasses case But if someone was cleaning the house at the time and came across these they'd probably just vacuum them up or say 'What's and throw them away" Most things about Barbie after all have been replaceable: This doll has had more than her share of cars boats condos dream houses swimming pools horses weddings "I think the doll strikes an emotional chord in most people Female or male Whether they're collectors or not" Ouellette says "I've had friends with no interest see my collection and say 'I remember my mother had an outfit just like that' With the early Barbies there was that meticulous attention to detail that makes almost each outfit and accessory an individual work of art" Over the years Barbie has acquired a certain documentary value Never a trendsetter her various hairstyles careers and fashions recorded what you might consider Seventeen view of young womanhood "Barbie has always been a barometer of the times a very stable barometer" Ouellette says "She never gets to the boiling point or the freezing point If you took all the good and bad fashion elements of one year and shook it up in it you would find the Barbie line of that year She's the median of whatever was happening I think that's why people gravitate toward dolls like Barbies cultural artifacts without the hard edges She's the mid-'60s to the mid-'70s without Vietnam" Ouellette's favorite Barbie is a vintage doll from 1960 "She is the epitome of Barbie: full red lips just a hint of cheek color bright blue eye color black ponytail" Star-Telegram File Barbie will celebrate her 35th birthday in March Barbie debuted at the New York Toy Fair in March 1959 Although her measurements have remained virtually the same her fame and fortune have been compounding ever since: During the past five years Barbie sales around the world roughly doubled Last year's sales reached nearly 1 billion according to Mattel Toys Every second two Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world Mattel has sold more than 900 million fashions and one billion pairs of shoes Roughly 90 different Barbie dolls and 120 new outfits From Traditional To Untaue New Fall Fireplace Line Has Arrived Fireplace Accems Mailbox Shop 4630 Camp Bowie 7384880 COLE HAAN TEEN'S LOAFERS $7099 $ftA99 I W-T N4M's MANY STYLES 5024 Trail Lake at 1-20 292-0305 Copy irreplaceable photos make extra prints for family members Expert Restorations of damaged photos Share a unique cherished gift Ideal for Family historical research Heirloom photos add warmth to any decor Coll today for more information LEE ANGLE Photography Inc (17)- 7374o 1MO Mantgamcnr ran Wwth Tz 7107 MAILBOXES WALLMOUNT CURBSIDE BEST SELECTION IN METROPLEX MANY ol YLbo XX flw JT shoe store are sold each year Over the years animal-loving Barbie has acquired 1 5 dogs nine horses three cats a parrot a chimpanzee a panda a lion cub a giraffe and azebra Barbie has had more than 500 professional makeovers Since 1959 Mattel has sold more than 700 million Barbie dolls and family members enough to circle the Earth more than 3Vi times if placed head to toe The top-selling Barbie doll roughly 10 million dolls so far is 1992's Totally Hair Barbie This doll has" hair reaching down to its feet Barbie has pursued al- most 50 different careers In 1992 her outfits identified her as a sergeant in the Marine Corps a rap musician a teacher a chef a business woman a doctor and a presidential candidate Th Baltimore Sun Last year Barbie was outfitted in military garb (Mi Joettttyae Presdert BrokerDealer representing major management companies Individually managed accounts Service: Full staff computerized evaluation periodic reviews Experience Mutual fund specialization for specific goals since 1 96 1 NlKrtAssoctimciSeartes Dealers Sowtestrteix fommCmrsMt'lnesneriCmaiytraiule 700 Oil 8 Bkto 309 West 7th Street FortWbffiTX 76102 817-335-5739 Toll-tree 1-800-999-5739 AWJDlliriDl muni A purrfeof votive candle holder: our handsome hunk of smooth glass lhaf clearly looks like a sleeping KlHentt'samost emewsind HWle aooessom for '4861 Samplellouse CandleShop DallM Piano Irving and 1540 South University Fort Worth Doll comes of age still idolized and criticized after all these years By UNELLSMITH THE BALTIMORE SUN BALTIMORE Ah Barbie: The 20th century's signature doll Just under 12 inches tall equipped with the mythic proportions of 36-1 9-30 Barbie will celebrate her 35th birthday in March En route she has perhaps attracted more attention and more analysis than any other toy in recent memory This week 600 Barbie collectors from Europe Japan Australia and the United States are gathering at the Hyatt Hotel in Baltimore to enjoy Barbie's annual convention Titled "You've Come A Long Way Barbie" the four-day event will offer fashion competitions lectures by Mattel designers a parade of collectors modeling human-sized Barbie fashions and a slew of dealers selling vintage Barbies for as high as several thousand dollars each Barbie has proved to be one of the most successful toys of all time: More than 700 million Barbie dolls and her family members have sold since 1959 The typical American girl now owns an average of eight Barbie dolls according to Mattel Toys It's a statistic that rankles feminists who say that Barbie has created impossible physical standards for women and moralists who think the doll represents the ultimate Material Girl But wherever you stand on the subject of Barbie one thing is certain: A lot of people take this doll seriously Sometimes too seriously says 41 -year-old convention chairman and collector Mark Ouellette "Barbie started out as an innocent play-toy for kids" he says "The media and other public watchdogs have put controversy on her from the beginning whether it be for her physique or for her supposed lack of being a good role model I don't think a doll should be a role model" That's essentially what he and his "It's two days just for women where they can get out of it what they want whether they want to be entertained pampered get another woman's perspective on how to climb the career path or address specific health concerns" i Susan Brazell I 1 Continued from Page 1 df the guayabera is for hot-weather Business wear In Cartagena on Co-Ibmbia's steamy Caribbean coast guayaberas are worn on the most serious business and government occasions Cuba's last constitutional president the dapper Carlos Prio Socar-ras introduced them to the Presidential Palace His usurper Batista iwe them constantly but never ltoked good in them or in any-tjiing else for that matter As for Castro he gave them up for olive-green fatigues when he took to the hills and sprouted a beard but his tess militaristic government of-cials still wear them It was on assignment in Cuba that (learned the vicissitudes of looking too much like a Latin good ol' boy When I put on my guayabera the ijbcals took me for a government functionary and clammed up in my presence Then there was the time I was covering a music festival in Co-Ipmbia In my jeans and T-shirts I was treated with the defcrenf due a silly gringo journalist by the soldiers who served as concert security Barbie-collecting colleague Linda Mason told a group of Barbie-phobes recently when they appeared on the Phil Donahue Show to discuss their collecting hobby "Barbie is a miniature mannequin" Mason says "When she was made the concept was a paper doll in 3-D If you look at the earlier paper dolls like Rita Hayworth they had adult figures too Barbie is all about fashion" She's all about money too For some collectors investing in Mondo Barbie has become more reliable than many money market funds Mason 39 who recently pared down her Barbie collection to pay for graduate school says a vintage Barbie she bought 12 years ago for $40 now sells for $500 A pristine early set of Barbie paper dolls originally 29 cents now brings $100 A No 1 1959 Barbie still in its box brings more than $4000 It originally sold for $3 Continued from Page 1 opportunities for job-sharing and more support available for both working and full-time mothers Chapman says Visions is meant to be part of that support system for all women says Susan Brazell who founded the expo in Dallas in 1 990 and now produces it in four additional cities Part of the event's proceeds go to the i Dallas Women's Foundation which funds programs and agencies that work with women and girls A combination trade show and self-help forum the expo combines celebrity speakers with booths staffed by corporations and social-service agencies The exhibit hall is -organized under several categories including business and financial lifestyle children home and family and health and fitness So visitors might see a cooking demonstration followed by a panel discussion on sexual harassment followed by a fashion makeover followed by a talk on starting a business The keynote speakers include Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis actormodel Shari Shirt Then I made the mistake of slipping on a guayabera Indistinguishable from a Colombian I got stopped and hassled at every checkpoi nt And the worst: A sweet colombi-ana told me the guayabera made me look old ie my age Even in their natural habitat guayaberas are not appealing to youth In Miami no self-respecting Cuban-American homeboy will wear one they're for the old folks who still dream of overthrowing Castro Or for the help Some years ago walking in his guayabera toward the lobby doors of Miami Beach's Alexander Hotel on his way to a Miami Vice cast party a bunch of us were crashing my brother-in-law who is 100 percent Latino but whose blond hair and blue eyes make him look like the Southern lawyer that he is got handed the keys of a Mercedes by a tourist who assumed anyone dressed like that must be the valet parking attendant I told him we should have grabbed the chump's car and gone joyriding in South Beach but he just gave the keys back I haven't seen him in a guayabera since It's not unusual for serious Barbie collectors those with dolls and fashions dating back to 1959 to have insured collections worth $100000 Ouellette says "I think people are most amazed about Barbie collectors when they start to realize that we're not a group of adults sitting around and playing with our dolls" Ouellette says "I look at it first as a pleasurable hobby but I'm also being very cognizant of the fact that I have a major investment here" A commercial and interior designer for Urban Country in Be-thesda Md Ouellette is president of The Baltimore Barbie Doll Collector Club of Maryland the 1 5-member group sponsoring the convention BBC members meet every month to share collecting tips make clothes and accessories and to fashion doll hair Sometimes a session will focus on such "sub-collectible" fields as Barbie paper dolls or Barbie Viewmasters A recent program for instance Expo Belafonte comedian Brett Butler novelist Sandra Brown and KVIL personality Suzie Humphreys "We try to balance it so there's something for everyone" Brazell says "It's two days just for women where they can get out of it what they want whether they want to be entertained pampered get another woman's perspective on how to climb the career path or address specific health concerns" Not that the topics are left to chance Brazell's company which now includes 14 staff members holds focus groups in each of the cities to determine issues to cover One common denominator she says is time Women always ask for ways to save time or make better use ofit Another common theme is balancing family and career which led to the working-mother panel scheduled for 11:30 am Saturday Brazell is an expert in this area: She was a single teen-age mother when she So in order to restore the bourgeois respectability of the guayabera we need some role models Dear Mr Mayor don't just wear your fine guayabera when you're cruising for the Latino swing vote Swing with it all summer You were made for it It was made for you Set an example Be a leader We will follow Wearing guayaberas would make summer in the city so much kinder for those men who must toil in downtown offices and step out onto the scorching street for business lunches Oh yes a few pointers Though usually worn open-collared guayaberas can be buttoned up for a tropical "downtown" effect Many decades ago they were topped with a boater but you need the face of a boxer to carry that off without looking nerdy However if you have the savoir-faire revive a classic style from the old Caribbean and cinch it with a bow tie Hand-tied please Just because it's summer and you're doing a Caribbean thing it's no excuse for a sloppy dress code That'fi for tourists and you and I dear reader are far from that 1 moved to Dallas in the early 1 960s To support her child she began working in advertising eventually working in television sales in Dallas and later New York "Women are always interested in how other women are making it happen" Brazell says "It's one thing to hear how a woman in New York is coping with career and family it's another thing to hear someone from Fort Worth or Dallas say this is how I'm dealing with it this is how I find time to make my career happen and still feel I'm contributing to my child's personal growth" Women of vision Visions: The Women's Expo runs from 10 am to 6 pm Saturday and 11 am to 6 pm Sunday at Dallas Infomart 1950 Stemmons Freeway Tickets are $5 senior citizens $4 children under 12 free Bring a can of food for the North Texas Food Bank and receive a $1 discount on tickets FAMILY LAVA Philip DPhillips Attorney BOARD CERTIFIED FAMILY LAW 831-4321 Vest Are Inl Select from Crocheted to Embellished looks 4900 to Final Summer Sale 60-75 OFF! Upstairs Balcony Ridglea Robert Burgos MD pleaded to announce the opening of hut practice of Gastroenterology with the Fort Worth Diagnostic Clinic 1650 WMale Suite 100 Foii Worth Tcxaj 76104.