With all this new “Barbie Dreamhouse” and “Barbie Pink” talk, it brings back memories of my last career, when I ran my own textile design studio and I not only designed prints for home furnishing fabrics, wallpapers, and apparel fabrics, but Mattel was also a huge client. I worked on dozens of prints for Barbie clothes. Here’s one that became a sundress. That was another lifetime.
School Teacher Barbie Design for Mattel
This was a design for ABC Barbie or School Teacher Barbie for her skirt. I would paint the designs directly on the fabric and then the fashion designers at Mattel would create the tiny garments and put them on the Barbie dolls. They would go into meetings and if they were approved the design would go into production. Eventually it would end up on dolls, in the stores, like the pink sundress did.
Garden Barbie Design for Mattel
This design was for Garden Barbie. I think they made some kind of overalls for Barbie out of this pattern, but I don’t know for sure.
Bowling Barbie Design for Mattel
This is Bowling Barbie. I worked on the designs for the images that ended up on her bowling shirt and bowling bag.
Large Scale Floral Design for Barbie for Mattel
This was a larger scale floral design that I painted up in a few different colorways. This was common when they were trying to decide which version was best. We used to do this in the apparel industry all the time as well. A swimwear manufacturer like Catalina, or a men’s shirt manufacturer like Guess, would have a design painted in 3-5 colorways, and then decide to manufacture 2-3 of them. Mattel usually only did one colorway of each design for Barbie.
This was a whole different career for me and I do miss it sometimes, but I love being an interior designer and the creativity that textile design required is similar to what is required of a good interior designer. My back ground as a textile designer has been a huge help as an interior designer in putting colors and textures together in a space. As a textile designer, I was involved in both the apparel and home fashion industries. Interior designers take a space and make it both functional and beautiful using textiles, furnishings, fixtures, art and textured finishes. We also need to understand a great deal about codes, product specs, space planning, project management, and so much more.
Hope it was fun for you to take a peek into a bit of my background. It was fun for me to revisit it!