What is the most famous Doll
What is the most famous Doll? If you guessed Barbie, that is correct! Barbie has been around since 1959. Of course, the brand has evolved through the years. Barbie officially released its first African American and Latina doll in 1980. Since then, there are now a variety of skin tones, as many as 24 hair textures, and 4 different body types. This variety wasn’t available when I was a child back in the 80s.
Barbie has dolls for different holidays such as the recently released limited edition dolls for Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month and Día de Los Muertos. This recent release included a doll of Cuban singer Gloria Estefan, and Día de Los Muertos dolls with face painting and cultural Mexican attire.
The doll image of Barbie is so popular that there are many party decorations with that theme. Barbie has been able to reinvent itself thus making it stand the test of time and become a classic that modern girls still want to play and celebrate with. There is a Barbie movie due for release summer of 2023. Fans have been snagging photos of movie scenes recorded on location with stars Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie. The movie designers are strategically styling the actors to match the dolls, while still being relevant to pop culture. For example, including the “Ken” underwear label, which is a pun to Calvin Klein. Everyone is very excited for this movie because of the nostalgia behind the brand and the dolls.
The Faceless Dominican Doll
Here at Decorate for the Culture ®️ we’re inspired by a doll too! Our inspiration is the faceless Dominican doll. This doll is mostly seen as a porcelain figurine or in paintings. The doll is faceless because when the artist (Lilliana Mera Limé) started creating a doll to represent the Dominican culture, she struggled with the features due to the rich and diverse population, so she purposely left the doll faceless.
Outside of the island of the Dominican Republic many do not know about the faceless Dominican doll. Although it’s traditional, we don’t know if the porcelain doll will stand the test of time like Barbie has. The island depends on importing goods thus making it more difficult to see any modern goods with the faceless Dominican doll on the island or anywhere else.
We wanted to bring the diversity and culture from the Dominican doll to life in a variety of goods. The fact is there’s a lack of options with language, skin shades, and body types so we started making our own designs that can be seen on party decorations available for download, merchandise, and notebooks (coming soon). We’re on a mission to offer more options that celebrate and elevate our Latino culture.