Turning 50 is a milestone in any woman's life. Looks improve for some; others keep their girlish figures. Still others pull together a wardrobe that expresses their personality.

However, it is rare to have all three - unless you are made of plastic and your name is Barbie.

Born Barbara Millicent Roberts on March 9, 1959, in Willows, Wisconsin, Barbie, the 29cm tall doll, is the top-selling toy in the world, according to the market research company NDP Group.

She has travelled the world and worked more than 100 different jobs over the past half century. But her real profession is clotheshorse.

The doll's manufacturer, Mattel, has estimated that more than onebillion fashion items have been created for Barbie and her friends in the collection since 1959.

With that kind of wardrobe available, it comes as no surprise that Barbie was the earliest connection for some top-name fashion designers to dressmaking and design.

'When I was seven years old, before there was a lot of ready-to-wear, my grandmother would have a dressmaker go to her house in Rome and I would sit at her knee and beg her to make my Barbie dresses,' says designer Giambattista Valli.

'She was my first top model.'

Cynthia Rowley says she sewed one-of-a-kind outfits for her Barbie dolls as a girl and Anna Sui started dressing her Barbie with her own designs at an early age, before becoming a fashion pro.

From her first appearance in a graphic black and white swimsuit, Barbie has always had fashion sense. Over the years, her tastes have grown to appreciate more designer fare.

From Benetton and Burberry to Versace and Vera Wang, she has been dressed by more than 70 designers, including Giorgio Armani, Christian Lacroix and Monique Lhuillier.

For her 50th birthday, Mattel decided to highlight Barbie's connection to fashion and push the brand even further into the world of luxury and high-end design with a series of events and partnerships.

During New York Fashion Week next month, Mattel is staging a full-scale Barbie fashion show with 50 designers creating life-size outfits inspired by the doll.

Although the names of the designers have yet to be announced, Christian Louboutin has confirmed that he will be designing pumps in Barbie's favourite shade of pink to be worn with each of his outfits.

Wang has concocted a Barbie wedding gown with a sale price exceeding US$15,000 (S$22,600). The dress comes with a Barbie doll wearing a miniature version of the same gown.

Jeremy Scott has used Barbie as the inspiration for his capsule collection for the spring season and Bloomingdale's will dress up the windows of its New York flagship store during fashion week with Barbie dolls.

Mattel has also just signed a three-year partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). It is the first toy company to partner the CFDA and the two cooperated to bring designers into the fashion week project.

The council says it hopes the brand created will help finance scholarships in the world of fashion design.

'Barbie represents a confident and independent woman with an amazing ability to have fun while remaining glamorous,' said designer Diane von Furstenberg, the CFDA president, in a statement.

Mattel will bind itself even closer to the world of fashion when it begins a sponsorship of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York.

This year will also see the launch of a line of beauty products under the Barbie label with names like Plastic Smooth for skincare and All Doll'd Up for cosmetics.

Meanwhile, Assouline, the publishing house known for its fashion tomes, has just published a US$500 coffee table book titled Barbie, with images of the doll dressed by designers like Miuccia Prada, Karl Lagerfeld and Alexander McQueen.

The Barbie party extends beyond the United States. In Paris, 50 accessory designers have used Barbie as their muse to create everything from shoes to handbags. The results are to be shown at the Pret-a-Porter Paris salon this month.

In Canada, the bath and body line Cake Beauty has come up with a Barbie fragrance. In Shanghai, Mattel will open the House Of Barbie this month, an eight-storey shop that will include a spa, Barbie museum, restaurants, clothing and dolls.

'Barbie is influencing the world because she is part of culture and life and fashion,' said designer Alber Elbaz.

For Barbie, 50 is fabulous.

International Herald Tribune

This article was first published in Urban, The Straits Times on Jan 23, 2009.