Barbie, the Girl Who Has Everything…Even at 50

Apparently some people are recession proof.  Ok, in this case not a person but a hunk of molded plastic.  Its just the same as it ever was for Barbie, now celebrating her 50th birthday this week, she got a real Malibu Dream House.  Mattel commissioned an extreme makeover of a 3,500 square foot California mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Well do you have an original Warhol in your living room?

Real life interior designer, Jonathan Adler was tasked with designing a home worth of the world famous doll.   “Barbie was a dream client because she doesn’t exist as a person,” Adler said. “She exists as fantasy and is the perfect client because she’s always happy and fun and loves everything. I thought to myself, ‘How would Barbie live?’  What I thought was Barbie would have a house that is glamorous, kittenish, chic, colorful and happy — as well as functional.”

And you may ask yourself-Well…How did she get here?  Barbara Millicent Roberts has worked a lot of jobs to get this beautiful house.

So while we had NPR, FOX News, and MSNBC going ga-ga over the Malibu Dream House; it was the BBC keeping it real, with a look at how absurd Barbie’s dimensions would be if she was flesh and blood.  The BBC got a real life model, Libby, aged 27 – who is a slim, but unremarkable size 10/12. Applying Barbie’s proportions to Libby’s body yields some interesting results.

If Libby’s waist size of 28 inches were to remain unchanged, then applying Barbie’s proportions to her would mean Libby shoots up in height, to an Amazonian at 7 feet 6 inches tall. That’s just two inches shorter than the world’s tallest woman, Yao Defen.  She would also have hips measuring 40 inches and a bust of 37 inches.

But what if, instead, Libby’s height of 5 feet 6 inches was to remain unchanged. Doing the maths, Libby would have an extraordinarily tight waist of just 20 inches, while her bust would be 27 inches and her hips 29 inches. Even the famously slight Victoria Beckham reportedly only has a 23 inches waist.  But neither are they unheard of – Brigitte Bardot was famous for her 20 inches waist.

So cheers to Barbie for bringing joy and consternation to the world.