Barbie Runway Show Fall 2009 – New York Fashion Week

It is a rare treat when 50 of the top fashion and accessory designers in the world have the opportunity to showcase their signature styles in one runway show. That was precisely what happened at the New York Fashion Week Fall 2009 collections as part of an extravaganza celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Barbie doll.

The lineup read like a Who’s Who in fashion, with designers such as Catherine Malandrino, Michael Kors, Vivienne Tam and Tommy Hilfiger each creating one look to encapsulate the Mattel doll’s style. Since that very style has changed so much over the years – at least 70 names in fashion have cut clothing from more than 105 million yards of fabric for the blonde plastic beauty – the designers basically had free rein to do what they wanted. (Tory Burch, who made a yellow and purple mosaic-print tunic paired with jeans, put it best when she said that “Barbie’s style over the past 50 years gives us a unique insight into how fashion has changed with every decade.”)

The show, divided into three sections – “Decade Section,” “Faux Reality” and “Future” – included plenty of highlights such as Koi Suwannagate’s strapless dress dotted with pink petals and Naeem Khan’s striking sapphire blue number. Filipino designer Monique Lhuillier, one of the many to have worked with the Barbie brand over the years, dazzled with a familiar feminine, frilly, fluffy wedding dress. The British duo of Marchesa, Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig, revealed a gorgeous pink gown with layers of twisted tulle, a feature in many of their past looks.