Barbie is more than just a doll, she is a cultural icon – as demonstrated by the recent success of Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie. She is 65 years old (but permanently 19, according to Mattel) – and has been heralded as a symbol of fashion, beauty, female empowerment, but also unrealistic body image. Whatever you think of Barbie, she changed the way that girls played with dolls, helped them aspire to have any career from businesswoman to astronaut to rockstar, and has had a cultural impact far beyond that of a mere toy.
So it seems fitting that London’s Design Museum has dedicated an entire exhibition to Barbie, showcasing her outfits, homes, vehicles and more. It’s a great day out for anyone interested in Barbie – it isn’t specifically aimed at children and most people there when we visited were adults either on their own or in pairs, with very few kids, though my daughter and niece, aged 6 and 7, loved it.
Outside the exhibit there’s a Barbie doll box you can stand in to take a photo, a digital screen that makes the person standing in front of it look like Tennis Barbie and a selection of Barbie books to browse (including coffee table books on Barbie fashion which I’m adding to my wishlist).
The first item on display is the first ever Barbie in the iconic black and white striped swimsuit, with the next room showing pictures of how Barbie has evolved through the years, along with some of the earliest outfits. I especially liked the room with different Barbie dolls in individual cubby holes, in chronological order – I spotted one I had in the 1980s!
Ken gets a display of his own and there are several of Barbie’s friends to be spotted around the exhibit including Midge and Christie. There are limited edition Barbies, those based on celebrities, and with outfits created by real life fashion designers (some of which are on display on lifesize models). The display of Barbie Dreamhouses show how styles have changed through the years, while the cars and camper vans are also fun to peruse. I also spotted some other Barbies that my sister and I had in the 80s – I think the most fun part of the exhibit for me was the memories it stirred while for my daughter she loved looking at the different styles and colours of the clothing and the different Dreamhouses.
The exhibit also has interactive elements, with videos you can watch (either with subtitles or headphones), and since you can’t touch any of the Barbies on display, there was a small trolley with a selection of Barbies that children can play with or take around the exhibit with them, which I thought was a really nice touch.
There’s a lot more to see in the Design Museum besides the Barbie exhibit but we didn’t have time (we had already been to the V&A that day and had two tired girls who wanted to go home!). They did take a rest in a relaxation installation of some kind which was like a little bed and they also contributed to a wall where you could colour in shapes with wipe-off marker pens. The Barbie exhibition has its own gift shop, separate to the Design Museum’s shop which is a standalone shop you don’t have to enter to exit the museum, but of course we wanted to! There was a nice selection of actual Barbie toys and collectibles like postcards and books on Barbie fashions and Barbie quotes.
The Barbie exhibition is on until February 2025; pre-booking is recommended. Prices vary between £14.38 and £18 for adults depending on when you visit and whether you untick the box for an optional donation, and between £7.19 and £9 for children. It took us around two hours to go around which isn’t bad and I think is fair value for money (the rest of the Design Museum apart from special exhibitions is free); it’s a great day out for any fans of Barbie!
Mini Moo Life 
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