This Deepavali, Barbie dons Anita Dongre

The Barbie Signature Diwali doll
| Photograph Credit score: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

There’s a new Barbie on the town and she or he is all set for Deepavali. A collaboration between Mattel (a multinational toy and leisure firm) and Indian designer Anita Dongre, that is the first-ever Barbie Signature Diwali doll. The doll is garbed in a Moonlight-Bloom lehenga – a departure from the pink that Barbie is normally related to – and has floral motifs like jasmine, lotus, and dahlia..

That is the most recent addition to Mattel’s numerous line of Barbie dolls. And this collaboration tries to “merge the Indian cultural heritage with Barbie’s world affect”. This 12 months marks the sixty fifth anniversary of the enduring doll, which, by its numerous avatars and storytelling, encourages youngsters to discover their potential and see themselves within the Barbies they play with.

Anita Dongre engaged on the doll
| Photograph Credit score:

“When Mattel approached me to collaborate on creating the Barbie Diwali doll, I used to be clearly thrilled with the chance to showcase India on a worldwide scale,” says Anita. Mattel received in contact along with her 18 months in the past, and it took a 12 months to make the doll. ”Barbie, for me, represents greater than only a doll. Similar to my model goes past vogue and focusses on empowering girls . We’ve got a typical objective, to encourage girls to dream large, to stay out their fullest potential and break boundaries. Actually, I’m honoured to collaborate with a model that encourages girls to chase their ambitions so unapologetically,” provides Anita.

Designing a doll is totally completely different from what the designer normally creates, so it got here with its personal challenges. “However it was additionally a enjoyable course of,” says Anita, including, “The dimensions is small. We sketched a whole lot of silhouettes and I couldn’t make up my thoughts on what I wished till I lastly picked the Rajasthan-inspired blue choli high, floral koti vest, the lehenga skirt and the equipment in gold. I wished it to be a up to date design, and symbolize a cool trendy vogue ahead India that I see within the girls round me at this time.”

Created to honour the spirit of the competition of lights, the Diwali Barbie can be obtainable globally. “It’s meant to be a particular collector’s merchandise and can be obtainable at high toy retailers offline and on-line,” provides Anita, who is worked up to see how it is going to be acquired. 

Priced at ₹1,999.