Born to Blythe: Why Blythe Clothes are cooler than Barbie Clothes

Because they're made by people not companies and they're being made all the time 24/7 by people all over the world, all kinds of people and all kinds of clothes; cute clothes, sweet clothes, quirky, clever, sharp, classic, seasonal, sexy, funny, trendy, scary, functional, cozy, funky, clothes by people not companies.
No one makes clothes for Barbie the way they do for Blythe. Why is that I wonder? I mean Barbie dolls are certainly more commercial, more affordable and more accessible than Blythe dolls.

My only guess as to why Blythe's wardrobe is so much more eclectic, more tailored and more diverse is because her image is so malleable by her collectors and they freely customize their dolls to suit personality, project, photographic purposes and more. Hardly any Blythe doll arriving in her stock clothes ever remains so. It's really as if the doll is acquired with the knowledge that she will have a whole new wardrobe, new eyes colors, hair, matted skin, eyelashes, perhaps even a new body! So in essence, Blythe dolls and their image are seen to be more within the control of the owner than a Barbie doll usually is. This has so much to do with Gina Garan and all the amazing things she did with Blythe in her book "This is Blythe." She did something revolutionary with a doll that was never embraced by it's target market. She proposed that a doll is much more than what it says on it's box, that it can cross the boundaries of it's intended purpose to be whatever you want it to be, if you're into that kind of thing. Obviously, there are cultural traps everywhere, in anything that is marketed but to start to reinvent these things, to comment on them the way Gina did was really what made me look twice at that crazy big headed eye color changing doll and wonder, what's going on here?

Barbie has always been for the most part, completely accepted by her target market, little girls and therefore they also accept the images created for her through her wardrobe by the corporation that produces her.

Blythe, or at least from what I've seen, is collected predominantly by young and older women with more sophisticated ideas about what innocence, sweetness, quirkiness and childhood mean. There is humor, irony, skill, and sensuality imbued in the designs of many Blythe clothes that I have never seen in Barbie clothes. And it's not to say that people who design Blythe clothes are not influenced by commercialism and trend. They totally are, but they are also not controlled by a driving force that is concerned mainly with that and what will sell to a presumably mindless mass. They make one of kind creations they love for those who love them too and regard their audience as intelligent, diverse and artistic minded people who appreciate beauty in a variety of forms.

That being said, this ties in so perfectly to an interview recently done with one one of my favorite Blythe dress designers of all time, Julie (AKA Valentine) Westphal of "House of Pinku" with Mademoiselle Blythe.

I hadn't realized, although I might have guessed, until after I read this that Julie does this for a living! Like this is all she does! How freaking fabulous is that? When I first discovered her on flickr and asked if she could make a dress for me, I could see she was prolific as hell. She had already made hundreds, maybe thousands of incredible dresses. I'm sure I could fill a folder of my favorite Blythe Dresses with her designs alone. However, at this point, when Julie makes a new dress, it's gone from her etsy or artfire shop in seconds!! I am lucky to have gotten the three I have! Not only is she a great designer but I have had nothing but the nicest communications with her online. It's been a joy to be her friend if only virtually, to see her work and all her clever dress titles and to read all the millions of admiring comments on flickr of every design she does.