Mackie's "Pink Glamor" Barbie

Mattel has just announced the latest addition to the Barbie Signature Bob Mackie line: the Pink Glamor doll, coming in at $125.

(Images in this post are promotional images from the Mattel website)

Now, I don't own any of the earlier dolls that have carried this Old Hollywood glamour aesthetic, and I'll be honest, were I to splurge on one of them it probably wouldn't be this one. Looking at all three together, the earlier two have a spark that this latest one is missing for me. There's something about them that reads unmistakably Marilyn Monroe, whether that was intended or not, and that connection gives them a timeless quality.

The Pink Glamor feels more modern by comparison, and I think that's exactly the problem. Old Hollywood glamour and modern glamour are two very different things, and this doll seems to have landed somewhere between them without fully committing to either.

She isn't bad. I want to be clear about that. The black cape/jacket piece is genuinely extraordinary. The embroidery and beading detail on it is dramatic and theatrical and exactly what you want from a Bob Mackie collaboration. That piece alone screams his signature aesthetic and I have zero complaints about it.

But the pink gown underneath it doesn’t really do anything for me. And the doll herself, while pretty, doesn't quite carry the weight of what this series has delivered before. That specific Old Hollywood electricity, the feeling that she's about to step out of a limousine in 1955, isn't quite there for me.

At this price point, and as part of a series that has set its own bar quite high, I think that matters.

Marilyn Monroe once said: "I feel that beauty and femininity are ageless and can't be contrived, and glamour, although the manufacturers won't like this, cannot be manufactured."

I think she had a point. The earlier dolls in this series felt like they understood that. The Pink Glamor feels like she's trying just a little too hard to get there.

I won't be adding her to my collection. But I'd love to know, are you planning to?