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Archive for March, 2009
Tags : Chanel
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| A Barbie doll is seen inside the FAO Schwartz toy store in New York, March 9, 2009. |
Barbie is having a hard time winning the hearts of Japanese children, so she’s trying to charm grown-ups instead with a bridal collection full of bows, ruffles and gowns embroidered with the doll’s logo.
The Barbie Bridal line, available in June, will only be sold in Japan, and is part Mattel Inc’s attempts to bolster the Barbie brand in a country where the toy doll market is ruled by local rival Licca-chan.
“What’s unique about Japan is that it’s a very strong adult-apparel market,” John Cullen, vice president of Mattel Brands, told the reporters during a visit to Tokyo to attend celebrations for Barbie’s 50th birthday.
“We want to be where girls are… we want to create a fashion brand that appeals to girls in all generations,” he added.
The bridal collection joins other clothing lines for adults that are only in sale in Japan such as the Barbie Golf collection.
Last year, a limited-edition collection of Barbie clothes and accessories by U.S. celebrity stylist Patricia Field, known for her work on hit TV series “Sex and the City” and “Ugly Betty,” went on sale in Japan.
Cullen said Mattel was aiming to introduce more Barbie licensed products such as stationery and cosmetics in Japan as early as next year.
“Once our apparel brand is established, then we can go back to our core target, kids,” he said, describing Mattel’s business targeting Japanese adults “growing.”
Despite Japan being one of the largest toy markets in the world, Mattel has always had a hard time marketing Barbie partly due to Tomy Co’s Licca-chan, which has a Japanese body-type and facial features.
Barbie, with her Western looks and that infamously unrealistic body, was initially made in Japan and has sold some 1 billion units worldwide since she first hit U.S. shelves in 1959.
Licca-chan has sold 53 million units, mostly in Japan, in the past 42 years and her popularity has prompted companies such as Nissan Motor and East Japan Railway (JR East) use the doll in corporate and product promotions.
Tags : Vogue
A woman will wear high heels over 51 years of her life, according to a study which links stilettos to the female psyche.
The average woman puts on her first pair at 12 and takes off her last at 63, when comfort begins to take precedence.
She will start with a low one-inch heel and build up to a towering five inches by the age of 23, as she teeters into womanhood.
There will be a small dip in the early 30s, when many women are running after young children. But the first real drop does not occur until the late 40s and early 50s, when the average heel falls to just under two inches.
Only old age and increasing frailty finally brings the enduring love affair to a reluctant end, sales figure show.
Said Debenhams spokesman Ed Watson: ‘Deciding to put away their high heels for the last time can have the same psychological impact upon women that retiring from work has upon men.
‘It’s an all too public admission that they are getting older, and so naturally many women want to postpone this evil day for as long as possible.
The central role of high heels in a woman’s psyche emerged during Debenhams continuing extensive research into the entire women’s shoe market.
It reveals that the heel height worn by women begins to rise in early teens, increasing rapidly from 2.5cm to a whopping 13.5 cms by the age of 23.
Walking tall continues to be the order of the day through a woman’s late 20s and 30s, only beginning to decline slightly by the age of 35 – possibly due to childbirth, Debenhams figures show.
High heels continue to feature prominently in her wardrobe through her late 30s and up until her mid 40s – the period when many women are building a successful career.
The first real dip in heel height only occurs in a woman’s late 40s and early 50s, when the average height drops to 4.5 cms. And a final drop to 2.5 cms – virtually a normal height heel – occurs from 63 onwards.
Said Ed Watson: ‘These results show that a woman’s entire life can be mapped out according to the height of the heel she wears. After a meteoric rise, through youth and early adulthood, they begin to settle down before dropping back gracefully to a comfortable old age.
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