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By Allen Voivod
In 2019, Barbie Signature released the first Día De Muertos Barbie Doll, and it sold out almost immediately. You can just imagine how thrilling that is for us, to create something so compelling for Barbie fans. And imagine our excitement when the 2020 doll sold out just as quickly! It's a joy to design dolls like these, and your enthusiasm inspired us to do more for 2021.
This year, we welcome a new Día De Muertos Barbie Doll to the annual collection, and this time, she's brought a friend along to help her celebrate – the first Día De Muertos Ken Doll. To bring this pairing to you in time for the holiday, we tapped the creator of last year’s celebrated designs, Javier Meabe, to lead the project.
We asked Javier about feeling excitement or pressure for the new dolls, knowing how well received the previous ones were. His answer? "Of course! All of the above! Excitement because I love creating new dolls for this series and seeing them come to life. There's a huge sense of pride when designing the Día De Muertos dolls.
"There's also a huge sense of pressure because I want to make sure I'm representing my community and traditions correctly. It helps that I'm surrounded with a great team of creatives that help bring the vision to life. It wouldn’t be possible without them, their passion for the holiday, the brand, and most important the community, helping bring the sketch into a reality."
In case you're not familiar with it, Día De Muertos is a two-day holiday in early November when families gather to celebrate the lives of their departed loved ones. It's about both death and life, vibrantly colorful, with some public festivals but mostly family-focused ceremonies. You'll often find the occasion commemorated with music, food, sweets, offerings, and flowers.
Colorful attire is also a staple of the custom, as is the calavera, a representation of the human skull. Sometimes the calavera appears as an elaborately decorated mask worn by people during the holiday; alternatively, the calavera is painted directly on people's faces, also with unique designs and accents. Calavera face paint is what we did with the first two Día De Muertos Barbie dolls, and for the third, Javier took it even further – he extended the painting to depict the skeleton of Barbie down her neck and to the top of her chest.
Speaking about that, Javier says, "I always try to incorporate some new elements with each doll. That way each doll has something unique and special that they can own. I also wanted the artwork on her body to symbolize that her traditions are in her bones and will always be a part of her. The bone detail artwork on her neck has similar details and elements that can be seen on the artwork on the gown as well."
Knowing that there will be face paint also affects other design designs for the dolls. Javier explains: "When designing face paint, hair styles, and choosing face sculpts for the Día de Muertos series, there are a lot of things that I think about during the process. Keeping the make-up and hair style fresh and exciting is always a priority but making sure we keep the traditional Día De Muertos elements are important. Selecting face sculpts is also very important because we need to make sure that the sculpt and face paint work together. We want to make sure each sculpt is different for each doll. This helps us bring something new and exciting to the series."
As for the fashion: This year, the Barbie doll wears a traditional dress embroidered with sugar skull and flower details. A crown of marigolds with hidden skull details adorns her hair, complemented by a twisted headband detail. Her hair is pulled back to accentuate the intriguing calavera face painting that continues to her neck and forms the delicate skeleton. Sugar skull earrings, vibrant bracelets, and a cuff with sculpted skull details complete her look.
The Ken doll wears a charro-inspired look featuring black pants and a matching shirt with an embroidered floral design and silvery buttons, and a bow tie. His striking serape is decorated with sugar skulls, bones, and vibrant flowers. A silvery sculpted sugar skull design decorates his sombrero and belt buckle, and his face is painted in an impressive calavera design. Brown boots and a matching belt complete his look.
"There are so many great details and elements incorporated in both dolls," Javier says. "I love all the accessories Barbie and Ken are wearing. They're full of so much beautiful detail. Both dolls are full of a lot of bright and colorful artwork that helps capture the heart and soul of the Día De Muertos celebration."
Dolls this beautiful also demand a beautiful package that's suitable for display, and our amazing packaging team rose to the occasion. Packaging designer Sal Velazquez partnered with Javier to create cakebox-style doll boxes for each of the dolls, featuring original full-face illustrations of the dolls on the covers. Should you remove your dolls from their packages, you'll of course find a doll stand included with each, along with a Certificate of Authenticity.
The 2021 Día De Muertos Barbie and Ken Dolls are part of our Black Label series of dolls, available for $75 each in our online shop. When they debut, there will be a limit of two (2) Día De Muertos Barbie and limit one (1) for Día De Muertos Ken Doll per person, so more Barbie fans and fashion doll collectors can bring them to their homes. (This limit is subject to change.)
Because the previous Día De Muertos dolls sold out so quickly, you'll have to act fast if you want to add this perfect pair to your collection. And if you celebrate this holiday, we send you the warmest wishes as you gather with loved ones and remember the lives of those you hold dear.
(Still want more? Check out these exclusive behind-the-scenes images from our Día De Muertos photo shoot!)
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