NOSTALGIC Barbie, Miyoko Mizuhara (Supervisor), Megumi Taira, Mineo Takami (Author)

This book covers Barbie's Vintage period, which dates from its launch in 1959 to 1966.

During the Vintage period many attractive clothing accessories in all colors were introduced.

• Publication date‏: ‎December 1, 1997
• Language : ‎Japanese JP
• Oversized: ‎123 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎4643971436
• ISBN-13: ‎978-4643971439

“Barbie” focuses on wardrobes from the so-called “vintage” period from 1959 to 1966, when Barbie was born.

It's just an introduction to the dress set, and there is no description of which Barbie (or Midge or Ken) the model is.

Of the 128 pages of the main text, the total number of written articles is only about 7 pages long.
The compact birth history of Barbie at the beginning, an interview with Fumiko Miyazuka who later published “Barbie and Me” (2011), explanations by Presley and Marilyn Monroe, who were icons of the vintage Barbie era (related versions of Barbie were released when this book was published), etc.
The English text displayed as a design is also an outline explanation.

It may be unsatisfactory if you ask for encyclopedic content (“Barbie Encyclopedia” and “Barbie Encyclopedia 2” are useful in this direction), but it's a stylish magazine design that you can enjoy looking at. I think it's close to imagining the opening feature of “Dollybird.”

Dress sets of 1 to at most 4 items are introduced on one A4 wide page, and the atmosphere and characteristics of the dress are conveyed well with catalog-like photographs without extra backgrounds.
Each introduction is about the size of a small mini-column and is quite readable, but it's not necessarily smooth.

Since chapters are divided for each dress set for Barbie & Midge, Ken, and Skipper, each dress set, the ones that pair with Barbie and Ken and Barbie and Skipper are introduced on separate pages (the same goes for introducing Japanese style dress sets), the names of the dress sets are not unified in English notation or Kana notation, and there are typographical fluctuations with “lame/rame”, and there are overlaps in explanations.

American student terms such as “prom” and “sorority,” and clothing terms such as “sheath dress,” “trapeze line,” “scoop neck,” and “surplice neck” are used without annotation, and overall it's as if you were reading an actual fashion magazine at the time, but on the other hand, there is also a part that is written only as an explanation of commercially available dress sets.

At the end of the book, full-size paper is published over 6 pages (for 3 sets of circular skirt sundresses, sleeveless Chinese suits, and tweed tight suits), but there is no detailed explanation of how to sew. (Cardigans that go with circular dresses are hand-knitted, but there is no description of general knitting diagrams or the number of needles used) Advanced techniques such as “tweezers matching” and “plot twists” are described without explanation (it's as if you're reading a dressmaking magazine from the 1950s to 60s, where home dressmaking was common), but if you don't pursue it that far, I think someone with some dressmaking experience can make it.

It seems that Miyoko Mizuhara, who owned and was in charge of filming most of the vintage Barbies modeled for this book, passed away suddenly in 2018/2.

Mr. Mizuhara's collection, who was one of the world's leading Barbie collectors, seems to be distributed sequentially through exhibitions and stores.