Happy Hump Day POU!
Today we feature two sistahs behind the fashions and designs of the multi-billion dollar world of Barbie!
Kitty Black-Perkins
For more than a quarter century, Kitty Black-Perkins served as the Chief Designer of Fashions and Doll Concepts for Mattel’s highly successful Barbie line. Over the years, Black-Perkins’s hard work and fashion genius contributed to Barbie’s 300 million plus fashions.
A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Black-Perkins is one of seven children. She was encouraged to dream big by two loving parents and her two art teachers at Carver High School. Her dream of becoming a commercial artist took flight when her aunt in California invited her to visit for the summer after high school graduation. Black-Perkins embraced Los Angeles. She earned her degree in fashion design from Los Angeles Trade Technical College in 1971, and after that, she was on her way. Her career experience as a fashion designer began with several fashion houses in Los Angeles.
In 1976, Black-Perkins was enticed by a classified ad for a fashion designer for the largest toy company in the world – Mattel. She did not set out to become designer to the superstar of toyland. Growing up in South Carolina, she says, “I never had a Barbie doll.” She was 28 before she ever a Barbie doll up-close-and-personal. That was one fateful day in the summer of 1976 when she answered a newspaper ad placed by Mattel. Through Mattel, Black-Perkins was given the opportunity to travel all over the world. One of her many lines is the African-American fashion dolls: Shanni and Friends, introduced in 1991; Fashion Savvy, introduced in 1997, and the Brandy line in 2001. A special doll, designed by Black-Perkins, was donated to the South Carolina State Museum in May of 2001.
Stacey McBride-Irby
As a child Stacey consistently played with dolls. Barbie was her favorite. She loved mixing and matching her clothes, and styling her hair. Not long after Stacey stopped playing with Barbie™ dolls at the age of 13, she made the decision to enter the fashion world. She started sketching fashion and going to the library and checking out books about fashion.
Stacey’s father had saved a newspaper article that featured Kitty Black Perkins, a Mattel™ designer. With the encouragement of her father and her instructor of a fashion computer course at El Camino College, Stacey called Perkins. In addition to showing her portfolio and resume during the interview, Stacey had to design a Barbie™ fashion. It was approved and she was hired as an assistant designer which begin her career in the world of toys and doll design.
Stacey was a Project Designer for Mattel™ in El Segundo and was with the company for 15 years. She is the creator of the So In Style™ line of African-American Barbie™ dolls which were released in 2009. While at Mattell, Stacey was tapped to design the sorority Barbie, Celebrating the Centennial year of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first African-American Greek Sorority, founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She designed a one of a kind take on the 1980’s Black Barbie. She also designed some of the 2010 Barbie career dolls, including Pet Vet Barbie, Rock Star Barbie and Bride Barbie.
Stacey has been interviewed for magazines and newspaper articles such as Ebony, Essence, Heart & Soul, LA’s Beauty Beat, Upscale, Chicago Sun Times and Daily Breeze. Stacey McBride-Irby made the front cover of Wall Street Journal Personal newspaper. The So In StyleTM dolls have been featured in Barbie and Jet magazine.
Stacey has appeared on CNN Prime News with Richelle Carey “New Barbies Look More Like Black Women”. And on May 2, 2010 Stacey appeared on BETs My Black is Beautiful, Episode 1: Celebration of Black Beauty. She is currently a featured designer in the Barbie Exhibit at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.