sighinastorm asked:
Saw your contribution on that Barbie post (or one of possibly several such posts). It was good. It made me wonder, though, do you know about Bild Lilli? I think you'd find this interesting.
Thank you! And yes, I’m familiar with Bild Lilli.
For those who aren’t, Lilli was a character in a comic strip that ran in the German magazine Bild starting in the late 1940s. She was a worldly-wise gold digger with a buxom figure and a decidedly non-kid-friendly vibe.
In 1953, the Bild began marketing a small doll based on the character. Apparently, Lilli was never intended to be a children’s toy- rather, she was a gag gift aimed at adult men.
(Although I have to wonder if there wasn’t some crossover appeal, since you could also get stylish outfits for Lilli, and I don’t see the kind of men who would buy a cheap doll because LOL Bewbz wanting to change her clothes.)
Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, encountered Lilli on a trip to Germany while mulling over her desire to create a new fashion doll for little girls. And anyone who’s seen the original 1959 Barbie would be hard-pressed to deny the resemblance:
(GIRL TAKE THOSE EARRINGS OUT. I can already see the green-ear starting and it’s all the way up her hairline.)
That being said, I also think that Barbie owes a lot conceptually to another Lily doll: the one sold by Jeanne Lavallee-Perronne in her Parisian shop A La Poupee de Nuremberg during the 1860s and 1870s.
(This is one example of Lily, but many different dolls from various makers were sold under the name. Lily was more a character than a specific doll.)
Lily had an entire world. The shop sold everything from her dresses and shoes to scented writing-paper sets with her monogram. Nothing was too mundane- if a real society belle had it, Lily had it, too. She also had at least one named friend, Chiffonette, with whom she corresponded in Mme. Lavallee-Perronne’s magazine, La Poupee Modele (The Model Doll). Sound like anyone else we know?
I love tracing similarities between dolls over time like this. From her great-grandmother to her big sister, Barbie comes from a legacy of Lillies.