In 2009 Mattel started a new Barbie Line with poseable dolls – called „Fashionistas“. The first wave was launched in October 2009 and included 6 female dolls and 1 male doll.
After the big success of the first Fashionistas wave, Mattel started to „expand“ with 2 waves in the same year and further Sets under the Fashionistas brand.
The First Wave 2010 included 5 dolls. New is a brunette Sporty Boy, the girls are now Sweetie (former Girly), Cutie, Sassy (now blonde) and Sporty (former Wild and blonde, now with dark hair and Summer face). The girls body got a little modification, the knees are thinner now. Kens body got more joints, so that he can also present 100 poses.
The second wave 2010 based on a concept called Swappin’ Styles and presented a new posibility of swappin‘ Styles. The dolls had changeable busts and additionally to the dolls sets Mattel sold extra busts with heads. So the dressed doll could easily get a new head and be someone different. The Edition included 6 female dolls (Sweetie, Artsy, Sassy, Cutie, Sporty, Glam) + two males. The former Hottie is now called Cutie Boy. His face got a technical modification to make it more movable (left/right + up/down) and Mattel introduced the new mold as Cutie Ken Mold. Sporty Boy has the same new mold. The Boys use the same bodies like before and no extra heads.
| Doll Sets | Bust / Head Pack |
| Swappin‘ Styles Artsy #T7410 | Artsy Head Pack #T9129 |
| Swappin‘ Styles Cutie #T7411 | Cutie Head Pack #T9125 |
| Swappin‘ Styles Sporty #T7412 | Sporty Head Pack #T9127 |
| Swappin‘ Styles Glam #T7413 | Glam Head Pack #T9124 |
| Swappin‘ Styles Sassy #T7414 | Sassy Head Pack #T9128 |
| Swappin‘ Styles Sweetie #T7415 | Sweetie Head Pack #T9126 |
| Swappin‘ Styles Cutie Ken #T7417 | — |
| Swappin‘ Styles Sporty Ken #VV3397 | — |
2010 Swappin‘ Styles – Doll Sets
2010 Swappin‘ Styles – Head Packs
Beside the two big waves, the year 2010 brought us further Mini-Editions with the brand Fashionistas.
Sporty (V4092), Glam (V4093)
Glam & dog (#T7419), Sassy & cat (#T7420)
Sassy (#T5500) & Sweety (#T5501)
2-packs with Sporty & Glam (#T6998), Sassy & Sweetie (#T6999)
In 2011 Mattel continued the Swappin‘ Styles Concept. The first wave included again six (female) Doll Sets with changeable busts plus six extra head packs. Cutie Boy and Sporty Boy completed the girls gang.
| Doll Sets | Bust / Head Pack |
| Swappin Styles Glam #V4380 | Head Pack Glam #V4392 |
| Swappin Styles Cutie #V4381 | Head Pack Cutie #V4393 |
| Swappin Styles Sweetie #V4382 | Head Pack Sweetie #V4394 |
| Swappin Styles Sporty #V4383 | Head Pack Sporty #V4395 |
| Swappin Styles Cutie Boy #V4387 | — |
| Swappin Styles Sassy #V7145 | Head Pack Sassy #V7149 |
| Swappin Styles Artsy #V7146 | Head Pack Artsy #V7150 |
| Swappin Styles Sporty Boy #V7147 | — |
2011 Swappin‘ Styles – Doll Sets
2011 Swappin‘ Styles – Head Packs
The second half of 2011 brought us a further Fashionistas wave with a new theme: „In the Spotlight“ (USA) / „Hollywood Divas“ (Europe). This wave is without boys, only the six girls Glam (#V4390), Cutie (#V4391), Sweetie (#V7148), Sporty (#V7207), Sassy (#V7210) and Artsy (#V7211). They have articulated Fashionistas bodys without changeable bust.
Sweetie (#V9514), Sassy (#V9515) and Glam (#W1595)
Glam (#V9513) Cutie (#W1596) and Sassy (#W1597)
Barbie appeares in the first Clutch wave two times: with opened mouth (CEO face) and her new closed mouth Fashionistas Face (©2010). Her friends are Teresa (Summer Face 2003) Raquelle (New: Raquelle Facemold ©2010), Nikki (Adria Facemold), Summer (Barbie om 2005 Face), The Boys, Ken and Ryan use the Cutie Face. So alltogether they are again 8 Fashionistas in this wave.
The second Clutch wave includes again 8 Fashionistas – the same characters like in the first clutch edition. Ryan got his own new facemold ©2011.
Gift Set with extra fashion and accesoires: Barbie (#X2269), Teresa (#X2271)
Barbie (#X2279), Summer (#X2280), Nikki (#X2281), Raquelle (#X2282)
The Fashionistas Year 2013 brought us two colourful Rainbow Waves
The edition is including eight dolls as well. Ken (W3954) is very rare and actually without picture.
The second Rainbow Wave includes eight dolls as well. The girls have glittering hair strands.
It’s party time, but the time of 100 poses is over. The girls and boys got new stiff (posing) bodys, but without joints at knees/ellbow/wrist. The girls bodies are different types (straight arms, bent left arm oder bent right arm). So they look like a playline version of the model muse bodies. Like the model muse bodies the legs have a different lengths, so the girls can’t stand. Even sitting is a challenge. Ken and Ryan got also a new stiff body as well they got new facemolds with molded hairs.
Three girls with the new posing body: Barbie (#BHY13), Raquelle (#BHY14), Summer (#BHY15)
In 2014 ends the first fashionistas era with some more „Party“ Fashionistas.
It was a week of hard work compiling the informations about the early Fashionistas. We have researched, sorted and cataloged photos to the best of our knowledge and belief. However, errors may still have crept in. There are different opinions, particularly regarding the year of publication. Some of the Fashionistas were designed for a specific year, but then Mattel started the sale at the end of the previous year. If you notice a major error, if you know something in more detail or if you would like to add informations, please leave a comment. Or leave a comment if you are happy about this overview 🙂
Hi! So I have two questions, first of all the wave after the pijama party (the last wave before the new bodys, when there was the beggining of diversity, but they all had the belly botton body still) is it considered „early diverse wave“ or „last of the old generation“? Considering the caracthers (now all females named Barbie and males named Ken) are present there, plus the use of the old pose belly botton bodys, but that was the first millie where barbie now uses the millie mold, and some ethnicity started to show, so its like the mix of both concepts.
And the other one, why do the dolls from the glam & tropical party waves have box varients that are less colourful and more „mature-ish“ packaging that say „Style“ just like the amazing style luxe line from the time? I remember seing them in stores and I always questioned that.