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Barbie Has Gone Gothic!
The Rise of GOTHIC BARBIE
Posted on January 14th, by James Joseph in Arts and Culture
It’s official, Barbie has gone bad. It was only a matter of time before the image of an innocent icon was defaced and shared with the world, and we simply love it.
For decades girls accross the globe have been styling their dolls in anyway they want, and there’s no suprise that it led to a large number of Punk and Goth Barbie alternatives.
Thanks to the rise of Tumblr and the whole “hipster / tumblr Goth culture” we are seeing more and more Goth Barbies shared every week, and some of them, without doubt, are sheer masterpieces.
The toy maker Mattel actually released a Goth Barbie doll but it is much to be desired compared to the DIY fashionings that we have seen. In fact, judging by the double bass in hand I wouldn’t be surprised if it was modelled on Patricia Day from The Horrorpops, which proves how much conglomerates know about sub cultures.
Our favourite DIY Goth Barbie is pictured below featuring three different DIY barbies. The far left hand doll’s styling with shaved undercut, crucifix collar and PVC trousers is exactly how we’d imagine Barbie gone bad.
Meet James Joseph 
James Joseph has written 860 articles for Noir.
James is the editor in chief of Stylenoir, he is currently obsessed with
neo noir films and the welcome collection’s Death exhibition
Monsters High dolls are the second-best selling doll in the world. (Mattel) 
Mattel, the makers of the classic doll, unleashed the “Monsters High” line of toys in July 2010, and in just three years, the “goth Barbies” have become, well, a monster hit.
Monster High, featuring characters such as Frankie Stein, Draculaura and Clawdeen Wolf, is aimed at girls 6 to 12.
Mattel rode the brand — the fastest growing in the industry — to sales that surged by 56 percent just this year, even as Barbie’s sales sag.
The toymaker says Monster High surprised everyone and became a billion-dollar brand, and after Barbie, the best-selling doll in the world.
“Honestly, it was very surprising to us,” said Kiyomi Haverly, Mattel’s design vice president. “We just noticed girls were into darker goth fashion.”
Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise: Television viewers and movie goers have been bombarded with the paranormal, as vampires, zombies and witches have become popular fare with the teen girl demographic.
(Think “Twilight,” “Beautiful Creatures,” and the upcoming “City of Bones.”)
The success of Monster High, which includes a line of books and Web episodes, is causing the ghoulishly glamorous trend to spread through the toy aisle as surely as a zombie movie virus through a besieged human population.
Monster High girls will soon have plenty of company — even Disney princesses. At Last Spring’s annual Toy Fair in New York, the not quite House of Mouse-approved “Once Upon a Zombie” dolls, including undead versions of Snow White, Cinderella, and even Peter Pan, were on display.
“The message about [Monster High] is really to celebrate your own freaky flaws, especially as bullying has become such a hot topic,” said Cathy Cline, chief of girls’ brands marketing for Mattel.
And Haverly said she suspects Monster High is winning the ultimate popularity contest because girls can identify with the characters’ individual quirks.
Draculaura is a vegan vampire, Ghoulia Yelps is the smartest in the school but can only speak in zombie groans, and Frankie Stein is a klutz.
“Girls could really relate to that because that’s part of what they’re thinking of these days,” she said.
