PROFILE: Charlotte Buettenback Johnson
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Art teacher who co-designed first Barbie doll and was also its wardrobe director
Copyright © 2005 by E. A. KralBarbie doll, the world's best-known and best-selling toy in history, created by Ruth Handler and first marketed by Mattel in 1959, was co-designed by Omaha native Charlotte Buettenback Johnson.
A freelance women's clothing designer and teacher at Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles, she was hired as the personal clothing designer of Barbie dolls. Working for the Hawthorne, California-based Mattel with a company in Japan in 1957 and 1958, Charlotte developed the original image of Barbie in accord with Handler's general specifications.
The doll had an adult body and clothes like those that little girls see on adult women and teenage girls. Charlotte used her hands to show the sculptor how to position the doll's hands, and they were designed so that clothing could be easily put on and off. The facial contour was pattered after Charlotte's face.
She searched for commercially available fabrics that were of the proper weight and had small enough designs to be proportioned to Barbie's size, and she worked with the Japanese manufacturers to produce materials specifically to meet her standards.
First sold in 1959, Barbie was a slender, shapely doll, 11 1/2 inches tall, made of flesh-toned vinylplastic, with movable head, arms and legs, and dressed in a black and white striped jersey swimsuit, sunglasses, and high-heeled shoes.
Her hair was made of soft, silky material styled in a ponytail with curly bangs, either blonde or brunette. She had bright red lips and nails, heavy eyeliner and pointed eyebrows, and eyes with white irises.
Johnson insisted the body sculpting and size remain the same while allowing for innovations with fashions. Since clothing styles change from one year to the next, the doll's clothing reflected the influential styles of the period for girls of each generation.
As director of Barbie's wardrobe for Mattel from 1957 to 1980, Charlotte kept the doll's clothing styles current by observing trends in catalogs and other publications, and visiting Europe to learn the latest from the great fashion houses.
Over more than four decades, countless fashions have been created for the doll that has had more than 75 careers, ranging from nurse, teacher, astronaut, surgeon, rock star to businesswoman, disco dancer, and professional basketball player. And she has represented some 45 different nationalities.
In that time, nearly every American girl between ages 5 and 10 has owned at least one Barbie, along with several wardrobes. And at the turn of the 21st century, annual sales of the doll and its accessories grossed almost $2 billion.
Regarded as a powerful representation of popular culture, the Barbie doll was included in the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998, now housed at the Strong Museum in Rochester, New York, which recognizes toys that have achieved longevity and national significance in the world of play and imagination. And in 1999, the image of Barbie was featured on a new postage stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service.
A published account of Charlotte Johnson's role in the design and development of the doll is Kitturach B. Westenhouser, The Story of Barbie (Collector books, a Division of Schroeder Publishing, 1994).
Articles which report on Charlotte's involvement with the doll were published in the Los Angeles Times, May 13, 1964 and September 8, 1974.
Born in Omaha in 1917, Charlotte was the only child who survived to adulthood of Frank and Charlotte Holub Buettenback. While growing up in the Benson area, she graduated from Omaha Central High School in 1934.
She was active in art and dramatic activities, was a talented art student and pianist, and won a Carnegie Award sponsored by Scholastic Magazine for her design of a crayfish for placement on a bracelet, necklace, or candlestick holder.
With a scholarship, she attended Kansas City Art Institute for three years, then married sculptor Edgar Johnson Jr. and lived in New York, where he made ceramic products and she painted them.
After the marriage ended, with no children, she moved to California, owning a business that designed and sewed children's clothes, and teaching fashion design at Chouinard Art School.
Charlotte Buettenback Johnson died in Santa Monica in 1997 and in accord with her wishes, her remains were cremated, and the ashes laid to rest at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Omaha.
For more information, consult "900 Famous Nebraskans" on the Internet at www.nsea.org or www.beatricene.com/gagecountymuseum or www.nebpress.com.
