The scissors and needles needed for traditional sewing were problematic. Handler thought that children would like to make clothes forBarbie themselves in addition to buying her ready-to-wear fashions. Not long after she joined Mattel, Elliott Handler-husband to Ruth Handler, the inventor of Barbie-asked Spencer to assist with a project that would bring sewing and Barbie together in a new way. In 1963, Carol Spencer joined the Barbie team at Mattel and began to design clothing and accessories for the popular doll. Marketing Research Preliminary Report from the Women in Toys (WIT)Ĭollection at The Strong, Rochester, New York, USA One morning she spotted a familiar ad in a trade paper, but this time it was titled, “Barbie Needs a Fashion Designer-Stylist.” The response to her application for both positions came at the same time, the first having been forwarded from Minneapolis to Los Angeles: could she come in for an interview? A few months later, without having heard back about the position, Spencer moved to Los Angeles to be closer to job opportunities in fashion manufacturing. In 1962, she responded to an ad in Women’s Wear Daily for a Fashion Designer-Stylist at an unnamed company in Los Angeles, CA. in Minneapolis, MN, and then moved to Milwaukee, WI, to design sportswear for teen girls for Junior House. The engagement was called off the next day.Īfter graduating in June 1955, Spencer designed children’s wear for Wonderalls Co. When she was accepted to the program Spencer proposed that she and her boyfriend could both go to school at the same time-but that she would not be able to finance his schooling. It appeared her fate was sealed until Spencer secretly applied to the Minneapolis School of Art’s fashion design program. Her high school boyfriend planned on attending medical school, and he and his parents assumed she would work to put him through school and then quit her job to become a housewife when he began his medical practice. Fabric Sample from the Women in Toys (WIT) collection at The Strong, Rochester, New York.Īs a young woman Spencer was faced with only a handful of career options after graduating high school: teacher, nurse, secretary, clerk, and then wife and mother.
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