What do you get when KidSuper designer Colm Dillane is let loose to reimagine a Ken doll? You get a version that bears a resemblance to the designer, complete with waves of curly blond hair, an Army green jacket with vintage Ken and Barbie illustrations, striped pants with prints of flying birds and a KS ball cap.
To anyone who attended or watched the KidSuper runway show in Paris for the spring 2021 season, the look is familiar. That was the “monumental show” where Dillane used 100 Barbies, transformed into famous figures, to deliver a “stop-motion doll show” for his debut on the official fashion week calendar.
“It separated me from everyone else and emphasized everything that was KidSuper,” Dillane said of the show, which was titled “Everything’s Fake Until It’s Real.” “It was taking these Barbie dolls and bringing them into life. It was a new perspective on a fashion show.”
So it’s a full-circle moment that Dillane is now officially working with Mattel, Barbie’s owner, to design the first Ken doll in its “Styled by” series.
“If you saw the show, a doll version of me comes out at the end. Now we have an ‘official’ Barbie Kolm,” he said with a laugh. Dillane added that the outfit Ken is wearing was one of the looks from the show. “Everyone wants the runway exclusive look, and now Ken has one.”
He said that while the spring 2021 show wasn’t officially sanctioned by Mattel, it was “spiritually supported” by the toy company and offered KidSuper a “mischievous back entrance” into the world of Barbie.
About a year ago, he said, he visited Mattel’s headquarters in California and immersed himself in the culture of the company that owns Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price and a slew of other brands. “They’re professional kids,” he said of the staff, which he said was also “inspired by my enthusiasm” for Barbie and her friends.
“It’s really cool to collaborate on something as iconic as Barbie,” he said, adding that the partnership also serves to “legitimize what I do. It’s bigger than just styling and I hope people connect with the story. The doll fashion show was a pivotal moment in my career. It was the first time the real fashion world started reaching out to me because of how different show it was.
The Styled by KidSuper Ken doll will be available for $45 starting Friday at noon ET exclusively on the company’s e-commerce and content site, Mattel Creations, for members of Barbie Club 59, a members-only club that allows access to special dolls, priority sales, exclusive content and more. The KidSuper Ken doll will then be available to the public the next day at noon.
The Styled by Series launched in March 2024 and is intended for fashion designers and stylists to reimagine Barbie and the first doll was created by Barbie’s lead product designer Suim Noh who used fashion illustrations of the 1970s as the inspiration for his Barbie. In October, celebrity stylist Maeve Reilly created an elevated street-style look for Barbie.
Dillane said he hopes to continue to work with Mattel in the future on other projects. “It’s been really fun to collaborate, and there’s a lot of similarities between our brands,” he said. “There’s a childlike sense of wonder at KidSuper and I think obviously there’s that at Mattel. We’ll see where it goes from here. But definitely the door is not closed on my end.”
