Hello Kitty and Barbie

Hello Kitty is taking on Barbie for the title of most fashionable plaything. There is not a designer worth his polyester who hasn’t spent a little too much time obsessing over dolls, so it is perhaps less surprising than tasteless to find fashion folk falling all over themselves to dress Barbie and Ms. Kitty for Fashion Week events.

Barbie, who turns 50 next month, is having a runway show on Feb. 14 in Bryant Park, with Barbie-inspired clothes by one group of designers.

Hello Kitty was set to show off looks by another group at a party Thursday night given by MAC, which has also created a new Hello Kitty cosmetics collection.

Marketing ploys, indeed, but they do raise the question: Who’s the bigger fashionista? (more…)