Mattel began crafting Handler's dream doll by 1957. With Lilli as her muse, Handler convinced her husband and the all-male design team at Mattel to follow her lead in filling the empty market niche for a more mature female doll. Ruth Handler planned to tap into that emerging kid consumerism with the extra Lilli doll she brought back stateside. The Handlers seized upon this novel opportunity as a chance to expand Mattel's stake in the toy industry. If youngsters saw a new toy on television, they'd nag their parents into buying it for them. Thanks to television and the launch of the Mickey Mouse Show in 1955, children became a new market and source of revenue. For the first time, moms and dads weren't the only shoppers who advertisers targeted. As Mattel grew at the turn of the century, the United States entered the post-World War II economic boom that fueled widespread consumerism. For that reason, she bought two Lilli dolls for Barbara during that Switzerland trip in 1956 - and one for herself.īy the time Ruth Handler encountered the Lilli doll on her vacation in Switzerland, the toy company that she and her husband founded - Mattel - had started turning a profit. Yet, aside from the two-dimensional paper dolls, no other dolls available in stores portrayed the mature female body. To Handler, that was their way of practicing for adulthood. Handler had observed Barbara and her girlfriends playing with paper dolls that depicted teenage girls or adult women. Instead, she thought it would be the perfect toy for her daughter, Barbara. īut when an American woman named Ruth Handler spied a Lilli doll in a store while vacationing in Switzerland, she didn't see it as a prurient novelty. People gave them as bachelor gifts, some men rode around with Lilli on their dashboards, and others bought them just for the cheap thrill out of peeping under her alluring ensembles. With advertising taglines such as, "Whether more or less naked, Lilli is always discreet," and a wardrobe consisting of negligees, tiny tops and tight pants, Lilli dolls were essentially sex toys.
Standing in black spike heels, Lilli's impossibly petite feet supported a distinct hourglass frame. Her crimson lips puckered slightly with a flirtatious pout. Lilli, on the other hand, had big, thickly lined eyes that gazed suggestively to the side. At that time, girls played with baby dolls and prepubescent-shaped fashion dolls. The Lilli doll, which came in 7-inch (17-centimeter) and 11-inch (27-centimeter) sizes, wasn't marketed to little girls - it was intended for adult men.