A fierce battle between two bidders for National Artist Pitoy Moreno’s baro’t saya Barbie pushed the final price to P100,000 (photo by NOEL PABALATE)

Barbie, the doll for all ages, brought together the potent arts of fashion and dance in what could be the most successful, if not the most interesting, charity event of the year, proving her enduring appeal. A live auction of designer-clad dolls to benefit the scholarship programs of Ballet Philippines on Wednesday at the Peninsula Manila generated five-figure bids for sumptuously-dressed dolls by Filipino designers, culminating in a whopping P100,000 bid for a doll in national dress by National Artist Pitoy Moreno.

“This event brings together two works of art, ballet and Barbie,” says Ballet Philippines president Margie Moran-Floirendo, who said the company hopes to raise P1.5 million to benefit around 100 dance scholars from the auction, billed as Ballet Barbie.

Forty-one Filipino designers, from National Artist Moreno and the equally revered Aureo Alonzo, to popular names such as Rajo Laurel, Frederick Peralta, Jojie Lloren and Dennis Lustico, to emerging talents like Jerome Lorico, Sassa Jimenez and James Reyes created often lavish interpretations of Barbie wear, ranging from signature fantasy confections to chic, modern styles.

Both ballet patrons and Barbie collectors participated in the auction, conducted in two parts, with a smaller live auction of select dolls to generate the bigger bucks, and a silent bidding starting at P6,000 for lesser dolls. A P150,000 doll dressed by Rajo Laurel, with a diamond-encrusted pearl brooch by jeweler Hans Brumann, was also part of the silent bidding.

While most of the 198 dolls followed Barbie iconography and were decked out in supremely frou frou, billowing ballgowns, a number of representations stood out for their imaginative flair. Jojie Lloren, who was sent on a fashion scholarship to France and is eager to help fellow artists with this project, collaborated with artists from other fields to come up with doll tableaux inspired by characters from BP ballets. Young avant garde designer Jerome Lorico created tall, wire sculpture, conical bodies for his Barbies, decorated with leather cutouts. James Reyes, who said he wanted to break into ballet costume design, came up with a black fugue of Odile, the Black Swan inspirations, creating a “contravida” Barbie to counter the stereotypical sweet image.

Fashion and the arts collaborations are becoming popular marketing platforms, but Ballet Barbie is special because of the emotional connections to a pop culture icon. “Barbie is a representation of what every little girl wants to be when she grows up,” says Lloren.

The event closely follows the 50th anniversary celebrations held for the doll last year. In the Philippines, Richwell Trading Corporation, distributors of Barbie in the country, sponsored a Barbie fashion show featuring local designer wardrobe interpretations. Despite competition from newer, “edgier” dolls, Barbie remains the bestseller in the doll category, according to Richwell vice-president for marketing Maye Yao Co Say, with 10,000 Cut and Style Barbies sold each year in the Philippines.

Richwell donated 200 Barbie dolls to Ballet Barbie to support the fundraiser. There are no plans, though, of reproducing the designs for the mass market, according to Say.