Why Ken’s Got a New Body, Too
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In 2016, Mattel unveiled three new body types — tall, curvy and petite — for its core Barbies line, Fashionistas, exclusively to TIME. On Tuesday, Mattel introduced 15 new Ken dolls with two new body types — slim and broad — along with original. Ken will also get seven new skin tones and nine new hairstyles, including cornrows, a fade and
a man bun.
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So Mattel spent years on a top-secret redesign called Project Dawn. The company spent months debating what to label the new body types — "curvy" rather than "plus-sized," for instance. (Ken’s “broad” label underwent the same painstaking process, winning out over “husky.”) The company haggled with retailers when it came to how to sell the dolls, which now come in dozens of combinations of hair, body and skin tone.
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