If you are a Barbie lover and you just happen to be in Shanghai then you really need to get over to Huai Hai road and check out the all new Barbie Experience. To commemorate her fifty years as an icon and collectors piece Mattel has opened the worlds first store dedicated to the ageless doll.
(Article published in full here: designtaxi)

**To commemorate fifty years of Barbie dolls, toy manufacturer Mattel has opened the world’s first dedicated store to the icon on Huai Hai road in Shanghai, China, one of the busiest shopping streets in cosmopolitan downtown Shanghai.

The new store sits in an eight-storey building, occupying six floors, which approximately add up to 40,000sqft of floor space. This is where the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of Barbie dolls and the widest assortment of licensed Barbie products will be housed in addition to a range of services and activities for fans and their families.

Mattel's Richard Dickson, SVP and GM of the Barbie brand and the visionary behind the store, explains the concept:

"We see the store as a destination, a place where girls of all ages come to spend the entire day and walk out feeling thoroughly enamored with the Barbie experience."

For Mattel, defining "the Barbie experience" was a journey to the core of the brand. For that to be a success, Shanghai proved to be the place for it with a confirmation from pre-launch focus groups by the manufacturer that proved its popularity with girls and mothers, all recognizing Barbie as a role model for the accomplished and confident female. Dickson adds,
"Our ability to inspire girls to be anything they dream–from a mermaid to a movie star, a fairy to a fashionista, a princess to a president–and the experiences we defined and created in the store are a direct connection to our brand's DNA, and unmatchable by any other brand in the world."

Not just having Barbie as the focus, Dickson also wanted a store that conveyed the brand as a global lifestyle. He recognized Barbie’s unique position as a fashion brand in the toy world, and with its strong historical link to fashion, expands on that heritage.

For this vision, he turned to BIG, the strategic branding and design division of Ogilvy & Mather, to help develop the creative concept.

"We were very excited to be asked early on by Richard Dickson to help bring his vision for a Barbie retail experience to life. From the beginning, our goal was to create an activity-driven brand experience grounded in Barbie's heritage as a fashion doll," says Richard Bates, BIG's Executive Creative Director.**

Another place to check out in March is your nearest ToysRus store as they will be setting up Barbie Boutiques and selling a wide range of collectable clothing and accessories.