Mattel introduced the first Barbie Fashionistas dolls in 2009.
The Fashionistas line was built around modern fashion and a wider range of personal styles. Its dolls used varied outfits, hairstyles, colors, and accessories to present Barbie and her friends as a group with different looks rather than as one fixed fashion ideal.
The original Fashionistas launch should not be confused with the line’s later expansion. Mattel subsequently added dolls with different body types, skin tones, hairstyles, and facial features, especially during the 2010s. Those later changes are often discussed when people remember Fashionistas, but the line itself began in 2009.
Fashionistas therefore marks an important transition from individual themed outfits toward a broad, ongoing fashion assortment with multiple identities and silhouettes.