In the USA, the National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention is held, moving between cities and hosted by a different club each year under the umbrella of the national Steering Committee. The US conventions were founded in 1980 by a much-loved (and greatly-missed) pioneer of Barbie collecting, Ruth Cronk. I had the privilege of meeting Ruth nearly 30 years ago, and loved seeing her again at several US conventions. This coming week the convention is in Orlando Florida.
Above: An example of what is available from one delegate's hotel room. This one is very well-organised. The room below is more like the usual chaos!
You may wonder what happens at Convention? I attended the convention NBDCC 2022, in Chicago, this time last year. The theme was A Decade of Destiny, evoking the 1920s, and many of the souvenirs and decorations evoked the Art Deco era and the 1920s flapper costumes. Around 900 delegates attended, for almost a week. The formal convention went from Wednesday to Saturday night; but prior to that is the frenzy known as “room-selling”, when hundreds of convention-goers open up their rooms to sell prior to the main convention salesroom.
Above left: Each floor of the hotel has a notice board with flyers for the room-selling on that floor. Above right: This room had tubs full of NRFB vintage outfits for sale!
The formal convention events began with an evening soirée/cocktail party, a more informal event, including viewing of artist OOAK creations and silent auction entries. The next day’s event was a luncheon, the It Girl lunch. Many attendees dressed up in 1920s outfits for this. There were dinners, a fashion parade of attendees wearing re-creations of Barbie outfits, workshops, and the salesroom, perhaps the biggest attraction of all. Take your Wants list and your money, as you will see so much to tempt you!
Above: Some of the incredible re-creations of Barbie outfits in the Fashion Show.
Delegates receive gifts (dolls and outfits) from Mattel and the convention committee, and often what are called “table gifts” from the others sitting at their table for the various events. Best of all is seeing old Barbie friends and making new friends, and hoping to meet up again at the next convention.
Above: A view of part of the Convention Salesroom - dreams come true!
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