She Has a Justifiable Twinge of Doll Envy

Somewhere, amid the musty stacks of a university library, a graduate student is probably toiling over a thesis on the Sociocultural Implications of Fantasy Role Play for Pre-Pubescent Females. In other words, why and how little girls have fun with dolls.

In a supremely creative activity that blossoms from a fertile imagination, girls merge identities with their dolls. When you’re 6, an inanimate creature--all Dynel hair, plastic flesh and painted-on smile--can become you. Only she’s usually prettier, more adventurous and not bound by practical limitations.

Barbie has so much fun motorcycle riding around the Grand Canyon with the cutest Hanson brother that she’s almost late for her modeling job, posing for the cover of Seventeen in Disney World. But she pulls it off and then changes to a really cute lab coat and platform sandals and finds a cure for cancer.

So well did the makers of Barbie understand the close identification of human

with toy that four years ago they began marketing My Size Barbie, a mannequin of a doll as big as a healthy 4- or 5-year-old.

Being an adult has its drawbacks, as any woman who has ever paid income tax or suffered from whisker burn knows. But the upside is that a car, a house, a boyfriend, jewelry--all those elements of a girl’s fantasy life--can become reality for a grown woman. With a little luck, as life takes over, dolls outlive their usefulness.

Or so I thought till I saw the Ralph Lauren Barbie.

That old identity confusion thing resurfaced, for here was a plaything worth emulating. Polo Barbie is me in my best daydream, when my understated, classic and stylish clothes are just right. I might not have time to check out the latest show at the G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, but I can imagine cool, in-control Barbie there, and without a chip in her nail polish.

Ralph Lauren had a hand in this Barbie’s perfection. During the design process, he modified the lapels of her navy blazer and added stitching detail to her camel’s hair coat. (I know just how she felt, since he once told me to shorten the sleeves of a jacket just a smidge.)

Polo Barbie is the fourth in a series of limited-edition dolls exclusive to Bloomingdale’s. Her well-dressed predecessors were decked out in Nicole Miller, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein clothes and accessories.

Of course, the existence of these designer dollies could prompt a lament for childhood innocence. Remember the good old days, when no one interrupted a juicy session of make-believe to say, “Cute doll. Is that Prada she’s wearing?”