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Barbie's new Oktoberfest look designed by Lola Paltinger.

(© picture-alliance/dpa)

Barbie, the iconic American doll beloved by children across the globe, is getting a traditional Bavarian makeover just in time for this year's Oktoberfest, US toy manufacturer Mattel recently revealed.

Munich-based designer Lola Paltinger is creating a traditional Bavarian dress, or dirndl, for the fashion-conscious toy figure, Mattel announced on August 5.

Paltinger, whose dirndl designs have been worn by socialite Paris Hilton, is to dress Barbie in a black silk pinafore dress, matched with a lace blouse and a hat.

Alongside Barbie's version, a full-size edition of the dress will be unveiled at events including the Oktoberfest, the Munich festival which draws millions of visitors annually from around the world.

Designers such as Calvin Klein have revamped Barbie's wardrobe for her 50th birthday. Earlier this year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was immortalized as a Barbie doll.

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A Barbie doll version of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on sale at a Karstadt department store in Hamburg, Germany, on March 9, 2009 - Barbie's 50th birthday.

(© picture-alliance/dpa)

From Bild Lilli to Barbie

Barbie is an American success story. But she was inspired by a German doll. 

Germany's mass circulation daily "Bild" newspaper included a comic strip by Reinhard Beuthien called "Lilli" when it was first published on June 24, 1952.

The precocious working girl Lilli wore her hair in the fashion of the time, a perky ponytail and big bangs, which combined with her ruby-red lips, jet-black mascara, and penchant for cocktail dresses set her apart from a still stodgy era and anticipated a new, distinctly more American trend towards fun fashion and newfound freedoms.

In a clever marketing move made before animated action movies spawned the collectible toy figurine craze, the editors of the fledgling "Bild" newspaper in 1953 decided to introduce a Lilli doll inspired by the comic strip.

They recruited the Bavaria-based toy model specialist Max Weißbrodt, who worked for German toy manufacturer Hausser/Elastolin, to create a doll based on Beuthien's drawings. The result was "Bild Lilli", first produced in 1955.

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The first Barbie doll made her debut in 1959.

(© picture-alliance/dpa)

How Barbie was born

Enter an American Mom named Ruth Handler, who had watched her daughter at play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. Yet most childrens' dolls at the time were representations of infants. So she suggested the idea of a doll that looked like an adult to her husband, a co-founder of the Mattell toy company. His reaction was reportedly lukewarm at best.

Then, during a trip to Europe in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Handler came across Bild Lilli, who looked exactly like what she had in mind. Handler promptly purchased a few of the German dolls and brought them back as samples to Mattel.

Upon her return to the United States, she reworked the design of the doll and gave her a new name - Barbie, after Handler's daughter Barbara.

The doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959. This date is also used as Barbie's official birthday.

Mattel acquired the rights to the Bild Lilli doll in 1964 and production of Lilli was stopped. The first Barbie doll wore a black-and-white zebra striped swimsuit and signature topknot ponytail, and was available as either a blonde or brunette.

Full circle, er, dirndl ...

According to the German-language collector's website Sammeln-Sammler.de, some 130,000 Bild Lilli dolls were produced for the German toy market. The dolls could be dressed in accessories sold separately, such as bathing suits, pyjamas, and a variety of dresses - including traditional dirndl dresses, which proved very popular in later Lilli models.

Lilli's clothes were produced by PRYM, which was founded in 1530, as reported by Sammeln-Sammler.de, making it one of the oldest family-run businesses in German history.