Today’s Friday Girl is Kira, known in Europe as Marina. She was last featured as a Friday Girl way back in 2015. I have several of these Asian Barbie friends and over the years she has had a lot of different looks as well as different names. A few were also released as Miko.
This doll was the first Kira I ever bought I think and she either came from eBay or a market. I don’t remember now, it was a long time ago. For a lot of that time she’s been wearing this Fashion Avenue outfit called “Filming in Russia”. I bought that in the late 90s as I fell in love with it. I have included an older photo so you can see the bag that goes with the outfit. When I packed the dolls to move I packed a lot of their shoes and little accessories separately. I’m sure I’ll find them again one day.
Kira lived on my display shelf with various other dolls in evening dress. I rolled her hair up, securing it with a rubber band and a pin. For the past five years she has been in storage.
I put her on a shelf a couple of weeks ago. Fast forward to earlier this week when I wanted Asian dolls for some of the Around the World Fashions I was photographing. I couldn’t remember what I had done with the Leas and Kira I had used previously so I grabbed Kira off the shelf for the South Korean outfit.
I noticed that she was rather dusty and her hair was a bit of a mess I didn’t have time to stop and fix it then, but this morning I took her hair down. The rubber band had perished. I washed and conditioned her hair and decided that I’d leave it loose. It is still a bit frizzy at the ends but it will do for now. Maybe later I’ll do a boil perm.
I also wanted to ID her properly. I have already identified two of my other Kira’s as “Tropical Splash Kira” and “Wet’n’Wild Kira” so I know she isn’t either of them. Glitter Beach Kira/Marina is my best guess. The earrings and eye makeup look right for that doll, and she has the straight arms that most beach dolls of that era had. Shelley, at A Thousand Splendid Dolls has three Glitter Beach Kira’s on her Flickr.
I also checked Kattis Dolls but for some reason the photos from that site would not display on my computer. I don’t know if she has updated the site recently.
There will be a new “Around the World” post out tomorrow.