New York's Fashion Week celebrated Barbie's 50th birthday on Saturday with a catwalk debut for the famous doll.

Organised under tents in Bryant Park, close to Times Square, the event drew throngs of fans of the fantastic plastic model, many of them young girls brandishing their pink invitations in a bid to cut through the crowd.

Some 500 one foot-tall dolls were lined up in the entry hall inside huge letters spelling out Barbie's name.

Shrouded in pink extravaganza, the podium gave way to real-life models showing off specially-designed outfits by top designers and coifed "a la Barbie" with a high pony tail or hair draping their shoulders.

Tiaras and bathing suits

Models showed off twinkling outfits, tiaras and the black and white bathing suit the first Barbie wore in 1959. A young woman wearing a T-shirt that read "everyone needs a Ken" strutted her stuff while holding the hand a man bearing a striking resemblance to Barbie's plastic fiance.

The world's most-sold toy has often inspired designers, and Assouline Publishing distributed a specially-created book that shows the blond doll dressed in Prada, Karl Lagerfeld and Alexander McQueen.

Toymaker Mattel, Barbie's "father," has just signed a contract with the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The group's president, Diane von Furstenberg, said she saw in Barbie an independent and confident woman who has an amazing capacity to have fun while remaining elegant.

Barbie sales have slowed in the past seven years, however, since the emergence of the competitor Bratz doll, and fell another 21 percent in 2008, according to Mattel's latest figures.

AFP