The pairing of Barbie with MAC (Make-up Art Cosmetics) is the first 'adult-targeted' campaign in the doll's history. MAC's new cosmetics' range, being marketed here through the Brown Thomas chain, is backed by a window display in the Grafton Street store, and features clothes drawn from designer labels such as Prada and Juicy Couture.

For those few sheltered souls still unacquainted with Barbie's style, the window display interprets this look to include bubble-gum pink minidresses, teeny-weeny shorts, and skin-tight white jeans.

We're talking big girl prices here of course . . . a pair of those Dolce & Gabbana jeans are an eyewatering 400-plus. In the MAC department, the infinitely more affordable cosmetics range is driven by a poster of a platinum blonde Barbie model with shimmering candy-pink lips.

So who are the women buying a look that copies a look created to encapsulate an adult view of what young children think it looks like to be grown-up?

"It might be assumed that this is just for the Paris Hilton lookalikes, but that's not strictly the case, " says Kathy Murray, cosmetics' buyer for the Brown Thomas group. "And it's not all sugar pink colours, either. We have mothers and their daughters who are into that whole retro look that Barbie demonstrates, with eye liner, huge lashes and lip gloss . . . in fact, the lip gloss sold out in a matter of days.

"For the fashion windows, we worked closely with John Redmond's team, emphasising the fun element of Barbie and how women love to dress up.

To create a world of Barbie is so of-the-moment, and if you were to trawl most women's wardrobes, you'd probably find a grown-up version of some of her clothes or accessories. This range is really feeding an appetite for a look that's already out there."

And of course she's right . . . if you look at people on the street, there are mirror images of a Barbie style all around. Even at its more extreme, when the bleached hair and fake tan are joined by silicone breasts and that unnerving, fixed, Botox-ed expression, it's everywhere.

Barbie, of course, has incurred her fair share of feminist wrath and the accusation that she reinforces a sexual stereotype.

There is a troubling aspect to the origins of the world's most successful toy . . . her fantasy woman figure originates from a comic strip aimed at adult men. The doll was created by Elliot Handler, founder of Mattel, Inc, and his wife Ruth. They named their toy after daughter Barbara who, along with her friends, seemed to enjoy playing more with adult female dolls than baby dolls. Ruth Handler felt that little girls always imagined what they themselves might grow up to become, and set about creating the first, three-dimensional, girl doll.

According to Ariel Levy, in her book Female Chauvinist Pigs - Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, Barbie dolls were modelled after blonde German sex dolls called Bild Lilli and were an offshoot of the sex industry. This is the quintessential Barbie, echoed in real life by pneumatic celebrities such as Pamela Anderson and the tragic Anna Nicole Smith. Barbie is pushing 50 without any sign of that improbable bosom sagging. As for grown women emulating her look, those of an age who can afford a designer version of Barbie are possibly too old to wear it - a sad, but true fashion rule.