In Buenos Aires, a Barbie playhouse big enough for fans

The glittering storefront in this capital’s trendy Palermo district once housed an art gallery and then a Chinese restaurant. Now it’s a haze of pink: all Barbie, all the time. Inside, girls face a dazzling constellation of Barbie-labeled outfits and trinkets, watch Barbie DVDs on a flat-screen TV or choose their preferred Barbie hairdo (‘Butterfly,’ ‘Princess,’ ‘Fashion Fever’). A rear door leads to the high point: the Casa de Barbie, complete with life-size Barbie bedroom, Barbie costumes and makeup counters, even a catwalk for showcasing Barbie couture or staging a Barbie disco. And, everywhere, of course, are dolls. Lots of dolls. ‘This place is fantastic,’ said Michelle Blanchard, 37, accompanying her wide-eyed daughter, Francisca, 4. ‘For little girls, it’s a place of dreams.’ Welcome to the world’s only stand-alone Barbie store, an ‘experiential marketing’ experiment deemed such a runaway hit that the mercantile temple to Barbiedom may be replicated on a global scale. Coming soon: a five-story Barbie emporium in Shanghai.