Aaliyah’s Brother on Her New Commemorative Barbie and Lasting Legacy

“What I miss most? Definitely her laughter, how funny and silly she was,” Aaliyah’s brother Rashad Haughton told Vanity Fair days before what would have been the late singer’s 46th birthday.

Aaliyah’s life was tragically cut short when she was killed in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22. To commemorate her lasting influence, Haughton, who partially manages the R&B sensation’s estate, has teamed up with Mattel to release a Barbie Music Series collector doll in her likeness, available on Thursday, January 16. “Throughout the two-plus decades that I’ve been preserving my sister’s legacy and doing collaborations, this was something that was always on our radar,” Haughton said. So when the team at Mattel reached out, “the timing was perfect.”

The collection has celebrated musical icons including Gloria Estefan, Stevie Nicks, Barbara Streisand and Tina Turner.

Growing up, Haughton remembers his younger sister playing with Barbie dolls in her bedroom. “To hear her in there and sort of imagineering her life and then not too long after that, you know, my sister’s career started at such a young age. She still had Barbies when she was a professional. So that magic and that power is what’s really going to come through to little girls,” he said.

Throughout Aaliyah’s career, she wore a number of memorable looks that have continued to inspire tastemakers, designers, and everyone in between. So to determine what her doll would wear, Haughton consulted Aaliyah’s longtime stylist, Derek Lee, and chose to recreate the opening ensemble from the music video for “One in a Million,” Aaliyah’s 1996 hit song. At a time when stylists were not able to work directly with fashion houses, it was Lee’s genius that created the look at a moment’s notice, sourcing pieces from sex shops in New York City.

“We chose that look because it checked all of those boxes that we wanted to represent…. She was going through this level of maturity,” Haughton shared. As the title track from Aaliyah’s multiplatinum sophomore album, Haughton remembers that album, and specifically that song, representing a turning point in his sister’s career. Aaliyah had shifted direction to work with a then little-known writing and producing team: Timbaland and Missy Elliott. “I remember getting the demo for that, and this was before we had even decided that we were going to work with Tim and Missy…and when we heard the song, we were like, Wow, it’s done, we’re going to work with them,” Haughton reflected.