We’ve all gone bonkers for Barbie
WHO KNEW THAT A multicoloured unitard would be the hottest outfit of the summer? It’s less the ’80s hi-vis print generating excitement, more the woman wearing it: Margot Robbie as Barbie.
A 63-year-old toy might not seem like a compelling subject for a film. But we can’t get enough of the photos coming from the set of the new Barbie movie – even though the film won’t make it to cinemas for another year. Maybe it’s because between Margot, co-star Ryan Gosling as Ken and director Greta Gerwig – Oscar-nominated for feminist box-office hits Little Women and Lady Bird – the project has strong cinematic cred. Or maybe we’re excited to see childhood dreams (a walking, talking, roller-skating Barbie!) come true.
Either way, Barbie is having a moment. Excitement for the film has gone hand in hand with the rise of Barbiecore, a hyperfeminine, unapologetically pink aesthetic kick-started by the Balmain x Barbie collection in January, followed by Pierpaolo Piccioli’s almost entirely fuchsia collection for Valentino at Paris Fashion Week (since worn by Lizzo, Cardi B and Simone Ashley).
Recently, we’ve had Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly channelling Barbie and Ken in matching pink looks (and hair); Kim Kardashian in head-to-toe bubblegum Balenciaga; and Hailey Bieber in a pink, corseted Versace minidress and patent white platform boots – a look that could have come straight from the wardrobe in Barbie’s Dream House.
The doll itself is flying off the shelves. Sales surged 16% globally to £940m in 2021; Mattel now sells three every second. There have been Barbies modelled after Ashley Graham, Zendaya and the Queen. ( John Lewis’s stock of the £95 Barbie Signature Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Doll sold out in three seconds.)
Why are we all bonkers for Barbie again? There’s the nostalgia element, sure, plus a fondness for its kitsch quality (Aqua’s Barbie Girl seems to be on heavy rotation in pubs and bars lately). But we’d venture that women are ready to reclaim Barbie as an entity that’s completely ours.
While Barbie has been a focus for feminist ire since she launched in 1959 – her impossible proportions and genderstereotyped presentation coming under fire, despite Mattel’s not-always-successful attempts to reinvent Barbie’s image – there’s a plastic-fantasticness that many of us are happy to embrace.
‘What I love about Barbie is that she isn’t afraid to be too much,’ agrees stylist Jennifer Michalski-bray, who recently styled a Barbie-themed shoot for style bible Wonderland. ‘People want to play dress-up and the new movie is tapping into that.’
We don’t all want to be a Barbie girl, but dipping our toe in a Barbie world? That sounds like a lot of fun.