I do not think it is a stretch to say that Barbie is probably going to be the most successful movie of 2023. (As of the time of publishing, the movie is the first in history directed by a female director that has grossed over $1,000,000,000 dollars, and that is in less than three weeks.) And something that has struck me about the Barb-aissance (™, if you will allow me) is the impact that Barbie and Barbie as a whole has had on fashion. Unless you are new to the blog, you will know that I do not consider fashion to be a trivial or shallow subject in the least- I’m not saying this lightly. And in addition to a healthy love of pink, Barbie has had quite a close relationship with fashion. For Style File Friday this week, we will be exploring Barbie’s relationship with fashion!
Barbie’s Early Fashion
Given that I was born in the late 1980s and associate nothing with Barbie more than the colour pink, I still find it somewhat mind-boggling that the original Barbie did not wear pink. The first Barbie to come on the scene wore a black-and-white striped one-piece bathing suit featuring a sweetheart neckline paired with black heels and sunglasses. Barbie creator actually didn’t design this look; rather a Mattel designer, Charlotte Johnson, is the creative mind behind it. Interestingly, Barbie stuck with her tried-and-true striped suit from her premiere in 1959 until 1962, when she switched to a red number.
Barbie and Designers
Barbie has obviously been more fashion-forward than the large majority of us. And that’s pretty easy to do when you have fashion designers knocking on your door to create something for you! Countless designers have turned their hands at creating a Barbie ensemble.
In 1985, Jean Paul Gaultier, the “enfant terrible” of haute couture, created a Madonna-esque cone-bra gown look that was completed with a beanie. (Yes, a beanie…) And in 1989, Hervé Léger created a particularly bright, peplum suit that was topped off by Barbie’s now neon hair.
In the twenty-first century, we see a lot of Barbie designs from different houses. Vera Wang, Michael Kors, Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, Moschino, Roberto Cavalli, and more have all created their own looks for the beloved doll.
However, I don’t think that it will surprise anyone to hear that my favourite designer-Barbie is Dior’s 1997 doll wearing a replica of the 1947 Dior Bar Suit. Not only is the dress created with the exact proportions of the original suit, but Barbie’s look is also complete head-to-toe, including petticoats, garters, gloves, heels, and the perfect straw hat.
The Rise of Barbiecore
Barbiecore has been a pretty regular word since the film was announced in the summer of 2019. (I don’t know that the “-core” naming trend predates that, either.) After hearing that Barbie would be on the screen, clothing retailers everywhere continued to draw on the doll’s name to sell their pink pieces. And obviously, in 2023, we have had more official Barbie collections than someone could ever imagine. However, pink has popped up far more often in the twenty-first century.
Fashion comes around again and again in cycles, and the pink, feminine Barbie-esque trend pops up every 2-4 years. (And then the pendulum swings to the opposite end and back again…) We saw Paris Hilton and Britney Spears proudly wearing pink in the early 2000s, and Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande brought it back in the mid-2010s. Regardless of where Barbie is at in social media, we are only a few years away from a pink resurgence.
I must say, Margot Robbie’s approach to Barbie fashion for the film’s press tour has been fairly inspired. Andrew Mukamal, Robbie’s stylist, perfectly recreated countless Barbie looks while updating them for 2023. And not only was it a fantastic moment for fashion, it created fantastic press coverage.
Were you familiar with Barbie’s relationship with fashion?
Cheers,
The Historian
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