Last week, I came to the conclusion that culture was experiencing a declining interest in Margot Robbie’s Barbie. That is because most people have seen the film and most people have outlived its months-long marketing plan. But it was also because the SAG strike had ended and Robbie had been seen wearing brown—a color which feels spiritually opposed to pink—on the red carpet. For a brief moment, it seemed as though we had outlived the term “Barbiecore”… but I was mistaken.
Last weekend, Warner Bros held a special Q&A screening of the Barbie movie—for the few people on earth who had not yet encountered it—which meant Robbie wore pale-pink feathered pajamas and doll-like Manolo Blahnik heels. She then attended a panel discussion at the Director’s Guild of America—where, in a stunning turn of events, she discussed Barbie—dressed in a cherry-printed shirt and turned-up jeans from Bottega Veneta: itself a simulacrum of the Cherry Pie Picnic Barbie from 2015. I imagine it took some effort for Robbie to revisit the plastic optimism of Barbie after all these months.
