‘Barbie has worn many outfits over her long career as a fashion model/influencer and part time doctor, astronaut, vet, beekeeper etc. but the Barbiecore aesthetic is really inspired by her signature colour of pink and embracing her ultra femininity.’
Have you guys noticed a lot of pink around lately? And no I don’t just mean at screenings of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which judging by the box office numbers, you have no doubt gone to. I mean everywhere. On red carpets, on celebrities, at fashion shows, on TikTok and all over Penneys. Barbiecore had a moment last year when some pictures of Margot Robbie on the Barbie set dropped. Lyst named it “the trend of the year” in their ‘Year Of Fashion’ breakdown for 2022 and it has come back just as strong this summer with the release of the film.
If you’re wondering what Barbiecore is, it’s basically exactly what it sounds like. Dressing in a way as to replicate or bring to mind the iconic doll. Barbie has worn many outfits over her long career as a fashion model/influencer and part time doctor, astronaut, vet, beekeeper etc. but the Barbiecore aesthetic is really inspired by her signature colour of pink and embracing her ultra femininity. Barbie is so synonymous with pink that Mattel has even copyrighted Pantone 219 C – “Barbie pink”. The Barbiecore aesthetic can mostly be characterised as wearing lots of pink and dressing very femme. It’s fun, girly and it’s all the rage right now.
Though this type of fanfare and direct association with the doll is new, Barbiecore itself is not. Its most obvious and recent predecessor is of course the Bimbocore aesthetic which rose on TikTok during 2020.
Before that we had the early 2000s which were full of iconic fashion icons like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Nicole Richie who often wore pink and glittery outfits. Mean Girls and Legally Blonde, smash hits at the time and still popular today, had lots of pink costuming for their huge stars including Rachel McAdams, Reese Witherspoon, Amanda Seyfried, and Lindsay Lohan. High School Musical’s Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) was another icon for this style. In the 2010s pop stars Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj sported Barbiecore styles often. Before all of that pink was all the rage in the 80s, especially the late 80s after Pretty in Pink starring 80’s ‘It Girl’ Molly Ringwald created the prom dress girls around the US envied.
‘Much like the Bimbocore aesthetic which relishes in its simplicity and playfulness rather than complexity, it’s unapologetically bubblegum and gauche which can feel freeing for many women.’
Now in the 2020s Barbiecore has come back due to the meeting of many different factors: nostalgia and bringing back the 2000s, the Barbie movie and its marketing and as feminist ‘subversion’. Bimbocore (being very similar to Barbiecore), at least with that exact name and tone, began its life as a TikTok trend of women aiming to reclaim hyperfemininity in a culture they saw as devaluing everything feminine. It’s impossible to talk about fashion, or any art, without understanding some of the politics and societal issues around it. Bimbocore can be seen as a reaction to the “Not Like Other Girls” or “Girlboss” trends of the 2010s and a function of “Liberal Feminism” or “Choice feminism”. It’s a reclamation of traditional femininity. It also came at the same time as many people sympathising with or seeing in a new light iconic stars of the 2000s/2010s who had been vilified or mocked by the media as bimbos such as Britney Spears, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. Such celebrities are the idols of the Bimbocore aesthetic.
The 2000s have been back for a few years now and Barbiecore is another way of replicating those times. I, like a lot of you reading no doubt, have a lot of nostalgia for Barbie. Though my nostalgia is contained more so in the iconic straight-to-DVD movies of the 2000s like Barbie as Princess and the Pauper and Barbie as Rapunzel than the doll. When I think of the early 2000s, Barbie definitely makes an appearance. We’ve seen lots of Y2K styles trending lately, with Barbiecore just being one of the latest.
This style can also be a form of “dopamine dressing”, which is dressing to improve your mood. It often involves wearing bright colours that make you feel happy. This became a bigger trend during and post-pandemic for obvious reasons. Dressing in hot pink and embracing childhood nostalgia can be a form of escapism and thinking of simpler times. Much like the Bimbocore aesthetic which relishes in its simplicity and playfulness rather than complexity, it’s unapologetically bubblegum and gauche which can feel freeing for many women. Beyond all that, it’s just cute! Pink is a gorgeous colour and there’s a hue of it out there that can work for everyone. And who wouldn’t want to dress like Barbie, icon that she is?
That’s the sentiment on every fashion marketers mind right now. The fanfare over Barbie and Barbiecore is the best free publicity you could get for any pink clothes right now. Searches for pink everything increased 416% last year according to Lyst after pictures of the Barbie set leaked. Valentino’s famously all pink Fall/Winter 2022-2023 runway caused searches to increase a further 152%. The collection debuted at Paris fashion week and has been worn by stars such as Florence Pugh and Simone Ashley. Valentino is not the only brand incorporating pink into their shows. Collections by Versace, Dior and others have also incorporated lots of pink lately. The barbiecore trend has been seen on several celebrities such as Anne Hathaway, Kim Kardashian, Lizzo and Sebastian Stan. Pantone has even named Viva Magenta the colour of 2023.
‘There’s nothing more in the spirit of Barbie than consumption. Before dolls like Barbie, dolls were sewn into clothes. Barbie allows the freedom to buy a new outfit for every occasion, even environmental activist Barbie.’
Beyond high fashion, fast fashion brands have predictably jumped onto this trend too. Shein, the unofficial home of the microtrend, has a whole “Barbiecore” section on their website. Penneys had a Barbie themed section during opening week where you could get sweaters and leotards emblazoned with that big pink Barbie logo. Even, most grimly, Crocs x Barbie debuted recently featuring pink crocs, sandals and charms. Zara has had their own Barbie inspired clothes most notably with the pink gingham dress from the movie and the black and white swimsuit from the original Barbie doll in 1959.
Trends always come often and quickly in fashion and with TikTok and Instagram creating microtrends and aesthetics, that has never been more true. Unfortunately, this fuels more and more buying of fast fashion. Instead of just a few trends a year there are seemingly infinite “aesthetics” and microtrends to chase. How many people bought an outfit for Barbie that they will only wear once? How many people will buy pink clothing from the Barbiecore section of Shein and then forget about it in a few years?
There’s nothing more in the spirit of Barbie than consumption. Before dolls like Barbie, dolls were sewn into clothes. Barbie allows the freedom to buy a new outfit for every occasion, even environmental activist Barbie. Barbiecore inspires mass consumption and therefore mass production. By now we all know about the harms of fast fashion both to the environment and to people. Barbie is a great movie, despite being a very long advertisement. It’s reminiscent of the 80’s cartoons created to sell toys like He-Man or the Care Bears. Barbie herself has moved away from her original fashion model identity to being an influencer of sorts. She has a YouTube channel, posts on social media like an influencer and takes part in all the latest TikTok trends. This speaks to the new way we consume fashion. No longer do we look to just models and celebrities. Anyone can start a trend now, which is fortunate for aspiring fashion icons and for clothing companies but not so fortunate for the planet or for the people making all these clothes.
So, will the Barbiecore trend last? Will we all sport pink for years to come? Or will there just be some glittery pink #barbiecore landfills come next year? Personally I’ll be hoping for Barbiecore to stay. Not just for the planet but because it’s always been my favourite colour and it’s never been better than now to be a Barbie girl in a Barbie world.
WORDS: Leah Kelly
