For over six decades, Barbie has represented endless opportunities for generations of young people. Through her host of careers – which have spanned astronaut and architect to paediatrician and polar marine biologist – Barbie has become an emblem of aspiration and inspiration. Which is why, when the Vogue team were tasked with creating a photo shoot for the September issue, Barbie’s own fearless approach became the driving force.
It felt natural that an all-female team of creatives should be assembled to reimagine Barbie in her contemporary Dreamhouse. With a new wardrobe designed by four recent graduates from London’s leading design courses, a series of fresh haircuts, a restyled home filled with scaled-down interior design icons, and directional beauty looks to boot, Barbie’s ambition is refreshed for the new season thanks to this empowered collaboration. It’s not just her wardrobe bringing a contemporary energy – it’s Barbie herself.
Note how Barbie illustrates a more inclusive identity than the doll we were introduced to as children. In 2020, she has never been a more accurate reflection of ambitious women, proving that they cannot be defined by one role, or a singular definition of beauty and success, playing with identity and fashion all the while.
Starting with Barbie’s blonde hair, which might have once been her most identifiable signature, now the doll is more representative of a diverse appreciation of beauty, as illustrated in these photographs through the hair styling by session stylist and self-confessed “pink-haired instigator of fun”, Lyndell Mansfield. Barbie’s hair becomes an extra tool for self-expression, while also representing the chameleonic nature of her look. Each comes cut with conviction and a comprehensive thought process that is as inclusive as it is creative. Her hair transformations move between a starlet-worthy peroxide-blonde bob, inspired by those that have relied on the cropped length for a striking change; a Blondie reference; early Barbie cuts; and a “playful yet powerful” natural Afro, with sun-kissed tips offering an additional glow.
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The other two looks see Barbie take her cues from the women with whom she shares the pages of Vogue, such as activist and model Adwoa Aboah, whose hair offered the idea of an undercut to bring an edge, while the polymath and businesswoman Rihanna was the muse for waist-trailing passion twists with rich red accents. Then, to accompany Alexandra Sipa’s sculptural dress, Barbie takes on a “high energy, yet romantic” red, cut with a fringe that brings a sense of ease and coolness, with Jane Birkin and Jean Shrimpton framing the moodboard. Mansfield added that Barbie’s hair here reflects “the woman that’s ready for anything, she dresses it up and down equally and makes it seem effortless”.
Lucy Bridge was the mastermind behind Barbie’s make-up looks, employing a transformative colour palette to elevate the beauty notes to a new place of unwavering creativity and originality. With hair and wardrobe considered, Blackburn-born Bridge set about taking the doll’s make-up to directional places, while still embracing her natural features. The bold colours applied with a painterly approach may prove to be the focus-pulling elements, but look a little closer and Barbie’s pre-existing beauty marks are embraced – from a sprinkling of freckles to the inclusion of vitiligo on one doll. The approach by Bridge was a heightened take on what we come to think of Barbie’s make-up, challenging binary beauty to embrace influences from across the creative spectrum. If Barbie has always been a role model for creativity and aspiration, then consider these looks the next in the evolution.
“I was really impressed by each designer’s individual aesthetic. I think you can see their skill sets and point of view,” explains stylist PC Williams, who swapped her usual projects working with artists such as Stormzy to join the Vogue team in choosing four new graduates to create Barbie’s bespoke looks.“As a stylist, looking at new designers was really interesting to see what they had to offer and imagining where their careers will go in the future.” Central Saint Martins graduates Alexandra Sipa and Sohee Park, and London College of Fashion alumni Alice Khor and Symela Fotiadi were each chosen for their individual approaches. Their designs differ greatly, but the four young women all share a forward-thinking approach to craftsmanship, with a confident understanding of their unique aesthetics – exactly the type of empowered designers Barbie should be commissioning to make her bespoke looks for the autumn/winter 2020 season ahead.
If the Dreamhouse exists to allow Barbie to manifest her best ideas in the comfort of her meets-all-demands home, then these clothes add to the fantasy of untamed ambition. In each of the looks, Barbie can try on a facet of her personality and style. Park’s embellished couture-like cape and gown is the sort of dress Barbie would need to live her best contemporary red-carpet life in, while Fotiadi’s sculptural take on pleating and clean silhouettes suits a new approach to business dress that encapsulates the more flexible outlook to working life that we’re adjusting to right now.
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Technical skill is clear in Sipa’s dress for Barbie, which was made entirely of discarded electrical wires, while Khor had to go to the drawing board to understand how she could make her laser-cut technique work on such a miniature scale. Although not evidenced in the final pieces photographed here, each designer also overcame the hurdle of needing to adjust their well-rehearsed practices to create at home with limited resources, owing to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures. The execution of the designs are testament to their bright futures, as Williams admits, “We’re coming into a time that is completely uncertain, in which a lot of new designers are going to feel anxious about what’s to come and this Vogue and Barbie collaboration is a celebration of their talent and craft.”
Almost as famous as the doll herself, Barbie’s Dreamhouse has a reputation befitting its name. The design of the reimagined house needed to reflect its prominence in Barbie’s life – the space where she finds her greatest ambitions and manifests her dreams. Set designer Penny Mills transformed the Dreamhouse into a Malibu home that serves every purpose Barbie’s 2020 lifestyle could possibly demand: there’s a work-from-home office, a sizeable wardrobe, a rose-pink kitchen, and, of course, a slide taking Barbie from bedroom to swimming pool in one swift moment. It is the Dreamhouse, after all. Inspiration for Mills came courtesy of mid-century modernist design, with a focus on how best to use natural light to fill the house and exterior, capitalising on stained-glass windows and skylights. Those familiar with the original Dreamhouse will notice touches that carry through here, with the colour palette adjusted to satisfy our Insta-filtered gazes, and the use of pastel details to frame each room, pulling the colour scheme together. This is as much a house to play dress up in, as one to imagine dressing up your real-life house as.
The Dreamhouse’s scale might be small, but interior designer Jessica Dance’s plans to make Barbie’s house a home were anything but shrunken. At Barbie’s, there are pieces of furniture directly influenced by real-life designers, such as the Eames-esque wishbone and shell chairs, which Dance painstakingly recreated and updated to suit Barbie’s world in colour-pop brights. The realism of the home comes down to Dance’s hand, with her fastidious approach to detail. Much like her contemporaries on the project, Dance had to work alone owing to social distancing measures, making everything herself without the usual help of a team. Barbie’s marigold-yellow framed bathroom is filled with miniature skincare – naturally, Barbie has her routine perfected – and beauty products, while outdoors a sunlounger is covered up in retro-print towelling alongside tiny cocktail and pool snacks. Achieving this design feat alone made each of Dance’s details all the more impressive. Vibrant, inviting, contemporary and stylish – Barbie is living life in colour at her 2020 Vogue-imagined Dreamhouse.
Credits:
Photographers: Metz+Racine. House Designer: Penny Mills. Interior Designer: Jessica Dance. Stylist: PC Williams. Art Direction: Dom Kelly. Creative Production: Nicola Butler. Make-up: Lucy Bridge. Hair: Lyndell Mansfield.
