Barbie Bafflement

Barbie Runway Show: Congratulations, the Emperor's not wearing any clothes!Alright, I admit it, I'm not one to slavishly follow every single moment of fashion week. I have never wanted this site to be the location of "firsts" or "scoops" as pertains to the runway. I like to explore the seasons and designers as a whole, after the proverbial tent dust has settled, to get a broader scope of trends, ideas, and moods. Fashion is culture-making and I'm all about culture; sometimes it's exciting, sometimes beautiful, sometimes awful, sometimes note-worthy, sometimes I'll just pass...

When I first heard of the BarbieTM 50th Anniversary Runway Show (we can't call it "Fashion Show" because Barbie has a product for that,) I thought it was a bit of a lark. Okay, it's the world's most famous toy and she deserves a big birthday, but honestly? When the news feeds and blogs exploded with commentary on Saturday night I was more than a bit baffled by the hub-bub come Sunday morning. I kept thinking: "wait - this is Barbie, right? Barbie is a plastic doll whose shoes always fall off..."

I grant you, it may be my own point of view that's tainting my appreciation: I've never liked Barbie. At the age when girls start to get into Barbie, the movie Annie came out in theatres and I never looked back. (Not only is it my namesake, but the movie came out around my birthday, if I remember correctly. There's nothing like seeing your name on a big marquis on your birthday...) That year for Christmas, my sister got the Barbie Penthouse, I got the Annie Mansion. Barbie drove a Corvette, Annie jaunted around in Daddy Warbucks' Deusenberg. Now seriously, as a child of any intelligence, which one would you go for?

Fast forward to college when, as an art student I read up on feminism, the female image, etc, and learned just how much the 11.5" plastic doll fucked us all up in the head. Craig Yoe's book The Art of Barbie was the only Barbie I wanted to have. It was subversive, putting Barbie in dishes of spaghetti, and showing her tormented by people in big gorilla masks (yup, even the Guerrilla Girls were included in the book!) I loved it. I also loved it because designers like Yves Saint Laurent, Bob Mackie, Isaac Mizrahi, and many others also participated.

Fast forward to this week and the Barbie Runway Show. The words "frenzy" "crush" and "standing room only" were all to frequent in the news coverage, with little girls jostling for space with the editorial crowd, just to catch a glimpse of the living dolls. (Because dolls are alive.) Again, I had a difficult time believing that any of this was true. Hasn't the fashion world been criticised for it's unreal expectations of beauty and body image? Isn't the world in the deepest economic crisis...ever? Why are the culture-makers of the fashion world serving up cotton candy when the world needs a hearty beef stew?

If the fashion was fantastic that would be one thing, but most of these looks seem amateurish and rushed to completion. Like a Project Runway challenge. The ubiquitous pink shades, flous, ruffles, and glittery nonsense are everywhere - because real women dress like that? I realize that the show was meant to be an entertaining departure from the current times - much like a Busby Berkeley musical during the Great Depression - but even in those there was beauty, form, and romance.

I understand that this is a marketing effort by Mattel to celebrate the Barbie brand and in that regard it is pretty genius. Mattel's spokesperson said that the show was to be "all things girl" in the Wall Street Journal, who likewise called out the "unapologetic materialism." However, given the current climate and how all aspects of the fashion industry have been hurt (media, retail sales, real estate, etc,) I have to wonder what types of incentives they promised the designers to get them to participate. Money? PR coverage? Their name in glowing pink lights? There's marketing and PR, and then there's conflict of interest. I'm just surprised that so many designers signed on.

I suppose this is akin to Hello Kitty's partnership with M.A.C. makeup - pulling a childhood character into the fashion world and blowing it up into a contrived sophistication. But why? Are our designers and marketers so unoriginal and out of ideas that this is all we're left with?

I'm baffled. But, I suppose since I wrote this post I've now become a part of the dialogue which is why they did the show in the first place. Gosh, it's all such a vicious cycle.

Images courtesy of Coutorture.

Comments

[a.]

Great post. I never thought Barbie had great fashion sense to begin with so not sure how they managed to tie that all in but I guess that's what PR and marketing people are for right?

[Randall]

It's been days since the Barbie runway show and I'm still scratching my head. Seriously people. Seriously? Sigh.

[Randall]

omg just realized I know a Barbie product designer in Long Beach. Have to watch what I say. He's great but the Mattel people around him - Opus Dei. Gulp!