Hi Barbies! It has been a few months since I have seen the Barbie movie so, being one who likes to be ahead of the trends, I wasn’t going to write about it. Then, a local boutique Rooted on Main Street in Newark, DE asked me to make 36 Barbie bracelets to sell in their shop! (Check out my Etsy Shop Whitney Wisdom Beading here.) I made tons of unique designs, all with pops of pink because all the Barbies are one of a kind. They said their customers, who are primarily college girls, can't get enough Barbie everything! I added a few of these beaded friendship bracelets featuring the iconic words of “Barbie” “Weird Barbie” and “I Am Kenough” to my Etsy shop. This is just one of the millions of products that have come out of the Barbie movie!
Let’s back our perfect Barbie butts up! The first time I heard of the Barbie movie was how I hear about most movies these days; on a Teams call with the studio. (Warner Brothers, in this case.) As a buyer of licensed goods the studios present their movies to us so we can then ask vendors who create, say, beauty products to put that hot new character on say, a lip balm. But the funny thing is, I heard about the Barbie movie a full two years before its release date because the team spent a full year hardcore promoting the Barbie movie’s release to the masses and I was not alone. People who don’t buy or create products knew about it two years ago too!
It’s been a month and a half since the movie launched and it is still getting regular play in theaters across the world. Many people (myself included) are paying for multiple tickets. In the time where we can see almost any movie we want on our couch for free, that says something. Since its July 2023 release, I’ve been jamming to the Barbie soundtrack curated by Mark Ronson, on regular rotation. Barbie is stuck in our heads.
Mattel used the movie as a vehicle to drive sales by rebranding what their dolls are often criticized for - being anti-feminist and creating unrealistic body expectations. It’s a genius move. As far as fashion goes, true trendsetters know fashion is about more than the physical cloth on your body but, more about the message those clothes send when pieced together. Anyone who’s seen the movie wants to be a Barbie (or Allen!) and portraying who we want to be, starts with the way we dress.
Barbie dolls, first created in 1959 have had one of the strongest color associations in the marketing game of hot pink. Barbie Pink, if you will.
The term Barbiecore has been passed around runways since 2022. Seven months before the movie’s release the pink phenomenon was very much in full swing. This is when Pantone named Vivid Magenta, The Color of the Year for 2023. 2024’s color of the year is leaked to be a more blush version of Barbie Pink, known as Apricot Crush but still in the pink family. For those not super connected to fashion but still want to be accepted as “in style” latching onto a color creates for the longest lasting trend cycle. Because. It's. Easy. Pink tank top, pink mini skirt, pink maxi dress, pink denim, pink sneakers, pink tote, pink nail polish. It all works, as long as it is pink.
For fun-zies here are some of my favorite pink looks from over my last 4 years of blogging! Whether Barbiecore dies in 2024 or not, pink will always be my favorite way to add romance to my looks. Pink makes for a great day, every day!
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