It seems like everyone's talking about the Barbie movie, and one of the biggest topics of conversation is all the incredible looks the characters wear.
Here are 19 behind-the-scenes facts and details from the Barbie wardrobe department:
1. We have costume designer Jacqueline Durran to thank for all of the incredible outfits in Barbie. She previously worked with director Greta Gerwig on Little Women (2019), which won an Oscar for Best Costume Design.
2. When creating costumes for Barbie, Jacqueline had to think of her differently than when she's dressing human characters because "the defining characteristic of what she wears is where she’s going and what she’s doing." Barbie needed to wear complete outfits with accessories that changed depending on her situation.
She told British Vogue, "You don't treat Barbie like you treat a regular character because the motivation for what she's wearing isn't from within... It's about being completely dressed for your job or task."
3. To provide cohesion without clashing, most of the Barbie Land costumes fit into about 15 predetermined color categories, such as "lavender, bright blue, light blue; green, orange, beige; orange, blue, pink; two pinks and a yellow." They were inspired by an early '60s beach on the French Riviera.
4. Ken's Sylvester Stallone-esque fur coat was one of Jacqueline's earliest costume ideas. The inside is lined with horse-patterned fabric as a nod to the horse obsession he develops in the real world.
She told Vanity Fair, "It was sort of a leap of faith, but we were working so fast that we almost didn't have time to think of it. And at that point, I hadn't met Ryan, and I didn't really know how far he was going to go with Ken. It was quite a jump to be Ken. I didn't know whether he would like the fur coat or not, but he was totally up for all of the costume choices, as you can tell."
5. Barbie's pink cowgirl outfit was the result of Jacqueline asking herself, "What would the Barbie logic be for the thing that would make her fit in in America?" and deciding "Western was perfect."
6. Ken's cowboy look was inspired by the Western Stampin' Ken that Mattel released in 1993.
7. His Ken-branded underwear was Ryan Gosling's idea.
"We just rushed to make it," Jacqueline told British Vogue.
When Ryan sent Eva Mendes, his partner, a picture of the underwear from set, she asked him, "Can I please have that underwear? Please, I never ask for anything."
On The Talk, Eva said, "I do have it. I'm wearing it right now. There was something about the image that sparked my, you know, that little teenage...."
8. Barbie and Ken's neon rollerskating outfits were adapted from the Hot Skatin' Barbie that hit shelves in 1994.
Jacqueline told British Vogue, "Ken is kind of a subsidiary of Barbie. So Hot Skatin' Barbie is the influence on the rollerblading look in the real world, and Ken just has his own version."
9. The heavily criticized wig that Dua Lipa wore as Mermaid Barbie was styled that way because her character was "the exact copy of the dolls."
Makeup and hairstylist Ivana Primorac told Harper's Bazaar, "Those mermaid bodies look exactly like that and with the clunky, multicolored hair. There were many reasons why that happened, and we made those decisions, but we decided to just do a complete copy of the actual Mattel Barbie mermaids."
10. The black and white swimsuit Barbie first appears in is a direct reference to the original Barbie doll's debut look from 1959.
11. Basically, any looks that the costuming team didn't create themselves came from Chanel. Margot Robbie's been an ambassador for the luxury brand since 2018.
Jacqueline told British Vogue, "They're very interested in supporting cinema and in helping us find looks that will work in the story. They sent us anything and everything that we wanted. They were just great to work with."
12. The team pulled a lot of '80s pieces from Chanel's archives because Greta "really liked things when they chimed with the date of the Barbies that she used to play with."
13. One of the archival pieces Margot got to wear in the film was famously worn by '90s supermodel and Chanel icon Claudia Schiffer in the brand's Spring 1995 show.
In a video for Chanel, Margot said, "There were some incredible outfits that I actually got to wear that Claudia Schiffer herself, who's kind of like a real-life Barbie, wore. In fact, one of the archival suits that I wore had a little label that said 'Claudia' on it. And I was like, 'Wow!'"
14. Kate McKinnon was "pretty involved" with designing Weird Barbie's look — specifically the shape and placement of the marker squiggles on her face.
On Good Morning America, she said, "A lot of discussions went into the placement of like, 'Where does the marker go on your face?' and 'What is the shape of the squiggle?' and ‘How chopped is the hair?'"
15. Weird Barbie's style is "high-fashion" to separate her from Stereotypical Barbie's mainstream style.
Jacqueline told Refinery29, "Weird Barbie could have been scrappy and not particularly fashionable and just messy, but it felt like it would be more interesting in the movie if there was a distinction between the stereotypical Barbie — who's quite mainstream fashion, accessible, and very easy to understand — and then someone who's very high-fashion and conceptual."
16. When Barbie hits her lowest moment, she switches to a paler version of her pastel gingham dress to mirror her inner journey.
"We made two versions of the look — one with a brighter color and one with a faded color. We wanted to have the feeling that she's beginning to change at that point," Jacqueline told Refinery29.
17. Ken had way fewer costume changes and wardrobe options than Barbie because, as Jacqueline told British Vogue, "No one cares about Ken, everybody just wants to play with Barbie."
18. Jacqueline and her hand-dyer matched the shades of pink in their costumers to the exact shades of pink that set designers Sarah Green and Katie Spencer used.
19. And finally, not only did the wardrobe team make most of the clothes themselves, but they also custom-made the fabric that was used to make them.
Jacqueline told Refinery29, "We chose the colors, and we made the prints, and then we made the clothes."
And, come hang out with everyone else who is screaming, crying, and throwing up about Barbie in BuzzFeed's iOS app. Heck, even Allan is there.
