Some 200 Barbie enthusiasts braved a dried drizzle on Wednesday night time as they made their technique to the Rizzoli bookshop in Ny for the let fall of a coffee-table reserve celebrating the doll’s type historical past.
Within, some took off their raincoats to show purple skirts, scarves, sweaters and blazers. Earlier than a panel dialogue started, they helped themselves to purple velvet cupcakes and rosé.
Two pals within the family, Carol Torre and Anahy Antara, mirrored on their fandom.
“I don’t really know much about the book,” Ms. Torre, an accountant, mentioned. “I’m just here because I love Barbie.”
“I’ve been hitting thrift shops to try to pull off Barbie’s style ever since the movie came out,” Ms. Antara, a school administrator, added. “The truth is, lots of us still want to be Barbie. Sure, I’m all for bra-burning and feminism, but I still want to be like her.”
Revealed via Rizzoli and authored via Margot Robbie and her stylist, Andrew Mukamal, “Barbie: The World Tour” explores the Mattel doll as a method icon. Its pages are full of portraits of Ms. Robbie, the famous person of Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster movie, dressed in outfits together with a Givenchy get dressed impressed via Gay Parisienne Barbie, and a Miu Miu ensemble recalling Evening Splendor Barbie.
Fabien Baron art-directed the mission, and the fad spreads had been photographed via Craig McDean. The reserve additionally comprises handwritten tributes on Barbie’s cultural affect from designers like Donatella Versace and Manolo Blahnik.
The night time’s communicate, moderated via the journalist Esther Zuckerman, featured Mr. Mukamal, Mr. Baron and Mr. McDean.
Mr. Mukamal mentioned the reserve was once conceived so as to blow their own horns appears to be like that by no means made it to crimson carpets, as a result of the monthslong actors’ clash that decrease into Ms. Robbie’s world press excursion for “Barbie.”
“That lit the fire under Margot and I to say, ‘OK, well, we have all these looks that we’ve prepared, all these designers and brands that have lent their genius to our vision,” Mr. Mukamal mentioned. “How can we do something to make sure that this is all visible and commemorated somewhere?”
Upcoming reminiscing about reducing the hair of Barbie dolls along with his sister as a boy, Mr. Baron mentioned that he had integrated archival snippets of the doll’s historical past within the reserve so as to give it a “collage vibe.” “Rather than just having pictures of Margot,” he mentioned, “I wanted it to feel like a diary, something that she could have penned herself. That’s why there’s handwriting everywhere.”
Right through the Q. and A. consultation, one fan requested why the reserve didn’t come with outfits from the “Dolls of the World” Barbie assortment.
“There’s a lot of room for misinterpretation if, say, Margot is wearing a kimono or something,” Mr. Mukamal mentioned. “Barbie is transformative enough, but there’s people out there who might interpret that a little bit incorrectly.”
Next the 3 panelists — who all wore dark — sat at a desk lined in purple sequins to signal books.
Within the family was once Sally Singer, a former Fashion scribbler and the newly minted president of Artwork + Trade at William Morris Undertaking’s type category.
“Some of the most eccentric people I know are Barbie fans, and many people on the fringes of fashion have always used Barbie as an incubator for their creativity,” Ms. Singer mentioned. “I’ve always seen her as a kind of companion to self-creative, singular and avant-garde people.”
Michelle Mackliff, a manner guide, had introduced alongside a Barbie doll from her personal assortment that was once nonetheless in its field: a 1995 Donna Karan Untouched York restricted version Bloomingdale’s Barbie. As she waited in series to have her reserve signed, alternative enthusiasts collected to ogle the chicly geared up doll, which held a little Big Brown Bag from the Ny branch collect.
“I’ve been thinking lots recently about why I love Barbie so much,” Ms. Mackliff mentioned. “I guess it’s because I first started dreaming about what was possible with my life because of her. She was my first feminist symbol.”
“I still remember getting my first Barbie as a girl for Christmas when I was growing up in Ecuador,” she added. “And you know what? I still have that doll to this day.”
