Why dressing Margot Robbie in ‘Barbie’ was the most significant problem for the costume designer

Why dressing Margot Robbie in ‘Barbie’ was the most significant problem for the costume designer


Taking part in costume up isn’t all entertaining and game titles.

Just question Barbie’s costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who discovered that the most hard element of her career was dressing Margot Robbie as the legendary doll in Greta Gerwig’s forthcoming film.

“Margot is just about the most great human you can picture, so she did not make it tricky,” Durran exclusively advised E! Information even though marketing her partnership with ThredUp. “What was tricky was narrowing down all the choices and earning feeling of all the feasible seems to be we could go for.”

Thinking about Barbie is recognized for her keen feeling of style, there was no shortage of glitzy and glamorous getups shown on-monitor. In the film, Robbie wears everything from a sailor blue romper to a blush-colored gingham dress to a pink jumpsuit reminiscent of Rosie The Riveter’s renowned 1942 seem.

But the point that Barbie has an outfit for each individual occasion proved to be tricky.

“The other massive challenge was that Barbie changes her costume each time we see her,” Durran famous, “so there was a whole lot to do in quite minimal time. We only had 11 months of prep time right before the shoot begun!”

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But putting collectively the ensembles for the film is generally what childhood goals are built of.

“My main inspiration was the Barbie catalog,” Durran unveiled. “I tried to do a complete sweep of distinctive Barbie seems. Just one instance was all the white and gold Barbie costumes from the ’60s to the ’90s for the block bash. I selected the strongest appears to be with the greatest hair ornaments and tons of frills, notably ones that had been uniquely Barbie.”

She ongoing, “Developing the vogue for this motion picture was so exclusive, and I desired to make sure I honored the abundant background of the doll and its numerous design and style iterations around the several years.”

Durran also drew inspiration from 1960s beach culture, replicating the whimsical colour palettes and dress shapes of the period. “All the Barbies don retro attire of distinctive patterns,” she mentioned, noting, “The early ’60s type pink gingham gown is a person of my favorites.”

And while it could have been tough to determine out which pieces to narrow down, Durran manufactured positive that each product felt genuine to Barbie.

“Barbie’s wardrobe arrives from her appreciate of clothes,” she spelled out. “She wears outfits for the reason that she enjoys dressing up and constantly attire correctly for whatever she is doing. Barbie’s style is playful and total of pleasure. It is more than the top and, most likely, appears superficial but it’s basically a big part of her character.”

It is really clear Barbie’s enthusiasm for manner has translated off-display, as the outfits have taken a everyday living on their personal with the Barbiecore development. As Durran put it, “It is been a pleasure to see how the costumes have encouraged persons to build their individual appears to be like and the movie is not even out still!”

Looking at people run wild with their creativity is portion of the motive the costume designer teamed up with on the web consignment store ThredUp on a Barbiecore Dream Closet collaboration, which functions far more than 250 objects.

“I hope that my partnership with thredUP and the costumes by themselves remind persons that manner can be pleasurable,” she shared. “As a costume designer, I am a big believer in the energy of clothes and the tales they explain to in movie. With Barbie, there is no exception.”



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