Some 200 Barbie followers braved a tough rain on Wednesday night as they made their method to the Rizzoli bookstore in Manhattan for the discharge of a coffee-table ebook celebrating the doll’s vogue historical past.
Inside, some took off their raincoats to disclose pink skirts, scarves, sweaters and blazers. Earlier than a panel dialogue started, they helped themselves to pink velvet cupcakes and rosé.
Two mates within the crowd, Carol Torre and Anahy Antara, mirrored on their fandom.
“I don’t actually know a lot in regards to the ebook,” Ms. Torre, an accountant, stated. “I’m simply right here as a result of I really like Barbie.”
“I’ve been hitting thrift outlets to attempt to pull off Barbie’s type ever because the film got here out,” Ms. Antara, a college administrator, added. “The reality is, a lot of us nonetheless wish to be Barbie. Certain, I’m all for bra-burning and feminism, however I nonetheless wish to be like her.”
Revealed by Rizzoli and authored by Margot Robbie and her stylist, Andrew Mukamal, “Barbie: The World Tour” explores the Mattel doll as a mode icon. Its pages are full of portraits of Ms. Robbie, the star of Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster movie, sporting outfits together with a Givenchy gown impressed by Homosexual Parisienne Barbie, and a Miu Miu ensemble recalling Night Splendor Barbie.
Fabien Baron art-directed the undertaking, and the style spreads had been photographed by Craig McDean. The ebook additionally contains handwritten tributes on Barbie’s cultural affect from designers like Donatella Versace and Manolo Blahnik.
The night’s speak, moderated by the journalist Esther Zuckerman, featured Mr. Mukamal, Mr. Baron and Mr. McDean.
Mr. Mukamal stated the ebook was conceived as a method to exhibit seems that by no means made it to purple carpets, due to the monthslong actors’ strike that reduce into Ms. Robbie’s world press tour for “Barbie.”
“That lit the hearth underneath Margot and I to say, ‘OK, effectively, we’ve all these seems that we’ve ready, all these designers and types which have lent their genius to our imaginative and prescient,’” Mr. Mukamal stated. “‘How can we do one thing to ensure that that is all seen and commemorated someplace?’”
After reminiscing about slicing the hair of Barbie dolls along with his sister as a boy, Mr. Baron stated that he had included archival snippets of the doll’s historical past within the ebook as a method to give it a “collage vibe.” “Slightly than simply having photos of Margot,” he stated, “I wished it to really feel like a diary, one thing that she might have penned herself. That’s why there’s handwriting all over the place.”
In the course of the Q. and A. session, one fan requested why the ebook didn’t embody outfits from the “Dolls of the World” Barbie assortment.
“There’s a whole lot of room for misinterpretation if, say, Margot is sporting a kimono or one thing,” Mr. Mukamal stated. “Barbie is transformative sufficient, however there’s individuals on the market who may interpret that a bit bit incorrectly.”
Then the three panelists — who all wore black — sat at a desk coated in pink sequins to signal books.
Within the crowd was Sally Singer, a former Vogue editor and the newly minted president of Artwork + Commerce at William Morris Endeavor’s vogue division.
“A few of the most eccentric individuals I do know are Barbie followers, and many individuals on the fringes of vogue have all the time used Barbie as an incubator for his or her creativity,” Ms. Singer stated. “I’ve all the time seen her as a type of companion to self-creative, singular and avant-garde individuals.”
Michelle Mackliff, a vogue guide, had introduced alongside a Barbie doll from her personal assortment that was nonetheless in its field: a 1995 Donna Karan New York restricted version Bloomingdale’s Barbie. As she waited in line to have her ebook signed, different followers gathered to ogle the chicly outfitted doll, which held a miniature Massive Brown Bag from the Manhattan division retailer.
“I’ve been pondering tons lately about why I really like Barbie a lot,” Ms. Mackliff stated. “I suppose it’s as a result of I first began dreaming about what was doable with my life due to her. She was my first feminist image.”
“I nonetheless keep in mind getting my first Barbie as a lady for Christmas once I was rising up in Ecuador,” she added. “And you recognize what? I nonetheless have that doll to at the present time.”
