Eagle-eyed fashion lovers who have watched Barbie may have noticed these Barbies wear a lot of Chanel. Though anything is possible in Barbieland (including free Chanel), these outfits weren’t actually dreamt up by the imaging minds of Mattel, but are thanks to an official brand partnership with the French fashion house.
While Barbiemania has been mass-producing hot pink clothing now for months, Chanel waited until Wednesday, almost a week after the release of the film to announce its partnership. But watching the film, it’s not hard to put two and two together: Margot Robbie is a Chanel ambassador, after all. We just didn’t think it applied to her on-screen characters as well!
Nevertheless, Chanel imagined five total looks for the film: three suits, a ski suit, and a dress, imagined by Chanel creative director Virginie Viard. Chanel made a series of quilted bags, including a heart-shaped quilted bag, shield-eyewear from the COCO NEIGE collection, holographic cuffs, costume jewelry, and hats from Maison Michel available for use. The House also gave costume designer Jacqueline Durran a selection of Ready-to-Wear, COCO BEACH, and COCO NEIGE collections, in various shades of pink.
“Even on the set, there was one look where I have a pink love-heart-shaped Chanel bag, and I remember all the girls on the set were like: ‘Can I hold it?’” Robbie says in video interview with Chanel.
She also talks about getting to wear a piece Claudia Schiffer wore on runway in the ‘90s: “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,” Robbie says. “In fact, one of the archival suits that I wore had a little label that said 'Claudia' on it. And I was like, 'Wow!'”
It’s not the first time Chanel has had film partnerships. Karl Lagerfeld designed the costumes for numerous films in the ‘70s, ’80s, and ’90s including Pedro Almodóvar’s 1991 cult favorite film High Heels, in which the main character is dressed solely in Chanel suits.
Watch Robbie’s full Chanel interview, below.
