After the release of “Barbie,” Mattel sent costume designer Jacqueline Durran a box filled with her new collection of dolls, each wearing clothes based on her designs for the film. “I took them all out and it was a very strange feeling to look into the boxes and see all of our costumes on the Barbies,” she says. “But it was amazing. “It's an incredible thing to have done and I'm very proud to have worked on the film.”
Director Greta Gerwig recruited Durran after collaborating with her on 2019's “Little Women,” for which Durran won an Oscar. The costume designer admits that she was “definitely scared” at the prospect of making “Barbie.” She wasn't sure she was the right person to tackle such an iconic cultural emblem on screen.
“I didn't really question wanting to do it because I know Greta well enough to know that she was going to do a Barbie movie that I liked,” Durran says. “I had complete confidence in her. But she just wanted to do him justice: that was the fear. You see it now and it seems very direct and simple. But that took a lot of work and conversation because it was almost a blank page. How do you make a movie about Barbie? What are the rules for dolls? How does the world work? You have to think about all these things to make it coherent.”
Durran met with production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer, with whom she has worked numerous times, including on “Anna Karenina” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Everyone agreed that the film's aesthetic should be beautiful, with a nostalgic nod to Barbie's mid-century origins. Durran and Greenwood shared color palettes to ensure that the pink outfits worn by Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) worked with the pinks on the sets, but didn't exactly match. Greenwood's angular design for Weird Barbie's house directly inspired how Durran dressed the character, played by Kate McKinnon.
“The weird Barbie could have been dressed in rags or a crazy costume that was just pieces of things put together,” Durran says. “But Greta said, 'No, I think she should have a fashion style.' And I was like, 'Okay, where do I plug that in? Where she comes from? ' “So I went in and looked at the house and walked around and looked at the patterns and colors that Sarah put there, and I transferred them from the wall to the dress.”
Barbie's (Margot Robbie) hot pink cowgirl outfit, which she wears in numerous scenes, was one of the most important to get right, says costume designer Jacqueline Durran. Ken (Ryan Gosling), she says, simply had to match her look.
(Dale Robinette/Warner Bros. Pictures)
For the more traditional Barbies, Durran followed specific physical rules to maintain the illusion of the Barbie universe. He found that dresses looked more doll-like if they were shorter, and that straight-cut, wrinkle-free clothes maintained the feeling that there was plastic underneath instead of a human body. There was a lot of discussion about what the characters would wear when Barbie and Ken arrived in the real world. Gerwig wanted them to feel like aliens on the Venice boardwalk, so Durran reinvented Barbie's iconic neon skating outfit and spray painted two pairs of skates.
“It was such a crazy costume,” Durran says. “And it was also the first time the world saw Barbie and Ken, so it was really stressful. We were in Venice Beach and it was like, 'Oh no, here we go!'”
Barbie's hot pink cowgirl outfit, which she wears in numerous scenes, including a chase sequence, was one of the biggest costumes she got right. She challenges what Durran calls “Barbie logic,” which dictates that Barbie always wears the perfect outfit for what she is doing at that moment.
“How do you decide what is perfect for being in Los Angeles? What is the absolute epitome of America that Barbie would identify with? Durran says. “We tried different things, including making her Malibu Barbie. There was a lot to resolve. Now, to me, it seems like an obvious choice, but it wasn't at the time.”
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling show off their Venice Beach looks on the set of “Barbie.”
(MEGA/GC Images)
For Ken, Durran highlighted his obsession with Barbie. He envisioned Gosling's character as “almost like an accessory,” where his main function is to simply be there and match his appearance. All the Kens could dress the same because there should be nothing different about them. It's not until Gosling's Ken discovers the patriarchy in the real world that his costumes begin to come more to life with short shorts, big fur coats (which nod to Sylvester Stallone), and headbands.
“They were really up for it,” Durran says of the actors. “At first he was nervous because the Kens wouldn't want to go that far. He wasn't even sure the Kens wanted to wear a white jumpsuit; It's a pretty extreme look. But everyone loved it. “It was so much fun dressing them.”
Durran estimates that she and her team made 450 custom outfits out of the film's 1,000 total costumes. Some of Barbie's looks, like the pink snowsuit, were existing pieces taken through a partnership with Chanel, while others were built from scratch using fabric printed especially for the film. Some costumes are replicas of existing Barbie outfits from Mattel history, which Durran wanted to include as Easter eggs for fans.
“I wanted it to be something that was a pure joy to watch,” he says. “For me, the fans were the most important group that was going to see the movie (the people who love Barbie) and I wanted to honor that.”
