Summer blockbuster Barbie is released on 21 July, and we are starting to wonder if it is written into Margot Robbie’s contract that she must wear pink at all times—she has been cosplaying as her doll alter ego all year. “Barbie doesn’t dress for the day. She dresses for the task,” Jacqueline Durran, the film’s costume designer, told Vogue, and Robbie is also adopting this approach to getting dressed. The actor landed at Sydney airport for the latest leg of the film’s promotional tour looking exactly like a Barbie doll in transit, in an archive Chanel blazer and Mattel pink vintage-inspired carry-on luggage. Even her husband wore a Ken-worthy pink baseball cap.
Robbie’s vintage Chanel travel look was originally worn by Claudia Schiffer on the spring 1996 runway. This was Karl Lagerfeld’s answer to business casual (a new phenomenon in 1996), as the late designer opened the show with a series of office-appropriate looks centered around chinos. Margot recreated Schiffer’s runway look almost exactly, wearing a pink and white checked blazer with a white crop top and high-waisted chino trousers. She carried a retro pink carry-on bag by SteamLine with a matching hatbox, inspired by luggage of the ’50s.
The vibe of the look is business class Barbie—thanks to the hatbox, vintage checks and timeless pumps, Margot looks as polished as cabin crew in the golden age of air travel. The Chanel ambassador unsurprisingly finished her look with accessories by the Parisian house, with a top-handle quilted leather handbag, a Chanel logo belt and a pair of two-tone slingbacks.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel first wore two-tone pumps in the ’20s, however Chanel put the shoe— developed in partnership with the French shoemaker Massaro—into production in 1957. Decades on they remain a hero piece at the Parisian house and a fixture in celebrity outfits – they had a moment at the Cannes Film Festival this year, where they were seen on Lily-Rose Depp and Brie Larson.
Time will tell just how many more pink outfit changes and Barbie-style props Margot has packed in that carry-on of hers.