The phrase “authentic artificiality” is one often used by Greta Gerwig, writer and director of Barbie, and Margot Robbie, producer and star of Barbie, to describe the aesthetic of the film, which finally comes out this weekend after endless anticipation. Barbie seeks to celebrate a real fakeness—i.e. a physically constructed world that doesn’t actually exist in real life, except in doll-scale plastic. This is done with aplomb by the production and costume designers Sarah Greenwood and Jacqueline Duran, but now we’ve also seen Robbie embody the ethos herself with her red carpet ensembles: a delightful merry-go-round of looks that are all high-fashion interpretations of actual Barbie outfits of yore—authentic and also artificial! There was the Valentino polka dot number that paid homage to Pink and Fabulous Barbie, and—perhaps most dramatically—a sequined, jet-black Schiaparelli column that almost exactly replicated 1960’s Solo in the Spotlight Barbie.
When Robbie joined us via Zoom, before the SAG-AFTRA strike began, she was again fully committing to what we’ll call method dressing, wearing a butter yellow Chanel tweed miniskirt suit and a Cher Horowitz-esque maribou-covered purse. She chatted with us about filming on location outside of London and the absolute joy of walking from gray British weather into a kaleidoscope of pink on the soundstage. Robbie, whose production company Lucky Chap marshaled the film into being, instituted a “We Wear Pink on Wednesdays” rule on set (an ode to Mean Girls), which cast and crew delightedly took part in.
It was over a year ago that on-set paparazzi shots of Robbie and Ryan Gosling Rollerblading in head-to-toe neon on the Venice Boardwalk ricocheted across the internet, and excitement about the film has not abated since. We learned that Robbie is, in fact, a devoted skater herself who often spends weekends gliding down the boardwalk with her girlfriends; to really complete the reel-life-to-real-life arc, she even invited Gosling to join her (he politely demurred). Maybe Chioma can instead, master skater that she is!
Vogue Deputy Editor Taylor Antrim also joined us to give his review of Oppenheimer, the other summer tentpole film also out this weekend, that has spawned the insane idea of “Barbenheimer”—or seeing the two wildly different films back-to-back. We also grilled Taylor on the effects of the SAG-AFTRA strike on the fashion and media industries—for example, how will Vogue shoot upcoming cover stories if no one is promoting film projects? And how will the dearth of celebrity red carpet style affect Vogue.com’s traffic? What will we do without Florence Pugh stepping off a gondola, holding her Aperol spritz in billowing Valentino at the Venice Film Festival? Arrivaderci for now, it appears…
