The sets from the summer megahit Barbie have been struck, Ken has bowed out with a Ken-ergetic final performance at the Academy Awards ceremony, and the stars and director have moved on to other projects. But fans who don’t want to let go of Barbie’s world just yet may be pleased to know that a new book, Barbie: The World Tour, brings together Barbie’s fashions and includes looks by designers like Giorgio Armani and Donatella Versace. Star Margot Robbie was planning to wear these fashions on a press tour that was cut short by the 2023 actors’ strike.
Robbie, who plays the title role as a doll come to life, and her stylist Andrew Mukamal authored the book, which features photographs by Craig McDean, a foreword by fashion editor Edward Enninful (ex-British Vogue, ex-Condé Nast), an introduction by Vogue China editor Margaret Zhang, and an afterword by Greta Gerwig, who directed the film and co-wrote it with her husband, filmmaker Noah Baumbach.
Robbie and Mukamal hand-picked vintage Barbie looks, including Schiaparelli, Vivienne Westwood, and Chanel, which are represented with elegant drawings and notes. Photos of period Barbie dolls as well as materials from Barbie’s fashion archives and the designers’ sketches and Polaroid photos from fitting sessions also appear, all incorporated into collages by art director Fabien Baron.
“It was just like a joy explosion for everyone,” Robbie recalled in book’s introduction about planning the press tour. “The whole approach to Barbie in the film was very maximalist and I feel you can do that. Barbie allows you to do that—more is more with Barbie.”
Some spreads juxtapose photos of Robbie in iconic looks from the film with snaps of period Barbies, while others show her next to contact sheet–style photos of the Mattel doll in the same looks.
“Working on this book was a way of taking all the conversations that we’ve had, and reviewing sketches and talking about ideas and fabric choices and planning where we should wear things—taking all those thousands of tiny decisions and putting them in one place so we could look back on it and revisit that serotonin boost,” said Murakal. “And now Barbie is with me forever.”
Artists from Sheila Pree Bright to Andy Warhol have been inspired by Barbie, and in turn the film’s look, with its trademark pink color scheme, was partly inspired by the work of fine artists from Wayne Thiebaud to Botticelli. The megahit film faced off against Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer at the box office, with countless resulting memes and think pieces, as Artnet News’s Kate Brown wrote.
Barbie was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, Ryan Gosling for Best Supporting Actor, America Ferrara for Best Supporting Actress, as well as best adapted screenplay, costume design, and production design. The film took home one Oscar, for Best Song for Billie Eilish and and Finneas O’Connell’s “What Was I Made For?”
Barbie: The World Tour is available in hardcover from publisher Rizzoli.
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