Barbiecore is dead. I’m not sure what the cause was—perhaps Barbie herself caught sight of a flat shoe or perhaps someone said the word “no” to her in a raised voice—but I think Margot Robbie’s appearance at the Los Angeles premiere of Saltburn might have had something to do with it. That is because she wore custom Schiaparelli couture in a shade of brown never before seen in a Malibu beach house.
Barbie’s brain—which has been trained only to register the most vibration-raising colors of pink—would have short-circuited at the deliberate deshabilé of the nude illusion corset and the louche sex appeal of Robbie’s unbuttoned waistband. And I don’t think the trompe l’oeil navel piercing would have been much help. It would have rattled her nervous system and confused her plastic synapses.
But all of these things are—of course—what makes this outfit a successful one. Not only does it represent a long-awaited sea change in the Mattel-inspired fashions that Robbie wore to promote the Barbie film—including a Dilara Fındıkoğlu reproduction of a 1962 Brunette Bubble Cut Barbie and a Balmain reproduction of a 1992 Earring Magic Barbie—it signals a departure from nostalgic costuming and a return to contemporary fashion.