Barbie in black: Margot Robbie makes a ‘funereal’ statement at the Oscars
Ahead of the Oscars on Sunday night, the only prediction fashion fans had thought they could make with some certainty was that Margot Robbie, star and producer of the ￡1 billion-grossing film Barbie, would wear hot pink.
During a year full of promotional activities Robbie has almost never let up in her colour choice. She has delivered what editors have come to call ‘method dressing’, wearing pink almost exclusively, and recreating outfits worn by vintage Barbie dolls, all in order to promote her movie.
We’ve seen her do life-size versions of 1960’s Solo in the Spotlight Barbie and 1992’s Totally Hair Barbie. Weeks ago at the SAG Awards, Robbie wore a Schiaparelli pink ‘shrimp cocktail’ dress. Robbie and her stylist Andrew Mukamal have released a coffee table book documenting their run, published by Rizzoli and priced at ￡42.50.
At the Oscars, though, Robbie arrived wearing black. The perceived statement? Her reign as Barbie is over. This chapter in her career, and in her personal wardrobe, has come to a close.
Commenters on social media questioned whether it could also be a ‘funereal’ choice rather than a palate cleanser, given that Robbie was controversially snubbed for a best actress nomination, while co-stars Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera were nominated for best actor and best supporting actress respectively. Was Robbie ‘mourning’ a loss, presenters on ITV cared to question.
While Robbie may have been in black, Ferrera was in joyous pink. Robbie may have decided consciously to hand over the baton and to allow her co-star to stand out in the colour, given that it was her own first Oscar nomination.
Perhaps their looks were coordinated. Both Robbie and Ferrera wore Versace – the former’s look was fresh off the catwalk from the brand’s ready-to-wear show last month, while the latter’s was custom made, taking seven craftspeople some 400 hours to make.
It could of course be that Robbie had planned to wear black to the Oscars from the very beginning of this tour. It marks the end of a highly successful fashion promotion strategy – the likes of which Hollywood has never seen before.
“The method dressing was Andrew’s genius; I definitely can’t take credit,” Robbie recently told Vogue of how the idea came to be. “But I did say, “If there was ever an opportunity to really have fun on a press tour with the looks, it’s now.” Because Barbie and fashion are so synonymous, and because the movie is so maximalist and zany and poppy and joyful, it felt appropriate to really have fun with it.”
Having played Barbie on and off screen for almost a year, clearly it’s time for Robbie to discover her next character (and makeover). Certainly, it’s a red carpet act that will be tough to follow.
