Barbie Costume Designer Explains How They Make Her Feel Real

Barbie's costume designer helps anchor her to our "real" world.

By Aaron Perine

Barbie's costume designer explained how they made the doll feel real in her big-screen debut. Jacqueline Durran is the person behind the iconic wardrobe Margot Robbie and the rest of the cast wear in the movie. She talked to PEOPLE about trying to maintain that Barbie essence, while bringing a level of reality to the movie. Director Greta Gerwig has talked about the movie feeling toyetic multiple times. But, Durran and her fellow costume designers and production designers were tasked with bringing that vision to life. Taking elements from Barbie's long history ended up being the answer.

"I really felt strongly about it, as a way into the Barbie story, because it seems, when you look at the movie now, it seems obvious," Durran said. "But when you start off and you're thinking, 'How do we make Barbie real? What do we do? Do we go high fashion from the beginning all the way through?'"

"And so it took time to kind of think, 'Okay, no, let's do it to the history of Mattel and let's do it through time.' And then hopefully, it will kind of jog memories of all different ages of fans. And it will be something that is very much part of everybody's memories," she continued. "That was the intention — that it would touch different people's memories at different times. It's timeless.

Crafting Barbie's Climactic Outfit Near the End of the Movie

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(Photo:

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- Warner Bros. Discovery/Mattel)

Durran had a dilemma on her hands developing these various looks. Yes, she riffed on the Mattel catalogue. But, how could she translate the most popular Barbie looks of now into costumes for this movie. When it's time for Margot Robbie's Barbie to kick her plan into overdrive, the costume designer saw an opening. She told Variety about the yellow dress moment this week.

"The Barbies have gone through all of that stuff and they're now the most fulfilled versions of themselves," Durran recalled. "And that sets the scene for what's happening to Margot's Barbie as she's becoming human."

"The costume is a bias cut dress which drapes — it's not Barbie quality," Durran added. "...I was keen to track the history of Mattel in the costumes. I asked them what was the most popular costume in the last 5 to 10 years. It turns out it's a yellow dress. I was going to copy that dress, but it wouldn't really be recognizable enough... We wanted a soft yellow and wanted it to have less pop. So, we printed that yellow onto white silk, and because of the cut, it clings to the body. That's not really a Barbie characteristic — the Barbie characteristic is to be cut straight and to create a shape that falls away from the body."

But, What About the Kens?

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(Photo: Warner Bros.)

When it comes to Barbie's companion for a lot of this film, Ken isn't nearly as complicated. The owner of the Mojo Dojo Casa House is basically a study in sportswear from the past 50 years. (Along with that, he's got some inspired goofy streetwear vibes going on too.) Durran explained how she approached Ryan Gosling's fan-favorite in an interview with British Vogue. 

"No one cares about Ken, everybody just wants to play with Barbie," Durran joked. "He matches Barbie and changes too, but he has very, very many less [clothes] options."

"Retro sportswear is one area where we did a lot of shopping for Ken," Durran explained when asked about the "Beach" employee. "He is sporty. That's his main thing. We had buyers in America that went to dealers and imported it for us because we needed so much of it."

Need A Barbie Refresher? We Got You.

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you're a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hit theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera , Kate McKinnon , Michael Cera , Ariana Greenblatt , Issa Rae , Rhea Perlman , and Will Ferrell. 

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The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey , Hari Nef , Alexandra Shipp , Kingsley Ben-Adir , Simu Liu , Ncuti Gatwa , Scott Evans , Jamie Demetriou , Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya , Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren . Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach , based on Barbie by Mattel . 

Did you love the costumes in Barbie? Let us know down in the comments!

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