'Barbie Pink' was the Colour of the Year - What makes it so significant?
Photo Courtesy: Warner Bros
From Pierpaolo Piccoli’s neon magenta Ready-to-Wear Autumn/Winter 2022-2023 collection, to the shocking pink of Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’, 2023 really has been the year of pink. After Pantone deemed #18-1750, otherwise known as ‘Viva Magenta’, the colour of the year, ‘Barbie Pink’ took the fashion world by storm and became the new black, being paired with absolutely everything. However, when reflecting on the 2010s when it was viewed as ‘less cool’ by some to be seen in the colour, many may question our change in attitude. What made ‘Barbie Pink’ THE colour of 2023?
Mattel’s use of pink to market Barbie has relied on its association with hyperfemininity. However, the colour was not always so heavily gendered. Before the Second World War, the colour was considered genderless or even more masculine. After the war, however, pink started to be featured more in women’s fashion along with other bolder colours and patterns, whereas men tended to favour neutral colours, reminiscent of their military uniforms. This was when women were being pushed back into the domestic sphere and as a result, encouraged to wear more traditionally feminine clothes. Since then, the colour has been adopted by other marginal groups, such as gay rights activists, feminists, and is featured on the transgender flag. As such, pink has become less and less associated with heteronormative masculinity and become heavily feminised.
Whilst ‘Barbie Pink’ was featured heavily in the marketing for Greta Gerwig’s film released earlier this year, there are other aspects of Barbie which could have encouraged people to wear the colour more and more throughout the year. For example, fashion and beauty are key factors of the Barbie doll. Customers are able to buy different clothes in a vast array of colours, textures, and silhouettes, to experiment with more outlandish fashion styles.
Other than fashion, Barbie also went beyond the domestic sphere, showing the doll and her friends an array of different careers and professions (Barbie has run for president!). More recently, Mattel has designed Barbie to be more inclusive by producing dolls in a wider range of skin colours and body shapes. The idea could be that Barbie can be anyone and anything you want her to be, proving to be an important role model for young children. In this sense, Barbie is designed to be divisive and outlandish and, as such, is increasingly aligned with modern feminist ideology.
Therefore it is not surprising that the colour, which has come to evoke similar ideas of audacity, outlandishness, and provocativeness, has gained such popularity. Like the doll, it has been seen a lot in maximalist fashion movements such as the hyperfeminine aesthetic, “coquette” aesthetic, or the ‘Barbiecore’ aesthetic popular on Tiktok. All of these styles play with the idea of maximalism, reclaiming and exaggerating elements of ‘girliness’. Followers have commented that they deliberately choose garish and flamboyant outfits that do not appeal to the male gaze, allowing them to, like Barbie, be whoever they want to be by playing dress up.