Last week I had plans to attend a Barbie & Ken fancy dress birthday but unfortunately I was unwell and therefore unable to attend. That aside, I’d still love to share with you my pre-planned fancy dress outfit because, who knows, it might come in useful another time!
Most of us know Barbie as the popular toy and fictional character featuring in the childhood of most girls lives. Barbie is the figurehead of a brand of Mattel dolls and accessories, including other family members and collectible dolls, she has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for fifty years. Living the life of a beautiful blonde, Barbie has an on-off relationship with her boyfriend Ken (Oh-la-la!). In her life, Barbie has owned over 40 pets, a wide range of vehicles, a pilot’s license and had careers as a Doctor, Astronaut, Ballerina, Chef, Singer and SCUBA diver to name a few. Her vast portfolio of talents make’s it simpler than you’d first assume to choose a specific Barbie doll for your fancy dress outfit!
Whatever theme Barbie takes on, she always remains glamorous – Dolls, dolls, dolls. After a little research, I chose to dress as Rock Chick Barbie, a doll with some controversy behind it. A rock chick Barbie, with dyed pink hair and a chest and neck covered in tattoos has been criticised by parents’ groups according to the Telegraph in October 2011. Mattel, the manufacturer, described the doll as a ‘funky fashionista’ who is ‘ready for fun in fashion – forward form’ and rightly so in my opinion. All this rubbish on ‘overly-sexualised and inappropriate’ is over the top. It’s a doll for pity-sake, a doll with attitude.
Outfit Inspiration
First place I always look for inspiration when creating a fancy dress outfit is Polyvore. In the top right hand corner there is a search field. On the drop down select “sets” and enter a search term into the field. I also use Polyvore to piece together outfits, to see what they look like together before I consider buying particular items etc. Have a look at my profile here.
Miss Selfridge’s Barbie Collection
Miss Selfridge have recently launched a range of clothing that are adorned with Barbie. Check out a review of the range over on Female First. This was an obvious first choice of a key outfit piece. Unfortunately though, most of the items cost £20 and above, and knowing that I’ll only wear them once or twice I couldn’t justify the price. So next best option – eBay. A stroke of luck allowed me to purchase the Barbie Allover Print Body in black for a cheeky £7.99 including postage. It was on sale second hand and in my size.
Twinkle Trove
The next essential item for the outfit is some Barbie branding. Barbie branding – in the form of a logo necklace. eBay seller Twinkle Trove was the perfect find, offering Large Barbie Name Logo Pendant Charm Necklace. Silver Plated. Cute and Kitsch. As I was attempting the Rock Chick look, I chose the Black Glitter colour but there are various other colour combinations available.
With two key items in place, I just needed to put together the rest of the outfit and focus on the make-up and accessories. Check out the image below to see my Polyvore inspiration board for the outfit.
Make up
I was inspired by the Rock Chick Barbie make-up tutorial by Makeup By Ariel, but wanted to put together a look that suited me and I was comfortable in. That said, bright pink needed to feature. In preparation I followed my Spring Glow: Beauty Secrets Revealed regime so that I’m not as pale as a ghost. My make up tool kit included all my usual essentials, featuring of course the new Eylure false lashes. As I was unfortunately unable to attend the event I can’t share with you a finished look, but hopefully the ideas and links in this paragraph provide some inspiration!
There’s only really one way to end this blog post isn’t there? Introducing “Barbie Girl” by the Danish-Norwegian dance-pop group Aqua. Released in May 1997 as their third single overall, and the first United Kingdom release, it was an undoubted hit with teeny-boppers all over the world!
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