Barbie craze has Aussies spending big despite cost-of-living

Forget the field workplace showdown of Barbie vs Oppenheimer — the enduring doll is perhaps saving her knockout punch for Philip Lowe.

While the Reserve Bank boss has been urging Australians to chop spending to get inflation below management for months, Barbie has customers in a tizz as they rush to swipe their plastic sooner than you’ll be able to say, she’s improbable.

The 64-year-old doll — which can set you again wherever from $13 to $60 or tens of hundreds for a classic doll in its authentic field — has shifted greater than a billion items since its launch in 1959 and has by no means actually strayed removed from merchandise aisles. But Barbie is browsing a brand new wave of recognition due to the primary live-action movie starring and produced by Aussie celebrity Margot Robbie and directed by Greta Gerwig. And make no mistake that wave is Mattel’s copyrighted Barbie Pink (that’s Pantone 219C in case you have been questioning).

If you’ve been strolling round purchasing centres along with your eyes closed, you’ll have failed to note that Barbie is in all places proper now. There’s barely a store entrance that doesn’t have Barbie merchandise splashed throughout its window show.

The advertising and marketing has been intense, progressive and inescapable.

Internationally, Mattel and Warner Bros. have inked tons of of name partnerships with everybody from US giants Bloomingdales to world heavyweights Revlon, OPI, Vans and Crocs.

Closer to residence you’ll see Dotti, Cotton On, Jay Jays and Peter Alexander providing Barbie-themed clothes, pyjamas, jewelry and drink bottles.

Even Zara has received in on the craze turning their New York and Paris shops into immersive Barbie pop-ups and launching a basic Barbie capsule assortment comprising pink denim two items, retro black and white swimsuits and shimmery night clothes.

The vogue and make-up collaborations have been considerably to be anticipated as followers received on board the Barbiecore vogue development, however the addition of Glasshouse Barbie-themed fragrances, Ruggable Barbie toned rug, Barbie XBox, Barbie Impala Rollerskates and Barbie and Ken popping up on relationship app Bumble proves the advertising and marketing push surrounding the model has been groundbreaking and ubiquitous. You may even head to Grill’d for a Barbie Dreamburger with pink mayonnaise.

The Barbiecore gown code was properly and actually embraced by the Perthonalities, media and influencers who gathered for the movie’s Perth premiere on Monday evening.

You’d be forgiven for pondering Peppa Pig’s whole household spontaneously combusted within the lobby of Events Cinema Innaloo with followers decked out in satin, sequins, taffeta and lace in each conceivable shade of pink. Hair was completely coiffed probably utilizing Mermade Hair’s Barbie Blowout Kit whereas OPI was readily available to color the city’s nails pink with their Hi Barbie nail polish.

So why has the world gone Barbie loopy? There’s little question a myriad of causes.

The movie itself is predicted to have widespread attraction. Both Robbie and Gerwig are revered names throughout the trade and the movie is touted as enjoyable and inoffensive, if considerably overly earnest, with blows to capitalism and sexism softened by Nineteen Fifties-style musical sequences and a pop soundtrack that includes Dua Lipa, Charli XCX and Nicki Minaj.