Look of the Week: ‘Barbie’ stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling hit the road in bubblegum pink

Jacqui Palumbo, CNN

The “Barbie” movie will debut this summer, and a new trailer for the Greta Gerwig-directed film has revealed further glimpses into the fantastically plastic Barbie Land.

This includes more matchy-matchy bubblegum pink outfits worn by Margot Robbie, in the title role, and Ryan Gosling’s Ken as they sit in a convertible on their way to the real world. Robbie dons her chicest vacation look (her beret, tailored dress and side braid are “Emily in Paris” meets Barbiecore) while Gosling goes full wife-guy in a “B” logo jacket.

“Did you bring your rollerblades?” Barbie asks.

“I literally go nowhere without them,” Ken replies, holding up a pair of highlighter-yellow skates seen in leaked photos last year.

The movie (distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, which is owned by CNN’s parent company) hits theaters in July, and the new trailer hints at Gerwig’s dedication to Barbie world-building and style — right from the opening shot of Barbie’s feet slipping out of her shoes but retaining their signature high arch.

“Her taking her foot out of the heel only for it to still be in the Barbie foot shape… THAT IS CINEMA,” tweeted Luxx Noir London, a former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant.

Barbie Land lore

This week’s trailer was accompanied by a series of a posters that sent viewers hunting for clues about which dolls will be brought to life. The franchise’s most dedicated fans may recognize newly unveiled characters, including Allan (Michael Cera), who appears to be Ken’s discontinued “buddy” from the 1960s, and Midge (Emerald Fennell), who is seemingly modeled on a pregnant doll of the same name that was pulled off Wal-Mart’s shelves in 2002 due to customer complaints.

Joining them is Issa Rae as a presidential Barbie, Dua Lipa as a mermaid Barbie and Kate McKinnon, who has the chopped hair, scrawled-on makeup and intense eyes of a doll who’s seen one too many things.

The movie’s costumes have meanwhile sparked excitement since last June, when on-set photos of Robbie and Gosling — who were spotted wearing cowgirl and cowboy outfits and neon rollerblading ensembles, complete with knee pads and visors — set the internet alight.

“We look like we’re laughing and having fun, but we’re dying on the inside — dying,” Robbie told Jimmy Fallon after the images went viral. “I was like, ‘This is the most humiliating moment of my life.'”

Plot details remain tightly under wraps, but Robbie has said that “Barbie” won’t be anything like what viewers expect.

“We like the things that feel a little left of center,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2020. “Something like Barbie where the IP, the name itself, people immediately have an idea of, ‘Oh, Margot is playing Barbie, I know what that is,’ but our goal is to be like, ‘Whatever you’re thinking, we’re going to give you something totally different — the thing you didn’t know you wanted.'”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.