Following the brand’s Fall / Winter 2021 digital fashion show, Balmain announced its collaboration with Mattel. Virtual Barbie and Ken appeared in the same spot where Olivier Rousteing’s models took over the runway, aka the wing of an AirFrance plane.
The CGI dolls featured double-breasted blazers with pagoda shoulders and gold buttons. Images of dolls based on archive bags from 1945 designed by House founder Pierre Balmain himself are being augmented.
Rousteing admitted to playing Barbie as a child, but kept everything secret from his parents. “I remember my dad didn’t want me to hold Barbie in my hands, but I think he’s wrong,” he said. In the photoshoot, Rousteing plays on the idea of blue and pink as gender-specific colors by courting both Ken and Barbie in both colors as a way of counteracting gender stereotypes.