What is it about Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie that has collectively consumed us all? In the two days since the latest teaser trailer dropped, the internet has been overtaken by memes, unearthed Barbie lore, and the kind of analysis we usually see around superhero movies, but it’s also rife with some widely mocked takes of a movie we’ve barely seen anything from.
Perhaps the most-discussed shot of the trailer comes around nine seconds in and encapsulates all of the above: Barbie’s (Margot Robbie) feet stay pointed up even when she’s not wearing heels, a nod to how the dolls are designed with pointed feet.
But as much as the shot’s been praised, it’s also been used in a now-ratioed tweet indicating something Barbie doesn’t have: More tie-ins.
“So nobody in marketing over at the Barbie movie thought this could have been a great opportunity for a designer tie-in?” Louis Pisano tweeted.
The Barbie movie doesn’t come out for another couple of months, so there is the potential for a designer partnership with Barbie to be announced closer to the film’s release date in June. But as it stands, the criticism comes off as someone criticizing Barbie, a movie based around a product, for not having enough product placement.
In the Barbie movie, Barbie herself is the brand.
“Even if they did tie-in designer shoes who would notice?” All eyes are on the iconic, pointed Barbie feet lol” @Shai_Berry replied.
When Pisano suggested other shoes Barbie could’ve used instead, that was also mocked. (The costumes, which already made a mark in viral set photos last year, are the work of Academy Award-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who previously worked with Gerwig on Little Women.)
Some folks brought back the human-sized Barbie shoes that Mattel used to sell and might have served as inspiration for Barbie’s shoes—not to mention classic designs.
We might still be mostly in the dark about what will happen in Barbie, but a few things are already evident in what we’ve been shown: Barbie is everything—and so is her fashion. Even if we might not know just who she’s wearing.
