Impact of Barbie’s “A Fashion Fairytale”
My first couture exposure was through the film Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale at age 6. I felt the magic of the runway show. I wanted to learn more about the wonderful designs and heritage of luxury fashion houses and see Paris, the founder of high fashion and the birthplace of famous designers. Someone wise (Gertrude Stein) once said “America is my country, but Paris is my hometown.” In the first grade, my teacher Mrs. Bonila had us write down our dreams for the future and a place we would like to visit. My two paragraphs described visiting Paris, the city of fashion—seeing the fashion houses and showrooms in person, and working for a fashion magazine as an adult. Writing articles and researching runway looks for inspiration was something I aspired to do. I always knew what I wanted to pursue in life. My second dream was to become a billionaire philanthropist, likely in my later years. Mrs. Bonila used to say “Aim for the sky and never look back.” She asked my mother if we were visiting Paris soon, after hearing about my dream. My mother replied, “Oh, she wishes, but we can’t go this year.”
I explored Paris at age 17. There were hectic crowds everywhere. Paris has beautiful architecture, gigantic stone sculptures, antique buildings, and expensive designer apparel stores such as Cos, The Kooples, Chanel, LV, Céline, Hermēs, Isabel Marant, Maje, Dior, Sézane, Balmain, Sœur, Zadig et Voltaire, Balzac, Ami Paris, and more. Paris’ incredible art museums, vast castles decorated with paintings, sculptures, marble, gold gilded ceilings, and parks transported me to an olden time.
Paris was nothing like the pink sparkly imaginative place I saw in the Barbie movie, but it was a historical masterpiece. The city itself was inscribed in its history as the fashion leader for centuries. Paris was the epitome of couture, class, arts, and literature, and people looked to Paris for inspiration.
I ventured into the Catacombs underground where I saw thousands of well-preserved, stacked human skulls/bones. A fellow tourist read out loud the Latin scriptures carved into the stone walls. The air was musty, thick, and chilly. I was a bit scared walking down fifteen minutes of the small spiral staircase, but it was too cool to miss out on. I saw the Catacombs in a cartoon movie as a 9-year-old Monster High: Scaris: City of Frights (2013). Yes, child-me planned to visit the foreign destinations I saw in cartoons, and now, I’ve visited most of those locations!
Throughout my childhood, I loved seeing international settings on television. Barbie’s A Fashion Fairytale exemplified how fashion is part of magic, a creative collection of people’s work. Fashion is powerful, motivating, architectural, interesting, bold, chic, and universal. To me, fashion will always be magical.
In the future, I hope to see the inside of showrooms in Paris and maybe meet a few designers and photographers! For now, I continue to live vicariously through Barbie.
