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The press tour for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie ran for no more than six months, but its impact will be felt for years to come. The aftershocks of Margot Robbie dressed in pale-pink Vivienne Westwood and hot-pink Versace and polka dot-pink Valentino and gingham-pink Prada – which though fun at the time – continue to my rattle my nervous system whenever I get a press email subject-lined with the term “Barbiecore”, or its clumsier 2024 descendant: “Tenniscore”.
And so, it comes as little surprise that Margot Robbie’s first street-style look in four months was bereft of any kind of colour scheme that might have appeared in Barbie Land. She was photographed yesterday afternoon strolling through Manhattan with her husband Tom Ackerly while dressed in total, monochromatic greige: an outsized Another Tomorrow blazer and acid-washed jeans with a worn-in New York Yankees cap and a diminutive handbag tucked beneath her shoulder. Consider it a palette cleanser after months of hard-working appearances on the red pink carpet circuit.
The idea that Margot Robbie might be dressing in normal clothing would doubtless spark fear in Barbie, but the actor’s casual middle-American tourist look has arrived at an opportune moment in culture. This week marks 10 years since the trend-forecasting art collective K-Hole coined “normcore”, which was itself inspired by the kind of things celebrities would wear to evade the paparazzi: caps, jeans, lots of grey marl Nike sweaters. Margot Robbie might have fled the Dreamhouse, but it seems she will never escape the “-core” suffix.