Is Zara x Barbie’s Fashion Collection Promoting An ‘Unrealistic’ Body Type?
Image via Zara
Zara has teamed up with Mattel’s Barbie for a clothing line. The new collection serves as an anniversary collection of a previous release from 2020, which comprised a range of printed T-shirts and bodysuits in Barbie branding.
The 2021 collection features female athleisure pieces including a hoodie, jogging trousers, long-sleeve top, T-shirts, shorts, and swimwear.
Zara will also sell limited-edition Barbie dolls online There will be two dolls, each wearing ‘Zara Barbie 1959’ statement activewear like an oversized hoodie with joggers. The dolls, which are fully articulated, come with doll stands.
Proceeds from the sales will be donated to charity Entreculturas, a non-profit group that encourages equal access to education as a tool for promoting justice and fostering cross-cultural understanding.
“Barbie’s newest collaboration with Zara reflects the latest spring trends in great style, perfectly tied with the power of the Barbie brand,” says Lisa Weger, consumer products head, Europe, Mattel. “We’re excited to see it come together in a strong and accessible collection that will attract Barbie and Zara fans around the world.”
The collection, however, did not sit well with many shoppers. Several customers took issue with Barbie’s unchanged aesthetic, which includes a slim frame and a lack of character.
An Instagram account called @AwkwardZara has weighed in on the collection, calling it “an utter trainwreck of a collection destined for landfill.”
“Zara’s recent Barbie collection has raised a lot of really interesting and valid concerns from our followers on the topic of perpetuating Barbie’s unrealistic body type,” the Instagrammer wrote. “At a time when EDs are rightly being discussed more than ever as harmful to young women, a collection celebrating a plastic doll with proportions which cannot possibly be achieved by a real human - with creative direction such as low angle photography designed to elongate their bodies to a level of distortion - feels tone-deaf.”
Many social media users flocked to the comments section to express their exact sentiments towards the collection.
“Seriously Zara: I genuinely thought we left this skewed body image back in the 90s? Disappointed,” one Instagram user wrote. “To me, this is a missed opportunity. Barbie's strength is that she can be whoever she wants: she can be a princess, a doctor, a mother, an astronaut, and so on. Instead, this campaign seems to promote Barbie as a body type women should aspire to,” another said.
Several other users, however, defended the fashion campaign. “Just like this Barbie collection - it sparked a conversation, which is what art is supposed to do. They played with the way models are portrayed, as if they were plastic, - and it's on the viewer to read into it or not. I didn’t see it as Zara’s attempt to push an ‘unrealistic’ body figure,” a user said, backing the collection.
See the campaign visuals below.
Image via Zara
Image via Zara
@ZARA new barbie range images are everything that’s wrong with the world
— Carmen Lizzie (@CarmenWebster) April 14, 2021
[via Tyla, cover image via Zara]
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