If ever there was a time when pink was the most fashionable colour around, it was last summer. That was when the Barbie movie hit the screens and cinema-goers could not have failed to notice just how many of those who went to see the film wore pink for the occasion.
Attention was heightened in this case by the fact that Barbie went head-to-head with Oppenheimer, a movie that could not have been more different.
While one was an escapist, fictional fun film with a female central character, the other was a deep, grim, historical biopic about the man who helped unlock the potential of atomic power in a way that threatens our very existence to this day. While pink was worn in the seats at Barbie, nobody went to see Oppenheimer in a white Hazmat suit.
This curious juxtaposition - dubbed ‘Barbenheimer’ in the media - had a curious sequel at the Academy Awards, when it appeared any debate about which was actually the better film was crushed by Oppenheimer securing seven Oscars to Barbie’s one.
However, just because Barbie didn’t win a load of Oscars does not mean that the sudden surge of pinkness was not an expression of something substantial, rather than the fleeting effect Barbie had on the attention of the female public last summer.
If you want to wear a pink crossbody bag this summer, the absence of any blockbuster films everyone wears pink to see shouldn’t put you off for one second.
Of course, there are those contrarians who argue pink is not a natural female colour anyway and it’s all about social stereotypes, while on the other side are people who claim it is somehow embedded in our genes as a result of gender roles in prehistoric times when women would pick red fruit while the men hunted animals - all highly speculative stuff.
Whatever the truth, when all is said and done, pink is always in fashion for women, so the issue of why that is can be considered a secondary question.
That this isn’t an issue dependent on a pink-themed blockbuster film is just as well. Barbie star Margot Robbie showed up at the Academy Awards in a black dress, not pink, a choice that raised a few eyebrows, especially after she had previously appeared in pink many times.
However, the good old, ever-reliable(?) Huffington Post was quick to inform us all that the choice was not a funereal black to mourn the lack of Oscar nominations (she missed out on Best Actress), but a chance to let the limelight fall on co-star America Ferrera, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress Prize and turned up in a bright pink Versace dress.
Since Ferrera had previously eschewed pink on Barbie press events in favour of dark colours, this was clearly deliberate, said fashion content creator Holy Agnes. “By swapping colours, they swapped attention,” she observed, adding this was “totally intentional, and the right thing to do.”
It may be another film coming along soon that gets everyone heading to the cinema dressed in pink. There may even be a Barbie 2. But whether this happens or not, be assured that pink will remain in fashion nonetheless.
