Some 200 Barbie fans braved a hard rain on Wednesday evening as they made their way to the Rizzoli bookstore in Manhattan for the release of a coffee-table book celebrating the doll’s fashion history.
Inside, some took off their raincoats to reveal pink skirts, scarves, sweaters and blazers. Before a panel discussion began, they helped themselves to pink velvet cupcakes and rosé.
Two friends in the crowd, Carol Torre and Anahy Antara, reflected on their fandom.
“I don’t really know much about the book,” Ms. Torre, an accountant, said. “I’m just here because I love Barbie.”
“I’ve been hitting thrift shops to try to pull off Barbie’s style ever since the movie came out,” Ms. Antara, a university administrator, added. “The truth is, lots of us still want to be Barbie. Sure, I’m all for bra-burning and feminism, but I still want to be like her.”
Published by Rizzoli and authored by Margot Robbie and her stylist, Andrew Mukamal, “Barbie: The World Tour” explores the Mattel doll as a style icon. Its pages are filled with portraits of Ms. Robbie, the star of Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster film, wearing outfits including a Givenchy dress inspired by Gay Parisienne Barbie, and a Miu Miu ensemble recalling Evening Splendor Barbie.
Fabien Baron art-directed the project, and the fashion spreads were photographed by Craig McDean. The book also includes handwritten tributes on Barbie’s cultural influence from designers like Donatella Versace and Manolo Blahnik.
The evening’s talk, moderated by the journalist Esther Zuckerman, featured Mr. Mukamal, Mr. Baron and Mr. McDean.
Mr. Mukamal said the book was conceived as a way to show off looks that never made it to red carpets, because of the monthslong actors’ strike that cut into Ms. Robbie’s global press tour for “Barbie.”
“That lit the fire under Margot and I to say, ‘OK, well, we have all these looks that we’ve prepared, all these designers and brands that have lent their genius to our vision,” Mr. Mukamal said. “How can we do something to make sure that this is all visible and commemorated somewhere?”
After reminiscing about cutting the hair of Barbie dolls with his sister as a boy, Mr. Baron said that he had included archival snippets of the doll’s history in the book as a way to give it a “collage vibe.” “Rather than just having pictures of Margot,” he said, “I wanted it to feel like a diary, something that she could have penned herself. That’s why there’s handwriting everywhere.”
During the Q. and A. session, one fan asked why the book didn’t include outfits from the “Dolls of the World” Barbie collection.
“There’s a lot of room for misinterpretation if, say, Margot is wearing a kimono or something,” Mr. Mukamal said. “Barbie is transformative enough, but there’s people out there who might interpret that a little bit incorrectly.”
Then the three panelists — who all wore black — sat at a table covered in pink sequins to sign books.
In the crowd was Sally Singer, a former Vogue editor and the newly minted president of Art + Commerce at William Morris Endeavor’s fashion division.
“Some of the most eccentric people I know are Barbie fans, and many people on the fringes of fashion have always used Barbie as an incubator for their creativity,” Ms. Singer said. “I’ve always seen her as a kind of companion to self-creative, singular and avant-garde people.”
Michelle Mackliff, a fashion consultant, had brought along a Barbie doll from her own collection that was still in its box: a 1995 Donna Karan New York limited edition Bloomingdale’s Barbie. As she waited in line to have her book signed, other fans gathered to ogle the chicly outfitted doll, which held a miniature Big Brown Bag from the Manhattan department store.
“I’ve been thinking lots recently about why I love Barbie so much,” Ms. Mackliff said. “I guess it’s because I first started dreaming about what was possible with my life because of her. She was my first feminist symbol.”
“I still remember getting my first Barbie as a girl for Christmas when I was growing up in Ecuador,” she added. “And you know what? I still have that doll to this day.”
