Christian Dior Couture Fall 2011: Barbie, Time Travel, and Outer Space

When I was a kid, my favourite movie wasn’t Sleeping Beauty or Home Alone but the little-known cartoon flick Barbie and the Rockers: Out of This World. When my parents would take me to the video rental place, I’d gravitate to this out-dated 1980s TV special (which I referred to as “Barbie in Space”) like a bee to honey, or Tommy Ton to Anna Dello Russo.

Guys, this movie was CRACKED. OUT. After discovering last year that the cinematic light of my preschool life had been uploaded to YouTube, I decided to re-watch it. The plot, which had seemed totally logical when I was three, goes a little something like this:

Barbie and her rock band go to space, and when they arrive back on earth, they somehow end up back in the 1950s. Luckily, the first person they meet is some sort of time travel specialist who helps them get back to the eighties. Interspersed throughout are shopping montages and dance sequences.

So it makes sense that while many members of the fashion press panned Dior’s first couture collection sans Galliano for lacking focus, I saw a clear unifying theme.

Think about it: The bold makeup. The celestial elements. The eighties meets fifties silhouettes.

You guys, this collection is totally Barbie in Space!

On a non-Barbie-related note, I love the scalloping detail on some of the pieces in the collection, like the Nemo-coloured skirt above. It reminds me of Christopher Kane's Planet of the Apes-inspired season (S/S 2009), one of my favourite collections of ALL TIME.

What did you guys think of the new Dior? Am I seriously the only one who liked it? And am I the only one who remembers Barbie and the Rockers?