Barbie, one of the biggest films of 2023, gets its global release today.
The sartorial crossover between Greta Gerwig's sun-fried, California aesthetic of the Barbieverse and our more quaint and measured tradition of GAA is not really obvious on the surface. However a brilliant twitter thread from Adam Moynihan on Friday helped us all see the connections between the two.
And as it turns out, nostalgic sports apparel played in an important role in shaping the look of the film. The film's costume designer Jacqueline Durran told Vogue that retro sportswear did play an important role in deciding the apparel that Ken wears.
"Retro sportswear is one area where we did a lot of shopping for Ken. He is sporty. That’s his main thing. We had buyers in America that went to dealers and imported it for us because we needed so much of it.”
Adam Moynihan connected the dots between the vintage GAA jerseys and the Barbie universe, and we must say, the similarities are real. From Trevor Giles's sleeveless jersey in 1999 way back to the Cavan team who played Kerry in New York in 1947, the Barbie-ness of GAA jerseys has clearly hiding in plain sight before us all.
Wexford 2004
Monaghan 2003
Kerry 2018
Cavan 1947
Donegal 2011
Meath 1999
Limerick 2021
Dublin 2016
Sligo 2020
For more content like this, visit Adam Moynihan on Twitter and Vintage GAA on instagram.
