I'm about to say something controversial, but before I do please know that this isn't a personal attack. If you're obsessed with all things fuchsia, I'm happy for you. If you're counting down the seconds until the Barbie movie's launch on the 21st, great. If you're wearing head-to-toe pink in my presence I won't condemn you. I might roll my eyes, but I promise I'll try really hard not to. And I'm certainly team Margot-Robbie-can-do-no-wrong. In fact I'm captain of that team…
That said, I think I've seen enough pink over the last few months to last me a lifetime.
For someone with the surname ‘Teather’ I'm ironically rarely at the end of mine, but it seems that I may have found my tipping point. And it looks like that point is pink.
It's everywhere, and - for once - I'm not exaggerating. It's been dominating shop windows. It's been all over my FYP. It's been on the front page of magazines. It's been in the office. It's been on public transport. It's been the centre of just about every press release I've been sent over the last month. And I, for one, have had it.
I've never resigned myself to the influencer-led obsession with tonal neutrals when it comes to matters of the wardrobe, but so ubiquitous has this candy pink hue been of late that I think I'm ready to quit colour altogether.
Okay maybe not all colour, but one more migraine-inducing Barbie premiere might push me to that.
Let me rewind a bit, and provide you with some context to justify a feeling that might right now feel entirely irrational.
Back in March 2022, with just two days to go until a month-long season of autumn/winter 2022 runway shows would come to a close, Pierpaolo Piccioli didn't just win Paris Fashion Week; he won fashion month.
Showcasing an entirely monochromatic electric pink collection and staged in an equally vibrant pink venue, a fuchsia-clad Zendaya led a slew of on-brand a-list attendees - all hooked on fashion's new favourite hue - towards their pink seats to witness Valentino's vibrant vision unfold. What followed was nothing short of a phenomenon.
High street brands quickly launched exclusively pink offerings, and everyone from Hollywood royalty Lady Gaga and Florence Pugh to supermodels Naomi Campbell and Gigi Hadid leapt on the trend immediately.
Naturally, the minute the Pantone Colour Institute caught wind of it there was no option but to immortalise the moment with a collection devoted to the now-iconic ‘Pink PP’ hue, rendering Valentino the first European luxury brand to partner with Pantone.
Of course, it was also around this time that the upcoming Barbie movie was announced. With a first-look image of the film revealed during a Warned Brothers presentation at CinemaCon just a few weeks later - you know the one, with a fully Barbie-fied Margot Robbie sitting behind the wheel of the iconic pink 1956 Chevrolet Corvet - it seemed like divine timing.
After all, had there ever been a more timely moment to launch a movie essentially devoted to the colour pink?
One Mattel exec visited the film’s set to “argue” over a scene, while another said that this is “not a feminist movie,” according to a new Time magazine cover.
Unfortunately the film wasn't *actually* dropping for over a year, by which time - we should perhaps have foreseen - we might be growing ever so slightly sick of the saccharine shade.
Fifteen months - and fifteen thousand pink-clad Barbie premieres later - and I'm over it. Can you tell?
Of course, when you see me in-line for one of the earliest screenings of Barbie on Friday 21st… mind your business. I might be wearing beige and biting my tongue at the inevitable sea of pink, but I'm hoping that watching this film will be like the closure you dream of from an ex-boyfriend.
As long as we all promise to park the pink from the 22nd onwards.
It's Barbie's world and we're just living in it.
For more from Glamour UK's Fashion Editor Charlie Teather, follow her on Instagram @charlieteather.
