Neiman Marcus Creates Very Parisian Pop-up For Balmain x Barbie

From toy aisles at Target to a pop-up boutique at the entrance of Neiman Marcus in Dallas — you’ve come a long way, Barbie.

A 2,000-square-foot installation on the ground floor of the NorthPark Center store is to showcase the Balmain x Barbie ready-to-wear collection alongside some playful elements, including a cotton-candy stand and a life-sized doll box for photo ops.

“The collaboration comes at the perfect moment — our clients are looking for something fun and joyful during this uncertain time,” said Lana Todorovich, president and chief merchandising officer of Neiman Marcus, referring to the mostly pink, mostly unisex capsule that is dropping on Thursday. “For Neiman Marcus, luxury is about relationships and curating exclusive products and experiences for our customers. From the moment our merchant team saw the Barbie collaboration, we thought there was something special and nostalgic that would inspire and engage our customers.”

The pop-up, making its debut Thursday and remaining until Jan. 30, coincides with an anniversary: Neiman Marcus is marking its 10-year relationship with Balmain, and bills itself as the multibrand retailer with the largest assortment of the French brand’s collections worldwide.

Spanning everything from T-shirts to evening gowns, the Balmain x Barbie collection will be showcased in a portion of the installation styled after a typical Parisian mansion, while another area — meant to evoke the garden of Palais-Royal via greenery and park benches — will host diverse presentations on models and mannequins, as well as weekend activations like DJ sets.

“We know that this is definitely the Paris where Barbie would be hanging out,” commented Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s creative director since 2011.

“The collection is strong, feminine and it brings the fantasy to life of being a modern Balmain Barbie,” according to Todorovich, who has no qualms about the singular color palette, which runs from blush all the way to bubblegum pink and fuchsia — with a few pops of white.

“Not only do our Neiman Marcus customers naturally gravitate toward pink, but post-pandemic we have seen that happy colors and unique, one-of-a-kind collaborations have generated a lot of interest,” she said in an exclusive interview. “Pink makes perfect sense for a collaboration with Barbie and happens to be one of the bestselling colors at Neiman Marcus.”

According to her, the limited-edition capsule is likely to appeal to brand devotees as well as new customers.

“The Balmain loyalist will want to shop the collection because of the special collector items while the new customer will see particular pieces and feel the same passion she did for Barbie growing up,” she said, suggesting that T-shirts, sweatshirts and leggings represent easy entry points to the designer brand.

Todorovich also lauded the Balmain logos created using emblematic Barbie typology. “Balmain logo product always achieves very high sell-throughs and these updated logos for the one-of-a-kind collaboration should be top picks for our clients,” she said, noting that Neiman’s assortment includes “a bit of everything” from the 70-piece collection, including 11 exclusive styles, plus accessories and footwear.

Retail prices at the pop-up, in other select Neiman Marcus locations, and at neimanmarcus.com range from $295 to $42,494, representing a new frontier for the famous doll, which was created in 1959.

“It’s certainly another milestone moment in the legacy of the Barbie brand,” said Richard Dickson, president and chief operating officer of toy giant Mattel, who touts Barbie as a “universal icon that creates a cultural conversation.”

In a phone interview, Dickson noted that “we now have multiple generations that have grown up with Barbie, have Barbie memories, and have watched Barbie translate to the next generation, and so we really speak to multiple age demographics all at once.”

This is not the first time Mattel has unleashed Barbie products for adults. Dickson pointed out that its first designer partnership, with Oscar de la Renta in 1985 for a limited-edition doll in “Dynasty”-worthy evening creations, put Barbie in front of an audience of collectors. (Coincidentally, de la Renta designed Balmain’s couture collections from 1993 to 2002.)

“I think what’s most unique and curious about the program [with Balmain] is that it actually doesn’t include a doll,” Dickson noted.

Instead, Rousteing got to play with Barbie on a grand scale, applying couture techniques to cocktail and evening dresses, and using the project to underline his prioritization of female empowerment, diversity and inclusivity.

“Fashion runs deep in the Barbie heritage. I mean, she’s classified as a fashion doll,” Dickson noted. “And if you go back through the decades, [and look at the] representation of Barbie fashions, she was always a perfect reflection of what was on trend, and what was happening in the culture.

“Deeply rooted in our purpose is to inspire the limitless potential of girls,” he continue. “And we believe this program [with Balmain] starts to extend that idea in a much broader way to girls, to boys, to the world at large, and infuses what we believe is fun in fashion.”