péro’s Aneeth Arora & Dream Theatre’s Jiggy George on reimagining Barbie through Indian craft
As a girl who grew up in her own little fantasyland, much like so many of us, Barbie has always added a little whimsy to my life in more ways than one. She was never just a doll to me, or to many of us. Rather, a one-way ticket to a fairytale world where the clouds were pink, chocolate fountains overflowed, and Barbies danced as if nobody was watching. And even after all these years, the very word Barbie still holds that power.
Hence, it’s only natural for your expectations to head straight through the roof when Barbie decides to collaborate with péro, the Indian label known for its playful take on craft and fashion.
“Given Barbie’s theme, the first thing I wanted to do was create a dream wardrobe for her. She has one of the most versatile wardrobes imaginable, and her style has evolved tremendously since she was first introduced in 1959. Over the decades, we’ve seen so many different sides of her emerge, each reflecting the time she lived in. I felt there was an opportunity to bring all these facets together and offer her a wardrobe that celebrates this evolution. That’s how the name of the collection, Dream Dress Up came about,” shares Aneeth Arora, founder of péro.
For Jiggy George, founder of Dream Theatre, Mattel’s licensing agency in India, the appeal of the collaboration lay in seeing a familiar global icon enter a very different design universe while remaining unmistakably herself.
“That is always the real test with a partnership like this. It cannot just be about putting a name on a product. The creative partner has to have a point of view, and the result has to feel like it belongs in their world. Barbie brings a highly recognisable visual world, while péro can interpret it through its own language rather than simply reproduce it. People do not just want to see a familiar brand appear in another category. They want a new take on it, something thought through that gives them a reason to look again.”
Is nostalgia fashion’s biggest commercial currency?
Barbie may be a global icon, but part of her enduring appeal lies in the memories she brings back. Which begs the question: is nostalgia the biggest commercial currency in fashion right now?
For Jiggy George, the answer is a little more nuanced. Nostalgia certainly has commercial value, but its appeal goes beyond the familiar. “We are living through a fairly unsettled time globally, economically, politically, and socially. When the world feels uncertain, people often look for things that feel familiar, comforting, and connected to a happier time in their lives. That is one reason older brands, characters, music, and design references are finding such a strong response again. But nostalgia can only get you in the door. If the whole idea is simply ‘remember this?’, it wears thin very quickly. The past may create an emotional connection, but a collaboration still needs to say something new.”
And perhaps that is what makes the péro x Barbie partnership interesting. It taps into the collective nostalgia of growing up with Barbie, but it doesn’t stop at revisiting the past. It reimagines an icon through the lens of Indian craft and a label that has always marched to the beat of its own drum.
