IoDF Has Created A Barbie Collection Using AI

Barbie-fever is in full swing as London eagerly anticipates the Greta Gerwig film to hit cinemas tomorrow. From pink buses to Margot Robbie’s magnetic visage plastered on newsstands and billboards around the city, there’s no escaping Mattel’s famous doll. Well, the Institute of Digital Fashion is jumping on the bandwagon while also pushing their manifesto of a more inclusive and diverse fashion industry with their latest release. Using AI, IoDF has created a collection of Barbies inspired by London’s legendary queer nightlight.

‘The Barbie brand and catalogue has diversified so much since it’s inception – ‘Barbie’ as a brand is now so much more than the fantasy ideal of the blonde, white, cis female original, the concept has evolved and grown past the binary. For us at IoDF we saw an opportunity to celebrate our London, our home and the need for these fast disappearing safe LGBTQI+ places’, explains IoDF co-founder Leanne Elliott Young.

When the Insititute of Digital Fashion launched in 2020, co-founders Young and Cattytay expressed their desire to utilise Web 3.0 technology as tool for democratising fashion, and their latest release is no exception. In response to criticisms of Barbie’s white, heteronormative history, IoDF have created six digital dolls that embody some of the city’s most popular queer nights out. From Adonis to Pxssy Palace, each doll is as unique as its inspiration and captures the energy of London’s queer community and celebrates the creativity that drives it.

'IoDF have brought Barbie to OUR London – the real, queer London night scene. We’re honouring the clubs and the subcultures, bringing them into this iconic Barbie narrative to further show how digital representation and experimentation can be a force to push for diversity and inclusion,' explains CattyTay.