Barbie is celebrating Black History Month in style. The iconic Matel brand teamed up with fashion label Cross Colours on an editorial-style series for the @BarbieStyle Instagram account.
Cross Colours rose to fame in the 1990s and was worn by Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Dr. Dre, TLC, Will Smith, and the cast of In Living Color. The editorial style series from the two influential fashion brands will “celebrate positivity, inclusivity, and the ethos of Cross Colours, clothing without prejudice,” per a press email from Cross Colours.
“We are honored to be working with Mattel and their incredible team to bring the Cross Colours Barbie and the Cross Colours Ken, to life on BarbieStyle. Our brand stands for Clothing Without Prejudice, which means diversity and inclusion, and we can’t think of a better way to amplify our message than through this collaboration. We also think these dolls are the flyest,” Cross Colour founders Carl Jones and TJ Walker said in the same press email.
They added, “To us, Black History Month represents our freedom to wake up everyday and do the work that we love. We are and always have been both inspired and driven by the Black leaders who came before us (Martin Luther King, Shirley Chisholm, Jr., Malcolm X, etc.) and we believe the best thing we can do to honor their legacy is to represent what they fought for — the freedom to be whoever you want to be. What makes this even more significant to us is the fact that the work we do allows us to positively impact and inspire our communities. To us, there’s nothing better than that.”
Jones and Walker expressed how influential Barbie has been throughout the brand’s 65 years and has impacted “countless people all over the world, regardless of age, gender, race, etc.”
“For us, this is one of the most important collaborations we have done in the history of the Cross Colours brand. Barbie and her world have evolved to represent people of all shapes, sizes, and colors, essentially embodying our core mission statement: Clothing (and in this case also ‘play’) Without Prejudice,” they said.
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A series of photos shared via the @BarbieStyle Instagram page features three melanated Barbies donning classic Cross Colour pieces. One Barbie is sporting a denim two-piece set accented by an orange hoodie and a matching denim bucket hat over her braids. Another natural-haired Barbie model mixes an oversized denim jacket with a one-piece jumpsuit and over-the-knee boots. The Ken model sports the brand’s trademark red, green, black and yellow sweatsuit, along with a matching bomber jacket.
The Cross Colour pieces featured in the editorial are currently on sale at CrossColours.com.
