Matty Bovan collaborates with Barbie

Fashion East’s Matty Bovan is collaborating with Barbie to celebrate the famous doll’s 58th birthday.

Bovan, known for his bright, texture-heavy collections, has created a capsule Barbie collection featuring unisex T-shirts, badges, and stickers featuring his distinctive hand-drawn graphics that will be stocked at the Fashion East pop-up space in Selfridges, London.

In addition, the collection also includes a series of one-off Barbie dolls dressed in Matty Bovan spring/summer 2017 pieces.

"Barbie allows both young boys and girls to unlock their imagination of what a woman can be. There are endless possibilities with Barbie and she carries a kind of timeless quality which is why she still has a huge appeal to both adults and children today,” Bovan told Vogue. "Strong female identity is something I grew up surrounded by and something that I found very inspirational - it extends naturally within my own work and practice. I design for myself, but also the female version of me - it's all part of my whole identity.”

Ruth Hickman, Selfridges designer studio buyer, added: "Barbie is my dream Designer Studio customer. I'm thrilled that we can celebrate her Birthday by exclusively showcasing Matty's merchandise in the Fashion East Store - the perfect home for this genius collaboration.”

To coincide with the exclusive collaboration, Bovan also launched a short film, Girlness shot in the designer’s hometown of York, which celebrates women with a diverse set of characters who talk about what it means to be a woman for them and their desire to dress up.

Bovan explains: "In this short film, we have taken Barbie’s values and attitude, to showcase what female identity means to us in 2017.”

Images: courtesy of Barbie by Alastair Strong, second image by Peter Stitson