This girl made a full on skirt out of Barbies for a festival and my jaw is on the floor

This girl spent six hours making a skirt out of naked Barbies for Boomtown festival and everyone is in awe.

Rebekah is a 24-year-old law grad from Manchester who started a festival clothing brand festivalstyled five years ago. She has since gained 109k followers on TikTok posting festival and fashion content.

The skirt took her six hours and she’s now looking into selling the skirt and donating the money to a women’s charity. She told The Tab: “I love dancing around feeling like a different character and looking at other people’s costumes. It adds an extra layer of magic to the festival.”

We spoke to her to find out more about her iconic Barbie festival skirt and the process behind it.

Rebekah was inspired to make the Barbie skirt after seeing the Barbie movie a couple of weeks ago: “I went to see the Barbie movie and was in love with the whole experience – the pink everywhere, all the girls together watching it or dragging their boyfriends to a film that focuses on women’s experiences which we need more of.

“I really wanted to do a Barbie costume for Boomtown because I saw so many people’s takes on the outfits on TikTok and I knew everyone would be doing that on Halloween. I didn’t want it to just be copying Margot’s outfits from the movie because that would be overdone so I was thinking about how I could build an outfit out of Barbie dolls. I decided a skirt would be the best option!”

She continued: “I never really played with Barbies as a kid, but I feel like since going to festivals I have really got into dressing up and expressing myself in a way that feels so freeing and childlike. Making-over the Barbies into “raver barbies” just felt like I was returning to what I would have done as a kid but with the extra layer of knowing what I like and what outfits really express my style.”

She bought all of the Barbies for the costume off Vinted: “I tried to find Barbies in the local charity shops but there weren’t enough for a whole skirt, so I bought a bundle off a lady on Vinted.” The Barbies cost £18.

Making the costume took six hours, which she described as “so therapeutic”. “My dad helped me with most of the construction. We had to attach a strap to the back of each barbie that would fit a belt through it.”

She then painted on a festival look onto each Barbie. “I felt like it looked weird to have them naked and I wanted to tie the hair up because it felt super itchy to have touching you.”

She did different festival hairstyles on the Barbies including bubble braids and space bun as well as giving them highlighter highlights. “I think a Barbie land full of rave Barbies would be the best thing ever,” she said. Gonna need an official festival Barbie ASAP!

It might have looked incredible but Rebekah said the Barbie festival skirt wasn’t the the most comfy thing to wear to a festival. “It wasn’t the comfiest because it was heavy and to go to the toilet was a bit of a kick up the bum. The part I was most worried about was the pink fur trim jacket I wore because I really didn’t want it to get muddy.”

The 24-year-old said she was “almost too shy” to wear the outfit since she was camping alone. “But it was really fun to wear,” she said and “once it was on it wasn’t coming off!”

“Ever since I started going to events my favourite thing to wear has been costumes. I love dancing around feeling like a different character and looking at other people’s costumes – it adds an extra layer of magic to the festival.

“I also hate when people say that caring about your festival outfits means that you aren’t there for the music. I think the whole thing is about art and creativity and spending weeks prepping for festival costumes is definitely a way of channelling your excitement to go.”

Since sharing her Barbie skirt on TikTok, Rebekah has received thousands of likes and comments. One video reached 1.8 million views and over 60k likes. She said: “The response has been so unexpected I have had hundreds of comments of people loving the series. Although one recent video clearly ended up on the wrong side of TikTok and the aggressive mean comments from men were just funny to to me. They are definitely bringing the bad kenergy!”

Rebekah is now looking into auctioning off the Barbie skirt and donating it to a women’s charity such as ActionAID, a charity that works with women and girls living in poverty.

Featured images via Mark Box, Chief Photographic Technician, Digital Content Unit. 

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