Person, place or thing – nouns are one of the first language techniques we learn to express ourselves, and style may be a close second. 
 
Clothes have instinctively been a way to codify ourselves, whether we opt into trends, brazenly defy them or ambivalently ignore them. Often the trifecta that defines the noun blends together: certain looks are indicative of a certain place to become a thing. 
 
Look no further than the French girl myth, most recently reinvigorated by JACQUEMUS’ “Le Chouchou” show in Versailles. The popular fashion trope, both assigned to the city of Paris and dictated by effortless, feminine because was captured in the ready-to-wear collection. Symbols of the label – cloud-like silhouettes, a litany of lace, sheer ensembles, and statement heels that appear to move smoothly in spite of their shape – exaggerated the lingering image that apparated out of a collective imagination.

More recently, the Daniels’ multi-Oscar winning sci-fi comedic drama Everything, Everywhere All At Once, reset the dial on the portrait of immigrant Asian portrayals onscreen, with as many multi-universe levels as it had themes, as it had expressions as it had types of characters one individual may assume throughout their life. Such an inter-dimensional obscurity, served to us with lead actress Michelle Yeoh’s sausage fingers, devoured the mundane portrait of lower-middle class suburban life, centring empathy and imagination at the centre of an individual’s exploration of selfhood in their wider community. 
 
As each generation attempts to define a style, a new era unravels it – ripping apart the narrative to cast looks in a new light. 
 
Currently two works dominate the public consciousness: Sam Levinson’s The Idol and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film – both popularised for their high octane appeal, and their take on overtly typecast characters. Where Levinson’s show portrays a stereotype of the oversexed, misaligned LA starlet,  piecing together a widely panned glimpse of the pitfalls of fame that appears as if the paparazzi made a TV series themselves, Gerwig’s hotly anticipated live action film on the iconic doll promises, in lead actress Margot Robbie’s words, to give us “something totally different,” to what we expect.  

Plastic fantastic, hot pink paint sets and neon lycra suits may be the image we’re akin to associating with the Barbie type, but behind the signature blonde locks promises a shattered, shiny new image of the ideals we’ve associated with the cast.