Ryan Gosling turned up to the Barbie world premiere in Los Angeles wearing a Gucci suit that was just as pink as we were all expecting, but that’s set to change every man’s wardrobe forevermore.
Ryan Gosling’s come a long way since the downright dark and dreary look espoused for Blade Runner: 2049 or the altogether preppier look he adopted for his turn as Neil Armstrong in 2018’s First Man. In the wake of his viral role as Ken in the new Barbie movie, his looks have taken on a softer edge, most notably in the form of his Byron-ready curls that he flexed earlier this year, bringing the shaggy fringe back into vogue in one fell swoop.
Now, having somewhat paired back the iconic hairdo he wore for TAG Heuer’s 60th birthday party in London, Gosling has hit the pink carpet in Los Angeles to celebrate the release of this year’s most-hyped film: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, a celeb-stuffed comedy which has quickly become one of the most talked about films of the past decade, thanks in part to its world-renowned cast, but also the masterful marketing effort that has preceded the film’s rollout, with more memes flashing across the internet as a result than any other movie in recent memory.
WATCH: Take a look at the man of the moment as he hits the pink carpet…
While the platinum blonde look that Gosling sports in the film itself — which he debuted almost a decade ago in The Place Beyond The Pines — has since been toned down a little, the outfits that the actor has been wearing are getting decidedly more “Kencore” by the day. What’s “Kencore” you ask? Well, it refers to looks that exude what Gosling’s wife Evan Mendes affectionately refers to as “Kenergy“: the wind-swept, beach ready, and — most importantly — eminently pink looks that mark a significant departure from a string of more clean-cut, cropped looks that have defined the last few years of Gosling’s career.
Arriving at the premiere alongside star of the show Margot Robbie — whose long-length black gown was a Schiaparelli Haute Couture homage to the ‘Solo in the Spotlight Barbie doll’s outfit — Gosling donned a blush-pink Gucci suit with white leather shoes, an open-collar pink shirt and, for the eagle-eyed, what appears to be a Barbie branded necklace which glistened off the relatively large section of his chest that the actor left revealed for the Hollywood press pack to enjoy.
Gosling wasn’t the only star to bring the movie’s core colour to the premiere’s pink carpet, with co-stars Scott Evans — who also plays Ken — along with comedy legend Michael Cera — who plays the inimitable Allan — also wearing pink suits but, unlike Gosling, paired them with a more classic white shirt and black shades combo. Sadly Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir, two of the movie’s other Kens, clearly didn’t get the memo, going with decidedly not-pink looks.
So, to all the pinkphobes out there, consider this your final warning: pink is coming, and you, as well as your wardrobe, need to be ready. It’s a colour that’s been creeping its way into the male wardrobe for a long time but — as the often misquoted Hemmingway quotation goes — these things happen in two ways: gradually, then all at once. Barbie is the final battle of pink’s war on the male wardrobe, and it appears to be a battle decisively won.