If your first thought was, “What the f*ck is a Gigi body type?”, you’re not alone.
Mattel has just unveiled a new Barbie Signature Miley Cyrus doll, inspired by her Something Beautiful era.
But while the head-to-toe black biker look is grabbing most of the attention, fans and collectors quickly noticed another detail buried in the product listing: Body Type: Gigi.
“Gigi body type” sounds much weirder than it is.
In Barbie collector language, it simply refers to the doll body mould or sculpt Mattel is using,doll not “Gigi” as in some ideal body type. Miley’s doll is listed as having a “Body Type: Gigi”, the same sculpt used on other recent Barbie Signature music dolls, including Kylie Minogue.
The name appears to trace back to Barbie’s Gigi Hadid/Tommy Hilfiger collector era, though Mattel has never really explained it on its product pages. In practice, it’s just collector jargon: face sculpt, body type, label, designer, certificate and all the wonderfully nerdy doll-world details.
And no, it absolutely does not mean “the perfect body type”. It is simply a Barbie body type.
Which is actually a nice little line in itself, because the phrase sounds hilariously loaded in a story about a pop star who has spent her whole career being judged, repackaged and reinterpreted.
The doll swaps pink convertible energy for a head-to-toe black faux-leather biker fit. There’s a bralette, narrow-leg pants, a dramatic belted jacket with an oversized hood, sunglasses, a microphone, a doll stand and, of course, the all-important Certificate of Authenticity.
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Basically, not exactly Malibu Barbie.
Which makes sense. Miley’s whole career has been one long refusal to stay where people first placed her.
She started as the Disney Channel’s blonde-wigged teen idol, became one of the most heavily scrutinised young stars on the planet, then spent the next two decades kicking down whatever version of herself the public had decided to freeze in place.
There was the country-pop kid. The wrecking ball era. The hip-hop detour. The rock covers. The gravel-voiced adult pop star. The queer ally. The chaos agent. The Grammy winner. The artist who somehow made “I can buy myself flowers” feel both like a breakup song and a personal tax return.
So yes, Miley Cyrus becoming a Barbie is funny. Not because it doesn’t fit, but because it kind of does.
Barbie has spent the last few years being pulled apart and rebuilt as a symbol of image, identity, nostalgia and reinvention. Miley, meanwhile, has made a career out of doing exactly that in public, usually while everyone had something to say about it.
The new doll is part of Mattel’s Black Label Barbie Signature range, designed by Javi Meabe with packaging by Laydiana Chiv. It comes priced at 60 bucks and is aimed largely at adult collectors.
It is, technically, a collector’s item.
But it also feels like a tiny plastic full-circle moment: the artist who spent 20 years refusing to be boxed in has finally ended up in one.
At least this time, she chose the box.
