Brigette Pheloung of Acquired Style shares details behind her custom 2007 Holiday Barbie-inspired Christmas Eve gown.Photo:Brigette Pheloung/Tiktok; Brigette Pheloung/Instagram
Brigette Pheloung/Tiktok; Brigette Pheloung/Instagram
Those who knowBrigette Pheloungonline as Acquired Style know that nothing is ever “casual” when it comes to her fashion choices, especially during the holidays.
This past Thanksgiving, the content creator’s 1.4 million TikTok followers watched her turn her family’s low-key get-together into a fashion show with an$8,800 Parker Zinn cable-knit gownthat she went viral for online.
But after successfully pulling off the over-the-top look, Brigette, who created a style tradition of dressing extravagantly for her relatives' holiday parties in 2021, wasted no time thinking about what she was going to wear on Christmas Eve.
In less than three weeks, the pair squeezed in three fittings with time to spare for the brand to actually create the finished product (a feat in itself considering it usuallytakes them up to six monthsto pull a design together, says Brigette).
The finished product was an exact replica of the early 2000s Mrs. Claus-like doll ensemble.
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As impressive as it was to look at, the dress, Brigette says, had some physical restraints because it weighed about “6-10 pounds due to the amount of crinoline, boning and necessary materials to give it the Barbie amount of volume!" Plus, the length made it hard to walk in after she’d retired her heels.
However, the bespoke item wasn’t “too hard to hang out and chill in.” Besides, she didn’t wear it the whole night (an outfit change is routine for Brigette on the holidays because most times she has to take careful measures to ensure her looks, many of them gifted or borrowed, stay clean). “I kept it on for the first two and a half hours of Christmas Eve and changed right before we ate,” she says.
The entire look cost $6,000 to create, the price tag including the fittings, sketches, fabrics and unlimited alterations, plus the prototype dress used for fittings and the actual one worn on Christmas Eve.
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The big reveal didn’t disappoint either, and her followers and her“Gap-jeans” clad familywere both impressed.
A TikTok video garnering over 5 million views captures thereactions Brigette’s relatives had upon seeing the dress. It also showed them taking photos with her — and her very own 2007 Holiday Barbie.
“My one uncle said ‘I’m not sure my jeans are fancy enough to be in the same room as you right now.’ We were all laughing.”
source: people.com