GGI Barbie Movie Pink Party

I got the most original idea ever to wear pink and watch Barbie the movie together with other ladies.

Or so I thought. Apparently everyone and their grandma had the same idea!

But anyway, when I posted about it on Girl Gone International*, our community leader thought it was a brilliant idea and that I should make it an official GGI event. I am an official GGI event host, by the way. She suggested that I could buy my movie ticket and post the seat number so that other girls can book seats near to me.

So I created a Facebook event, explained the mechanics, refreshed the cinema websites everyday until tickets were available, bought a ticket to the Palace IFC cinema for a July 22 Saturday showing, and then told people. Pretty soon, we had 30 seats booked. Exciting!

On the morning of, my friend May and I decided to get hair treatments done at Glow Spa – not for Barbie, but just because the summer heat is making our hair so frizzy. I have so much hair that the meticulous flat ironing of my strands – the last step of my Bhave smooth plus treatment – took longer than expected. May ended up having to wait more than 30 minutes for me to be done OMG.

We didn’t have time to eat lunch, but luckily there were pastries and treats at the salon to tide us over. Nice ones, too, like banana bread and muffins.

We walked over to IFC, collected our tickets which came with a free Barbie movie poster, and then said hello to and took pics with our fellow GGI members in pink. I was so thrilled to see everyone dressed up. I love dressing up for themes!

Then we walked inside to our seats and settled down to watch the movie. I’m glad Jemima bought a bucket of popcorn to share with me because I was starving!

The movie was very funny and at times touching, I may have even shed a tear or two. I liked how it poked fun at the concept of Barbie dolls as a toy, kind of like how they did in the Lego Movie. There were also some messages about feminism, which struck a chord with most women. It was a fun movie to watch in the cinema because of the audience reactions. It was like having a live laugh track. We had a good crowd in that cinema and I really enjoyed myself.

It also made me nostalgic because Barbie dolls happen to be my most favorite toys as a kid, which is why I was so excited to go watch this film.

After the film, we gathered outside and took photos with the poster. I was disappointed that Palace IFC did not have the gigantic Barbie box to pose inside of!

And then some of us walked over to a nearby Basehall food court to have dinner. It was cute to see so many of us walking somewhere together, all in pink. People stared and I jokingly asked, “Is this how it feels like to be a celebrity?” Jemima took a video, and I included it in the Instagram reel that I made about the event.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dee (@deecoded)

At the Basehall food court, we somehow got invited into a bar called Artifact, which was like a speakeasy and had a small room at the back where we had some drinks and took photos.

Then we went outside to the food court to have a proper dinner and just gabbed for hours about the movie and all sorts of things. I really enjoyed just chatting with them over my delicious bao and duck.

Then some of us headed to Soho House, which is a private club that was open to non-members that night, if you signed up at their Barbie event sheet. That was where I eventually found the Barbie box that I wanted to pose inside of!

There were also a lot of other pink decors and food. We posed for pics and danced for a bit, but then had to leave because it had been a long day!

I really did not expect today to turn out to be this fun. I’m really glad I had my super original idea for an event and went for it!

*Girl Gone International is a Facebook group for meeting friends and creating community. There are over 200 local GGI groups all over the world, including in Hong Kong. GGI is a fun, friendly local and global community offering friendship, connection, belonging, empowerment and happiness to women and non-binary people living overseas or far from home.