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Maltese woman’s intensive Carnival costume brainstorm results in Barbie

Karl Stennienibarra

A Maltese woman who undertook a long, intensive brainstorming session to decide what costume to wear for Carnival has chosen to go dressed as Barbie.

The woman, 24-year-old law student Rachel Zerafa, will be attending the Nadur carnival in Gozo with her friends this weekend.

“I want to wear something original that’ll stand out from the crowd. So for the past month I’ve been spending hours a day thinking about different costume ideas. My bedroom wall is covered in colour-coded sticky notes, I’ve got three full notebooks, and I even bought a whiteboard. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve even been slacking off work and doing research instead,” Zerafa said.

“Then the other night just before I fell asleep, it hit me. Barbie! I’m not sure if you’re aware but last year they made a film about her. That’s right, a film about a children’s doll. Crazy, right?”

Zerafa said that creating the costume would be easy, since she already owned several items of pink clothing.

“All I really have to do is buy a blonde wig. I should get a move on because I don’t know if the costume shops stock many of those.”

This is not the first year that she has put a lot of thought into her costume.

“In past years I’ve gone as Tokyo from Money Heist, Wednesday Addams, and one time, as part of a group costume, as a baby wearing a onesie and sucking on a dummy. Clearly someone is stealing my notes though, because each time there were loads of people dressed the same.

“But I’m confident that this year, my costume is super unique.”

Meanwhile, Zerafa’s boyfriend Chris said he was going as a character from another 2023 film.

“Obviously Rachel asked me to go as Ken, but I can’t be bothered finding a costume. So I’m going as Oppenheimer. Specifically, the scene where he’s naked.”