Minnie Mouse Had To Go On a Diet For Barneys’s New Disney-Themed Holiday Campaign

Fashion is for everyone even Disney Charaters! Check out an article from fashionista.com explaining what happens when luxury department store Barney's and some of our beloved Disney characters go shopping.

Last year Barneys famously used the cartoon-like Lady Gaga as the over-arching theme/inspiration for the holidays, and this year it’s using real cartoons: Disney characters.

Disney and fashion have had a pretty good relationship lately–Christian Louboutin just designed a Cinderella shoe, and Minnie Mouse had her own OPI nail polish collection. (Plus, polka dots–which are very Minnie–are everywhere this season thanks to the Louis Vuitton/Yayoi Kusama collab.) So Disney x Barneys is not so farfetched.

So how is the high-end retailer making Disney high fashion? Some of the most beloved characters are being dressed by some of fashion’s most beloved characters: Minnie Mouse in Lanvin, Mickey in Balenciaga, Goofy in Balmain, Daisy Duck in Dolce & Gabbana, Cruella in Rick Owens {Ed. note: LOVE!}, Princess Tiana in Proenza Schouler, and Snow White in Nina Ricci. Called “Electric Holiday,” the premise is that Minnie wants to go to the Paris shows.

A “moving art short” will have Disney characters walking down the runway, and, according to a release, fashion people–including “designers featured in the fantasy runway show, revered hair and make-up artists, photographers, respected journalists and editors, and the celebrities and notable guests that typically attend the high profile shows”–will be turned into “Disney types.”

Barneys’s creative director Dennis Freedman said they hit a roadblock with the Disney animators, because, well, Minnie’s body is more real woman (mouse?) than runway. “The standard Minnie Mouse will not look so good in a Lanvin dress. There was a real moment of silence, because these characters don’t change,” Freedman told WWD. “I said, ‘If we’re going to make this work, we have to have a 5-foot-11 Minnie,’ and they agreed. When you see Goofy, Minnie and Mickey, they are runway models.” They even brought a real life model to the Disney animation studios so animators could see how she walked a runway. [Ed. note: What would Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz, who just released a fall campaign featuring real women, say about this!?]

In addition to the film, a 3-D electric light show, and window displays, there will obviously be merch galore. Designers like Paul Smith and DVF designed Vinylmation figures, and Rag & Bone and L’Wren Scott designed Mickey Mouse ears. Must. Have. The retailer will donate 25% of the sales from “Electric Holiday” purchases to a yet-to-be-named charity.