This festive season department store Barneys New York is partnering with the Walt Disney Company to fill its Christmas window with the much-loved cartoon characters - but they won’t appear as you know them.
Barneys has transformed the Disney characters into fashion icons for a campaign titled ‘Electric Holiday’.
The Disney crew will feature in a window installation that will include a short film about Minnie Mouse’s fantasy to attend Paris Fashion Week. Alongside Minnie, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Daisy Duck and a host of other much-loved characters will appear as models on a catwalk.
Left: The high-fashion Minnie Mouse. Right: The original illustration © Disney/Barneys[Related gallery: If Disney princesses were real]
Barneys’ festive extravaganza will debut at the Madison Avenue flagship store on 14 November, according to Women’s Wear Daily.
The new illustrations have already caused controversy. The characters’ cute and cuddly furred bodies have been replaced by human-like model figures for the campaign.
Each Disney character has been slimmed down, stretched out and restyled into bespoke outfits. Minnie poses in Lanvin for the Christmas special, Daisy models her custom Dolce & Gabbana design, and Cruella De Vil is dressed head-to-toe in Rik Owens. As for the men, Mickey is in Balenciaga and Goofy models Balmain.
Left: High-fashion Daisy Duck. Right: High-fashion Goofy © Disney/Barneys
[Related article: Minnie Mouse to appear at London Fashion Week]
Fashion industry personalities will also be turned into Disney characters, though Barneys hasn’t named anyone yet besides WWD’s executive editor Bridget Foley.
“When we got to the moment when all Disney characters walk on the runway, there was a discussion,” Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman told WWD. “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. 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.”
The Barneys collaboration rounds off a fashionable autumn/winter season for Disney, which already has two fashion partnerships in the mix. Harrods’ Christmas windows will be Disney Princess-themed, while some of Britain’s best design talents are preparing to show off their couture creations for Minnie Mouse at London Fashion Week this September.
