Earlier this week Barneys New York unveiled its holiday windows, a Disney collaboration called Electric Holiday, with a celebratory to-do that closed down the block of Madison Avenue in front of the luxury department store. It was a friendly clash of icons as a litany of America’s sweethearts, from Sarah Jessica Parker to Barbara Walters, took turns posing with Minnie Mouse, or rather, a person dressed up as the adored anthropomorphic rodent. The Barneys building was lit up in a cool blue while everyone basked in the glow of celebrity greatness and cartoon fame.
The centerpiece of Electric Holiday is a five-minute animated video. In it, Minnie Mouse aspires to become a model and, in a fantasy sequence, finds herself whisked away by Air France to walk in a Paris fashion show. Before the show begins, she’s seen waving to Linda Evangelista, getting her make up done by Pat McGrath, and being dressed by Alber Elbaz. She then takes the runway in her Lanvin dress, walks through fairy dust and — poof! — magically becomes rail-thin, giraffe-tall, and vacant-eyed. Her pals Goofy, Snow White, and Daisy Duck also take turns on the catwalk, while front-row denizens look on expressionless: Franca Sozzani, Cathy Horyn, Daphne Guinness, and a notes-taking Suzy Menkes. Poor Minnie is then returned to her comparatively frumpy self, longingly staring at the same red Lanvin dress in a store window — but then Mickey buys it for her, so we’re good?
Now, we don’t mean to bash a well-intentioned project, and chances are pretty good that we’ll always love Lanvin, but… what? And… why? Throwing together a bunch of beloved things does not a collaboration make. And then there is the inconvenient truth that these two behemoths, Barneys and Disney, are aimed at entirely different groups of people: adults and children. Where is the connection? If the video does anything, it’s to highlight society’s ills. First, that this country is suffering from a brain drain, where girls are encouraged to throw scientific or political aspirations to the wind and become models (and boys Wall Street bankers). And second, the very obvious problem with making Minnie Mouse look adolescent and anorexic so she can fit into a tiny and short dress. When the announcement of the project was made in August, it wasn’t long before the petition site Change.org took Electric Holiday, and the duo behind it, to task.
Then there is the sad portrayal of industry veterans. Steven Meisel appears to be a stalker who’s somehow gained entry into Minnie’s Paris manse and Juergen Teller juggles cameras outside of the fashion show like a paparazzo jacked up on meth. Clearly we aren’t expected to think about realism, only to plunk down plastic for other fruits of the collaboration: figurines designed by Paul Smith and Diane von Furstenberg, Mickey Mouse ears by Rag & Bone and L’Wren Scott, and ornaments, candies, and children’s toys.
In more optimistic news, 25% of all items in the Electric Holiday collection will be donated to American Red Cross disaster relief. Disney and Barneys have also worked with the City of New York to donate the generators used at the unveiling to the hurricane recovery process in the Rockaways.
But not even altruism is enough to save this collaboration. Has anyone else noticed that Anna Wintour and her American Vogue crew have, apparently, had the good sense to duck out?
Lee Carter is editor-in-chief of Hint Fashion Magazine.
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