Kicking off the holidays, Barney’s New York collaborates this year with Disney as they unveil their “Electric Holiday” window displays. The windows contain multiple flat screens that play a short video based around Minnie Mouse’s high fashion fantasy.
The video pairs Disney’s most beloved characters with a few of the fashion industries most iconic designers, personalities and editors. It all starts when Minnie spots a fabulous Lanvin dress in a store window, and then her imagination trails into a Paris fashion week fantasy where she ends up walking down the runway in the new dress.
As Minnie, along with the other characters, hit the runway, they are sprinkled with Tinkerbell’s fairy dust, transforming them into glamorous models with typical "proportions." This was the base of the scandal. Viewers were outraged over the “skinny Minnie” saying it sends the wrong message to children and tells them this is the type of body everybody wants to look at.
However, the short video was merely a promotion for designers along the likes of Lanvin, Balenciaga, Rick Owens, and others who were featured; children surely couldn’t be the target market for the video. The Disney characters were morphed into model proportions, tall and slender, but that is a constant symbol of the fashion industry and a part of its allure.
At the end of the video, Minnie turns back to her normal, fabulous self, sporting her new present from Mickey, the Lanvin dress. Minnie clearly feels beautiful as she flaunts in her new dress in front of a full body mirror.
At Barney’s, the walls are decorated with the characters from the video, and there are “Electric Holiday” balloons being given out to all the children who enter the store with their parents. All the children seemed to love both the video that was being played in the windows, along with their free balloon.
I would have to say that adults and children alike very much enjoy “Electric Holiday” and the outrage surrounding the campaign is a classic case of people being too easily offended.
Have a look for yourself, tell us what you think:
Kayla Mignacca | Elite.
