Barneys, the New York fashion house, has teamed up with The Walt Disney Co. for a special marketing event that will include a display featuring Disney’s most iconic characters. Riffing on Disney’s famous electrical parade, the “Electric Holiday” display will include a short film starring Minnie Mouse, who fantasizes about going to Paris fashion shows.
The characters involved in the film are meant to be fashion forward versions of the Disney icons. However, the designers ran into a problem when dressing the rounded physiques of the classic characters.
“The standard Minnie Mouse will not look so good in a Lanvin dress,” Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman told Women’s Wear Daily. “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 solution was to elongate and change the shapes of the characters. Now, images of a very slender Minnie Mouse and friends are causing quite a stir. Barneys has taken some criticism over the thin-appearing characters. Social media sites have been buzzing with talk of the slimmed down Minnie Mouse. Many are appalled by the very thin appearance of the characters. Others have voiced concerns that this sends a negative message to young fans of Minnie, particularly young girls. Some feel that this is all in good-fun, and people are reading too much into this fashionista version of Minnie Mouse.
What do you think about the made-over Minnie Mouse and friends? Post your reaction to these slimmer versions of the characters below.
