Video Obsession: Barneys New York Disney Electric Holiday

     Barneys New York officially launched their holiday collaboration with Disney yesterday called Electric Holiday and premiered the much anticipated short film featuring Minnie Mouse in this fantastical dream as a runway model in Paris wearing Lanvin. The five minute short featured famous faces such as photographer Steven Meisel, Bridget Foley (executive editor of Women's Wear Daily) Nicolas Ghesquiere (who recently left his post at Balenciaga) Lady Gaga (wearing that one-of-a-kind Marc Jacobs dress that she wore on the September 2012 issue of Vogue) Sarah Jessica Parker (who wore a very adorable L'wren Scott Mickey ears at the launch last night in New York City) Naomi Campbell (who looks a lot more like Tyra Banks?) and a very adorable Alber Elbaz of Lanvin (my absolute favorite part of the film!) 

     The short is pure Disney: it's fun, adorable, and brings to life a very colorful dream and fantasy that the company giant is known for so why the backlash against the "skinny Minnie?" When Minnie hits the runway, Tinkerbell taps the entrance to the runway and out comes a Minnie in a sample size supermodel proportions. This apparently prompted an Internet outrage and online petition among those who thought that turning Minnie into such a skinny model sets a bad example to bad young girls. Uhm . . . what? OKAY. I rarely voice my opinion on this blog about so called 'controversial issues' like this, but I feel very strongly about this opposition so here it goes: 

     First of all, Minnie Mouse is a cartoon character. Which plainly means, she's not real. She's fictional. She's an illustration. On top of that, she's a mouse, she's not even human. As much as she is adored by little girls all around the world, I think those children, who despite their age might not know much about the world around them, certainly can distinguish between the obvious difference in her appearance and a cartoon who has two huge mouse ears. I can't imagine a little girl standing around her dress up trunk at home saying "Aww, I wish I was as skinny as Minnie Mouse in her dream sequence as a Parisian supermodel so I can fit in that Lanvin dress." It's just not possible. This video was supposed to celebrate something fun! It was solely created to celebrate the holidays which is synonymous with everything that is good and cheerful this time of the year. A lot of it is based on dreams and fantasies (HELLO it's Disney, people) despite the fact that real people appear in the film -- it's about fashion so naturally actual people in the industry appear in it. Get over it. I really HATE it when someone somewhere always finds the negativity in everything. There are more pressing issues going on in the world right now to have to worry about than getting your knickers in a twist over something that's so harmless. If you see supermodel Minnie and your initial reaction is that it will set a bad example for young girls, you need NOT put together an online petition to rally up support, you need to go see a therapist because it sounds like you're the one with the body image issues (among other things.) Don't ruin something like this for the rest of us. 

     With that said, please ENJOY this video short and name all of the famous faces that appear in them before the credits roll in at the end! Happy Holidays everyone! 

Love, KB