Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) is reporting that Barneys New York and Disney are working together in a holiday campaign called, “Electric Holiday“, featuring classic Disney characters, Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck.

These new interpretations of our favorite girly mouse and duck are not quite as I remember them, though. Apparently, the “traditional” Minnie and Daisy would not fit in the Lanvin and Dolce & Gabbana dresses, so adjustments had to be made.

Minnie Mouse wearing Lanvin – Barneys New York

via WWD:

Barneys’ creative director, Dennis Freedman, explained the decision to make Minnie Mouse 5″11 and significantly skinnier by saying that Minnie would otherwise not “look so good”:

“When we got to the moment when all Disney characters walk on the runway, there was a discussion,” Freedman recalled. “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.”

Daisy Duck, in Dolce & Gabbana – Barneys New York

At the risk of sounding like a humorless snip, I’m uncomfortable.  I’m uncomfortable with the appearance of what were always safe and cuddly animated icons now suddenly striking haughty couture poses, right down to throwing the side-eye.  I’m also uncomfortable with Disney partnering with Barneys New York in such a questionable manner.  Let’s not even get into the sexiness of the designer dresses; I’d rather focus on the inappropriate 5’11 size 0 images of cartoon characters that were never meant to be alluring (i.e.  Jessica Rabbit).  Now our little girls are supposed to assume that everyone will “grow out” of their shape and stature to become…this?

I know some of you are thinking, “Well. I never take my child to Barneys anyway!“  Let me tell you my first thought. (Okay, second or third thoughts.)  In Seattle, the Barneys enormous storefront windows directly face Santa Claus Lane on the corner of 6th and Pine Streets.  You can’t tell me that thousands (yes..THOUSANDS) of children won’t see these creepy photos or worse yet, actual mannequins glaring at them.

THIS is the true BNY Customer

One question: Why didn’t the two companies use Cruella DeVil, since she’s representative of Barneys New York’s major clientele?

I notice that there is a petition to Leave Minnie Alone at change.org — feel free to take a look, if you’re so inclined.