Cruelty-free has always been the word when it comes to Stella McCartney‘s work ethic, so it’s not such a surprise that she would choose to make her cause one of the main focuses of her Fall/Winter 2009 ad campaign by having model Sigrid Agren pose with a deer, along with trees and a mossy log for a backdrop. It may however be slightly jarring to find Disney characters inhabiting the space as well. Or maybe not so much: considering what came down the runways at Jeremy Scott recently, it’s not so far fetched to expect to see disney characters springing up here and there for the next little while.
Interesting tidbit: Mickey Mouse was created in the 1920′s, soon to be followed by the rest of his gang, just as the economy started to dip into what would become the depression. See where I’m going with this?
Seeing as the economy has a particuarily immediate impact on fashion, many brands may prefer to miror the current, shall we say, shifty reality, based on structural and texture based styling. But all the doom (leather) and gloom (chains) is getting to feel a tad depressing no? Enter Mickey, Minnie and the whole gang and instead of taking a heavy approach to reach an already heavy hearted public, here we have at least two designers giving the nod to our current situation in a much more novel and much less disparaging way. That was, after all, always Disney’s charm : set you up with cute animals and then quickly rip your heart out (was anyone else traumatized by Bambi?) But we always kept watching because we new there’d be a happy ending.
