This Polly Pocket Fashion Collaboration Is Pure '90s Nostalgia

Our adoration for the ‘90s knows no bounds, and thanks to a sweet new collaboration between British American designer Mimi Wade and Polly Pocket - yup, our most prized plastic childhood possession - we’re basking in nostalgia once more.

To celebrate the relaunch of the shell and heart compacts (shout out to those who still have the originals in their parent’s loft), Mimi has created a pastel-hued and lace-ruffled collection with the toy brand exclusively for Selfridges. Sure, on paper it sounds a little childish for 2018, but, due to Mimi’s penchant for making a babydoll dress totally wearable IRL, the capsule is full of pieces that we are genuinely coveting.

“I was fascinated by Polly Pocket as a child - being able to carry around a pastel coloured dream world in your pocket still remains a charming concept,” Mimi, 26, explains. “I was always designing my dream home heavily inspired by the different compacts she lived in; a fairy in a toadstool house, a cowgirl in her own Texan stables, a mermaid living in a shell, a waitress in her own diner…”

For the collaboration campaign, model Moffy is photographed looking like a ‘90s dream, wearing the collection’s hero pieces: pistachio, lilac, and blush silk satin dresses in babydoll and slip styles - which come complete with giant velvet bow sashes - and lace-trimmed T-shirts, all adorned with printed Polly Pocket graphics.

The collaboration also includes jewellery that look good enough to eat, paying homage to the chunky plastic necklaces we dressed up in as kids. Working with luxury costume jeweller, Vicki Sarge, the collections incorporates Swarovski crystals, freshwater pearls and rhinestone beads, as well as original ‘90s Polly Pocket figurines on clip-on earrings - our 10-year-old selves would be squealing with excitement.

“The definitive message for me is that great things come in small packages,” Mimi goes on. “It’s about your character and attributes rather than your physical stature. For this collaboration I wanted to highlight the idea of Polly being this tiny adventurer, and when I came up with the graphics, I was thinking about films that play with the element of perspective like Honey I Shrunk the Kids, The Taste of Tea, The Borrowers, and Land of the Giants.”

Mimi, a Central Saint Martins graduate, who made her London Fashion Week debut in February 2016, is no stranger to evoking nostalgia through her pieces. Her collections are constantly inspired by her actress grandmother Pamela Curran’s old Hollywood glamour. For now, though, she’s turning firmly to the decade of her youth, and, wearing a baby pink Polly Pocket slip and retro clip-on earrings, we’ll join her there.