When it comes down to it, Cinderella is, and always has been, a capital-F Fashion girl. Now, in a collaboration between Mattel, Disney, and Viktor&Rolf, Cinderella’s dress doesn’t have to disappear at midnight. Dressed in Viktor&Rolf couture, Cinderella’s night can last forever, enshrined as a limited-edition doll, dressed to the nines and ready to dance the night away. 

Invoking the words of an ancient Roman dictator, Cinderella issues her world-famous Irish goodbye. The words “I CAME, I SAW, I LEFT EARLY” adorn her blue tulle dress in a bold embroidered print from Viktor&Rolf’s Spring Summer 2019 Haute Couture line “Fashion Statements.” Her shoes are high-heeled and glass, and her cell phone clock is permanently set to 11:59 p.m. This Cinderella is here to stay, and she’s here to play.

“We have a longstanding fascination with dolls. Already as children, dolls functioned as ersatz runway fashion models that allowed us to dream and project our fashion fantasies into the world. A lot of our interest in dolls is connected with our childlike attraction to the mystery and glamour of fashion itself. This dreamy sense of wonder has never quite left us,” said co-founders Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren.

The Viktor&Rolf x Disney Couture Collector Cinderella Doll debuted at Paris Fashion Week—the ball of all balls—at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, celebrating 75 years of Disney’s Cinderella. A 30-minute documentary special, titled Disney Princess: Create Your Own World—Mattel and Viktor&Rolf, will debut on Hulu and across ABC television stations in March, showing a behind-the-scenes look into the making and message of the Viktor&Rolf x Disney Couture Collector Cinderella Doll. 

Cinderella’s story is one so often retold it feels like a fable. For a princess whose time ran out at midnight, her story is enduring, now reimagined for the modern era. It begs the question: what does a fairytale look like when fashion, not fate, sets the rules?