In September, to coincide with New York’s biggest week in fashion, we partnered with Capital One to present The Dollhouse, Anna Weyant’s immersive installation at the historic Academy Mansion. Building on a motif she has explored since her earliest work, Weyant transformed the 1920s mansion into a surreal playground where her paintings came to life. Figures enacted tragicomic narratives, everyday objects became oversized and slightly uncanny, and domestic spaces were playfully reimagined.

Each room revealed whimsical, larger-than-life details. The Confectioner’s Kitchen buzzed with actors pantomiming the creation of sugary treats. A bedroom was dominated by a colossal two-headed teddy bear, while a closet displayed exaggerated paper-doll clothing cutouts. In the courtyard, artificial daisies around a central fountain recalled Weyant’s travels to Disneyland, blending nostalgia, memory, and playful absurdity.

Marc Jacobs brought his own theatrical vision to the project, designing staff uniforms in exaggerated proportions and dressing models in archival pieces from his 40th-anniversary collection. Every detail from the furniture to the menu and the costumes was conceived with a commitment to joy, balancing whimsy with a subtly uncanny edge.

Visitors explored the installation over several days, attending a tea party, beauty masterclasses with Jacobs’s go-to manicurist Mei Kawajiri and hairstylist Dimitris Giannetos, and candlelit dinners by Michelin-starred chef Dominique Crenn, featuring towering candles, prim bows, and playful table sculptures of crabs, lobsters, and cherries. Surprise performances by Suki Waterhouse highlighted the seamless fusion of art, fashion, music, and theatre.

The Dollhouse offered a rare, real-world escape, inviting members and the public alike to inhabit Weyant’s meticulously crafted vision and experience her painterly imagination in three dimensions.

Click HERE to watch a video on this project!