Fashion Expert Fact Checks Disney Wardrobe

[Sotiris]

This video series from Glamour is really interesting and informative so I thought I'd share.

• Snow White
• Mary Poppins
• Beauty and the Beast
• Aladdin
• Mulan
• The Princess and the Frog
• Frozen

[UmbrellaFish]

Thank you for posting these! The perspective from these fashion historians was more thoughtful and informative than I am usually accustomed to in these types of videos.

It seems to me, based on the subjects of these videos, that as the years went by, Disney has taken greater care to reflect, if not the exact style, specific details which show they’ve done their homework. What can we attribute this to? Are Disney animators today more sensitive to criticism over historical accuracy and cultural representation? And, to cut them some slack— what kind of resources did the Snow White team have available to them when they were designing the characters’ looks?

I’m well aware of (and love!) the 60’s anachronisms in Poppins, but for whatever reason I always thought her Jolly Holiday dress was a more or less a period accurate look. Of course the historian was absolutely right and now when I think back on the photos I’ve seen from that period, I struggle to recall any that share the Jolly Holiday silhouette. I can’t believe I never put two-and-two together! I guess it just goes to show how much a movie can color our perceptions!

[Sotiris]

It seems to me, based on the subjects of these videos, that as the years went by, Disney has taken greater care to reflect, if not the exact style, specific details which show they’ve done their homework. What can we attribute this to? Are Disney animators today more sensitive to criticism over historical accuracy and cultural representation?

That and also because it's much easier to do research nowadays.

[Disney Duster]

I posted some of these in their respective film threads. But it's good to have a thread with them all in it! I hope they do all the big Disney films! I finally checked out Mary Poppins and am surprised they went rather un-historical for her Jolly Holiday dress, but I am glad they did, as I prefer it!

[Disney Duster]

Aladdin

Mulan

[JeanGreyForever]

I liked how they used drawings of the new clothes to put over the animated characters in the Aladdin video. I don't think their past videos did that.

Aladdin's historically accurate look is pretty similar to what we got in the live-action film and even concept art for the animated film. I liked Jasmine's too although not so much the green color. Even her look somewhat resembles some of her initial concept art although a lot of the concept art seemed very much inspired by John Carter and A Princess of Mars.

[Disney Duster]

They had drawings of the characters in the historically accurate clothes in every video, not just Aladdin's. But Aladdin's were the first time tge drawings looked good, lol.

I was surprised you weren't mad they didn't go by what Ron and John said was when Aladdin took place.

I loved Jasmine's look, too, even the color, and was surprised a lot of the clothes were just like the live-action film's.

[JeanGreyForever]

That's what I read in the comments as well.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of when people set the film in a completely different time period, but I still prefer when people think it's set in later centuries like the Ottoman Empire rather than hundreds of years before in the BC era. It's really not set in antiquity or ancient times like Hercules or possibly even Mulan.

I don't like when they stick her in green or teal. It's like how Cinderella's dress is always blue now or Belle's dress is always yellow, not gold.

[Disney Duster]

Did you not remember them dressing drawings of them before from the other videos? It's ok if you didn't.

Oh, ok. I forget which century they said Aladdin was set offcially.

Jasmine is in green in the drawing they did because green would have been a historically accurate color for her.

[JeanGreyForever]

I vaguely remember some Belle ones but I remember that the drawings were really ugly and Belle barely looked like herself. The Aladdin ones weren't 100% on-model but they were clearly more based off the clipart so they looked more accurate.

850 AD.

Blue was also a common color in the Ottoman Empire (and in pretty much the rest of the world's royalty) so I'm not sure why green is somehow more historically accurate.

[Disney Duster]

Oh, but the professor said the film might take place in the 17th or 18th century! That's waaaayyy later! So is that way wrong? The makers of the live-action film made costumes like the ones she said they should have. So would those costumes work in 850 too?

Oh, ok, so blue was popular. So Jasmine's garb should be (slightly tealish) blue.

[JeanGreyForever]

In Western history, most exposure of Muslim royalty (that isn't the current day monarchs) tends to be the Ottomans and characters like the Sultan and Jafar draw heavily from that period. So that's probably why so many people assume the film takes place much later. There's not much awareness of the Golden Age of Islam, which occurred in medieval times, and how the European Renaissance drew a lot from that.

[Disney Duster]

Oh, neat!