18 interesting things you may not know about iconic Disney princess outfits

The clothes that the Disney princesses (and queens) wear are almost as iconic as the characters themselves. 

Read on for some interesting things you may not know about their famous outfits. 

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Many of the Disney princesses' outfits feature the color blue, which may be a sign of empowerment.

Characters like Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Merida, Elsa, and Jasmine wear blue clothing, and it's probably not a coincidence that so many share the signature color. 

Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, told Allure in 2017 that blue is a common shade for a few reasons. It's considered relaxing and dependable, like the sky, but it's also powerful.

"You're adding a bit of power to the character by giving her the blue," she said. "It's a very subtle way of saying, 'Yeah, but young women, young girls, can be empowered, too."

In "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), Belle's blue dress is a symbol of her outsider status.

In "Beauty and the Beast," Belle is seen as an outsider in her small French village because of her independence and love for books. 

Most of the other townspeople in the film are wearing drab, neutral colors, but Belle is outfitted in a bright-blue dress that sets her further apart from the other characters. 

Sometimes, in an attempt to sell more toys, marketing experts push for princesses to wear different colors.

Jasmine wore a few outfits throughout "Aladdin" (1992), but her light-blue harem pants and matching crop top set is her most iconic one. 

But some marketing experts may have wanted the outfit to be pink because they thought it would help sell more toys. 

"Certainly, there is a lot of merchandising that goes on with these movies, and sometimes the merchandising people will say, 'Jasmine should wear a pink dress, because a pink dress will sell more than a blue dress.' But we don't try to be influenced by that," codirector Ron Clements told Entertainment Tonight in 2017.

Cinderella's dress transformation was reportedly one of Walt Disney's favorite bits of animation.

Walt Disney was involved in many classic animation moments during his life, but it's said that his favorite was the scene where Cinderella's ragged dress transforms into a beautiful blue ball gown.

"One of Walt Disney's favorite scenes … was the transformation of Cinderella and her dress transformation," Fox Carney, research manager at Walt Disney's Animation Research Library, told Glamour in 2015. "Not because it was a great animation, not because it was the perfect scene — it was the notion of being able to transform that was very appealing."

Only four Disney princesses have ever worn pants.

Most of the Disney princesses wear dresses or skirts — but in 1992, Jasmine became the first to wear pants.

Mulan followed as the second in 1998 and then came Anna and Elsa in 2019 for "Frozen 2" — though, technically, they're both queens by the end of the film, not princesses. 

Jennifer Lee, the codirector of "Frozen 2," explained the decision for Anna and Elsa to wear pants in a 2019 interview with the Chicago Tribune.

"These two women I'm so proud of, they are carrying the weight of the kingdom on their shoulders …" she said. "So they're going to wear what's right for that, and I love that you can wear anything."

She continued, "This time, they didn't have to flee their kingdom in the wrong dress very fast. They had a chance to choose, and, of course, you're going to wear pants when you hear the words 'enchanted forest.'"

Belle was originally designed with a more old-fashioned look.

Concept drawings from 1989 show that Belle's blue dress was originally designed with panniers (a type of hoop skirt) and her ball gowns seemed to be inspired by fashions from the 1650s through the 1780s. 

But in the finished film, her clothing is visibly a bit more modern than the setting around her, which was seemingly meant to signify how she was a forward thinker, according to Genevieve Valentine's report for Vox. 

A lot of research went into making Moana's outfit look authentic.

Moana is from a Polynesian village, and the costume designers thought it was important to make her outfit as authentic to that culture as possible. 

"With Moana, we did so much research with the Pacific Islands as far as what materials they had at that time," visual development artist Neysa Bové told Disney Style in 2016. "This is supposed to take place 2,000 years ago, so we didn't really have any photo reference of what they were at the time, but we did get some material reference from our Oceanic Trust."

For example, Bové said the red color of Moana's costume signifies royalty, and she also paid attention to specific details to keep the time period realistic. 

"... Back in the day, they didn't have sewing machines, so for example, on the back, for buttons I added a boar's tusk and that's how it would be together," she said. 

Moana's necklace is a nod to the character's story arc.

Throughout the film, Moana is almost always wearing her signature accessory, a shell necklace from her grandmother.

"We found this abalone shell. It's actually a mollusk, and you find this on all the Pacific Islands; it's something they use quite a bit," Bové told Disney Style in the same 2016 interview. 

"What's beautiful about it is that it sort of looks like a rock until you start scraping that away, and you reveal this beautiful abalone beneath it with all these ocean colors …" she continued. "I sort of added a curve to the shell and it's a nice juxtaposition between land and sea, and as a voyager she uses the stars to navigate, so I added some star carvings up on top of the shell."

The design of Moana's outfit also reflects her sense of adventure.

Although Bové wanted to make sure Moana's outfits were as authentic as possible, she also wanted to make sure they would work with Moana's adventurous nature.

In a 2016 interview with Technique, she explained, "For Moana's costume, I knew she was an adventurer, a voyager, and the costume had to reflect that."

That's why Bové added a slit to the front of Moana's skirt, which made it easier for the character to move around.

The costume designers for "Maleficent" (2014) aimed to make Aurora's look more relaxed.

In the animated "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) film, Aurora wears a tight, corset-style dress that shows off her slim hourglass figure.

But for the live-action "Maleficent" film, costume designer Anna B. Sheppard told Vanity Fair in 2014 that she wanted the princess to have a more "down to earth" and relaxed vibe. 

"I really walked away from that [animated] image [of Aurora] completely. I wanted something really girly and innocent and also closer to nature," she told the publication. 

She continued, "I wanted to stay away from something that is too modern and too sexy. I didn't want to create that impression that she is dressed up."

For the live-action "Aladdin" (2019), there was a "no midriff" rule.

Producer Dan Lin told USA Today in 2019 that no exposed midriff was allowed in the live-action remake of "Aladdin."

"The [animated] movie was done in 1992. We wanted to modernize the movie, and some things were inappropriate these days for families," he said.

The creative team went to Norway, Finland, and Iceland to come up with ideas for Anna and Elsa's outfits for "Frozen 2."

According to the New York Times, in order to make sure Anna and Elsa were dressed authentically, the film's creative team went to Norway, Finland, and Iceland for design ideas. 

They studied things like runway shows, 1940s fashion, traditional Norwegian satchels, and photos of "anything that feels crystalline."

Visual development artist Brittney Lee told the publication in 2019, "We try to be as thorough with detail as possible, down to the direction of the embroidery thread."

Disney mixed a special color for Ariel's fin in "The Little Mermaid."

According to Oh My Disney, Ariel's fin is a unique green that the Disney paint lab created for the film. The team even named the shade "Ariel" in her honor.

According to D23, the Disney Ink and Paint Department's secret color palette also includes the deep blue of the Beast's formal jacket from "Beauty and the Beast." 

In the live-action "Beauty and the Beast" (2017), Belle's costumes were inspired, in part, by historical clothing.

Costume designer Jacqueline Durran told Fashionista in 2017 that she looked at 18th-century French prints and peasants' clothes as inspiration for the live-action film. 

"We took elements of those 18th century things and added them to Belle," she said.

"So her pockets, for instance, are an 18th century thing. It's just that people didn't wear them outside like she does. They wore them inside the dress, hidden. But we just put them on the outside [like a tool belt] to look extra useful," she added. "So I would use elements that were historical and bring them with a twist into our Disney 'Beauty and the Beast' world."

Jasmine's outfits connected to her story arc in the live-action "Aladdin."

In the live-action version of "Aladdin," Jasmine's outfits are very different from the animated version. 

Naomi Scott, who played Jasmine, told Entertainment Weekly in 2019 that the main prerogative of the costume designers was to make sure Jasmine's outfits were connected to her story. 

Costume designer Michael Wilkinson added, "We talked a lot about the iconography and imagery that would be relevant to the character and we really love the idea of this peacock motif. We talked about Jasmine as being trapped in a golden cage — she has to live by the rules of this court but she's struggling to do things her own way and find her own power ..." 

The costumes in the live-action "Mulan" (2020) were designed with a mix of historical context and Disney flair.

In September, costume designer Bina Daigeler told ComicBook.com that in order to come up with Mulan's wardrobe she visited China and did a lot of visual research.

"We did our own version of the 'Mulan' story. I was never [going] to do, like a documentary. It's a mixture of ideas. It's like when you get a recipe. And you test it, follow your own intuition with ingredients," she explained. "There's a lot of base Chinese history, but then, of course, there's a lot of my own vision of the fantasy of the vision of the director, of the script."

In the live-action "Cinderella" (2015), the glass slippers were an added visual effect.

In a 2015 interview with Elle, costume designer Sandy Powell said that it wasn't easy to recreate Cinderella's famous glass slippers. 

"I knew the glass slipper didn't really have to be worn. We were essentially designing a prop: The shoes that actually appear on her feet are a visual effect," she said.

The wedding gown in the live-action "Cinderella" is supposed to reflect the princess' simplicity.

Powell also said that recreating Cinderella's wedding dress for the 2015 film was a "challenge." She needed to create something that was different from the iconic blue gown, and she specifically wanted to make something simple. 

"I wanted the whole effect to be ephemeral and fine, so we went with an extreme-lined shape bodice with a long train," she told Vanity Fair in 2015.

She continued, "Cinderella wins the Prince's heart through her goodness, so I wanted to show this through her clothes. I wanted her to stay modest and pure even though she was going to be a part of royalty." 

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